Everyday Canvas

Why Read Historical Fiction?

Prompt: Why are works of historical fiction so popular with today’s readers? What appeals to you the most about these types of books, if anything at all?

---------------------

I think historical fiction is popular because one leg of it lies in reality. Even if the rest of its body may be iffy, the readers feel they are on at least partially stable ground.

During my earlier school days, I only liked the biographies and the historical parts in them. Those of us who have years on them will recall those biographies that were sold as orangey-brown hardcovers. I didn’t much care for the wars and the intrigues between nations, then. I did, however, like Mark Twain, and a little later, World War II stories.

Now that I am much older and I find that history is repeating itself, during the last few years, I am discovering historical fiction anew and beginning to really enjoy it. I find both entertainment and learning in these books, especially when their writers have done a good deal of research and they do not impose the present-day understandings and biases on their plots and characters. This imposing of present-day biases shows me a writer who either hasn’t done enough research or a writer who doesn’t understand the make-up of human beings in relation to their time.

Historical fiction means interpretation of the past and also interaction with it. I find it to be an eye-opener to find the equivalents of my own interests, joys, and sorrows in the past. Although the setting, as to time and place, may be different, what I read is still fiction, offering imagination sparked by historical events and people. When the characterization is strong and close to the truth of its time, any story is mesmerizing, even if it may still be subjective.