Historical Fiction Classics

In 1938, when running to her future and trying to escape his past, only one place will do. Destination? Hollywood! Yearning to be a star, Vivian is anxious to leave small-town farm life behind. Marriage, kids, and endless chores don’t fit into her plans. If she doesn’t escape, she’ll repeat her mother’s life and her dreams will be doomed. Brokenhearted, Markus has little to show for his life, save for the simple pleasures of Budapest. But someone certainly thinks he’s worth noticing, and he’s forced to flee when the attention turns deadly. Walking away from his mother and sister...

When justice slumbers, vengeance rides… When Gideon Ward returns to Edgewood to bury his murdered sister, he finds a town strangled by fear. Malcolm Bryce, a ruthless ranch baron, rules through intimidation and bloodshed, while the law turns a blind eye to the mounting body count. Though haunted by his violent past in the Civil War, Gideon must decide whether to honor his late father's pacifism, or embrace the brutal justice the frontier demands. As smaller ranchers face burning barns and deadly accidents, Gideon soon discovers that his sister's death points to an ugly conspiracy. With ...

This Pulitzer Prize-winning classic tells the poignant tale of a Chinese farmer and his family in old agrarian China. The humble Wang Lung glories in the soil he works, nurturing the land as it nurtures him and his family. Nearby, the nobles of the House of Hwang consider themselves above the land and its workers; but they will soon meet their own downfall. The working people riot, breaking into the homes of the rich and forcing them to flee. When Wang Lung shows mercy to one noble and is rewarded, he begins to rise in the world, even as the House of Hwang falls.

Ayla and Jondalar set out on horseback across the windswept grasslands of Ice Age Europe. To the hunter gatherers of their world - who have never seen tame animals - Ayla and Jondalar appear enigmatic and frightening.

Full of tragic heroes, intoxicating love stories, and the unstoppable force of fate, there is no conflict more iconic than the Trojan War. Troy is the story of the epic battle retold by Fry with drama, humor, and vivid emotion. Achilles, Hector, Odysseus, Helen, their lovers, and their mortal enemies all burn bright in Fry's compelling prose. This volume invites you to explore a captivating world with a brilliant storyteller as your guide.

Marcus, a Roman officer in Nero's army, risks his career, his family, and even his life when he falls in love with a Christian woman named Callina. In order to win Callina's love, Marcus must come to understand the true meaning of her religion, even as Rome sinks under the excesses of Nero and Christians are thrown to the lions. Quo Vadis brims with passion and life as it explores one of the turning points in history.

Young nobleman d’Artagnan has arrived in Paris intent on joining the guardians of King Louis XIII. He befriends the regiment’s most formidable musketeers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, and together they unite in their commitment to uphold justice. Soon, a royal indiscretion thrusts them into an audacious escapade of courtly intrigue, thwarted romance, and daring rescue. But it’s the Machiavellian schemes of a powerful enemy and the wicked seductions of an ingenious female spy that will be their greatest challenges.

Allan Gurganus's Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All became an instant classic upon its publication. Critics and fans alike fell in love with the voice of 99-year-old Confederate widow Lucy Marsden, one of the most entertaining and loquacious heroines in American literature. Lucy married at the turn of the 20th century, when she was 15 and her husband was 50. If Colonel William Marsden was a veteran of the "War for Southern Independence", Lucy became a "veteran of the veteran" with a unique perspective on Southern history and Southern manhood.

When Shai is caught replacing the Moon Scepter with her nearly flawless forgery, she must bargain for her life. An assassin has left the Emperor Ashravan without consciousness, a circumstance concealed only by the death of his wife. If the emperor does not emerge after his hundred-day mourning period, the rule of the Heritage Faction will be forfeit and the empire will fall into chaos.

Tadeusz Borowski’s concentration camp stories were based on his own experiences surviving Auschwitz and Dachau. In spare, brutal prose he describes a world where where the will to survive overrides compassion, and prisoners eat, work, and sleep a few yards from where others are murdered; where the difference between human beings is reduced to a second bowl of soup, an extra blanket, or the luxury of a pair of shoes with thick soles; and where the line between normality and abnormality vanishes.

Ayla, one of the most remarkable and beloved heroines in contemporary fiction, continues to explore the world and the people around her with curiosity, insight, and, above all, courage. As the story opens, Ayla, Jondalar, and their infant daughter, Jonayla, are living with the Zelandonii in the Ninth Cave - a shelter of stone. Ayla has been chosen as an acolyte and has embarked on the arduous task of training to become a spiritual leader.

In the middle of the night, a woman wakes to find her beloved city engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over. Troy has fallen. From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands of the Greeks, to the Amazon princess who fought Achilles on their behalf, to Penelope awaiting the return of Odysseus, to the three goddesses whose feud started it all, these are the stories of the women whose lives, loves, and rivalries were forever altered by this long and tragic war.

Clyde “The Kid” Cunningham never planned on returning to his hometown of Tucson, Arizona. He had ran away from home for good reason, after the horrific murder of his father by a disgruntled neighbor over three acres of farmland. After his own life was threatened, Clyde did what any fifteen-year-old would have done – he jumped on his horse and rode as far as he could. After ten years of living in New Mexico, Clyde and the Navajo family who had taken him in came to Tucson in an effort to get a fresh start. However, Clyde quickly learns that fresh starts aren’t as simple as they should...

Clues, Chaos, and Catastrophe Under the Big Top! London, 1899: The circus is in town, but danger is in the spotlight. When a clown is found dangling lifeless from the high wire at the Olympia Amphitheater, Sherlock Holmes and Lucy James are called in to investigate. With rivalries, roaring egos, and deadly secrets lurking behind the curtain, the Baker Street team must act fast to stop the next act from ending in tragedy. To infiltrate the tight-knit world of acrobats, fire-eaters, and animal tamers, Lucy and Jack go undercover as magicians, with the ever-curious Becky as their pint-sized ...

He was born to a clan of warriors of supernatural strength, but Gavrael McIllioch abandoned his name and his Highland castle, determined to escape the dark fate of his ancestors. Hiding his identity from the relentless rival clan that hunted him, he called himself Grimm to protect the people he cared for, vowing never to acknowledge his love for ravishing Jillian St. Clair.

For 60 years Jewish refugees and their descendants have prospered in the federal district of Sitka, a temporary safe haven created in the wake of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. The Jews of the Sitka District have created their own little world in the Alaskan panhandle, a vibrant and complex frontier city that moves to the music of Yiddish. But now the district is set to revert to Alaskan control, and their dream is coming to an end.

Robert Louis Stevenson brings his mastery of story-telling and suspense to these intriguing tales of island mystery. In 1888, a year after leaving England, Stevenson and his wife left San Francisco and sailed to the South Pacific. The beauty, mystery, and lore of the islands captivated the great author, inspiring him to write several wonderful short stories. "The Bottle Imp," the main story in this outstanding collection, is a suspenseful folktale, introducing us to various ghosts, demons, and other frightening creatures.

This exciting three-book series takes you into the heart of turn-of-the-century America, when cattle drives were still a daily way of life for many men…and also for a few women!When Colt, Michael, and Joseph are bequeathed a thriving cattle ranch, the stipulation is that they each need to marry before claiming their share of the inheritance. Before long, three brave, independent mail order brides make their way west, unaware of how startled their handsome Texan fiancés will be when it turns out these women want to participate in all parts of frontier life—cattle drives included. Danger...

From Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the character of the absent father, March, and crafted a story "filled with the ache of love and marriage and with the power of war upon the mind and heart of one unforgettable man" (Sue Monk Kidd). With "pitch-perfect writing" (USA Today), Brooks follows March as he leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause in the Civil War. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs.

In the cutthroat world of bounty hunters, Joe Noose is as honest as they come. Which isn't saying much. Just look at his less-than-honest colleagues. They framed Joe for a murder they committed. They made sure Joe's face wound up on a wanted poster. Now they're gonna hunt Joe down and collect the reward money. There's just one problem: Joe Noose thinks it's his bounty. It's his reward. And it's their funeral .