A Guide to the Best Historical Novels and Tales

Text extracted from opening pages of book: A Guide to the Best Historical Novels and Tales JONATHAN NIELD These Historical Novels have taught all men this truth, which looks like a truism, arul yet was us good as unknown to writers of history and others, till . so taught: that the bygone ages of the world were actually tilled by living men, not by protocols, slate-papers, controversies, and attractions of men* Ctirfy/ t on the H'awrtr)' G, P. PUTNAM'S SONS fj 1925 TO THE REV. R. C, EADCLIFFE OF ETON COLLEGE IN RECOGNITION OF MUCH HELP AND KINDNESS IK BYGONE DAYS CONTENTS TAGS Preface to the Fourth Edition *, .., . ix Preface to the Third Edition xiii Preface to the Second Edition xvii Introduction .., .., .... i General List ( i' re-Christian Kra) 19 General List ( First Century onwards) 21 Supplementary List ( Semi-Historical) . . . . .117 Fifty Representative Historical Novels 129 Suggested Courses of Reading ( Juvenile .... 141 Bibliography . * ...... 165 Index of Authors and Titles . . * . - 175 Index of Titles, 219 v'n. CONTEN TS continued. SUPPLEMENT General List ( Pre-Christian Era) .....* 239 General List ( First Century onwards) 243 Semi-Historical Novels and Tales . . . * 407 Notes on Juvenile Literature 423 Bibliography * 4. U Index of Authors and Titles ( Supplement) . 437 Index of Titles ( Supplement). *., ., 497 vlll PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. HAVING apologised already for a third preface, I ought, no doubt, to crave still more indulgence now that I come to write a fourth. But, believing that I have something to say which realty needs saying, I shall risk whatever charges of inconsis tency and superfluity may ensue. It has been very gratifying to learn that the Guiden has continued to sell regularly through all the seven years which have elapsed since it appeared in its third life-stage at the beginning of 1904; and this, in spite of competition in two new quarters* The much longer pause in republication ( the last edition was by far the largest) has enabled me to effect what I regarded in the first instance as an impossible ideal; for, besides bringing my lists up to date through the entry of new books, I have once again gone over old ground, and have sought to include all those novels and tales which ignorance or ill-consideration caused me to omit in previous editions. And* let it be stated here that, in rectifying former omissions, I have not gone to workers in the same field of Bibliography and stolen their honey; but I have, throughout, taken an independent line* Hence, although, in the Supple ment now added* there are descriptive notes on several hundred novels and tales which appeared before the publi cation of Mr. Bowen's Catalogue of Historical Novels ix* ( second edition) and of Dr. Baker's u History in Fiction, not one of these notes is based upon the particulars furnished in either work. Wherever possible, I have obtained my infor mation from the actual novel or tale described. Four years ago ( vide Dr. Baker's kindly allusion in the Preface to his admirable work just named; , it was hinted that the Guide was somewhat lacking in its degree of com prehensiveness; such a criticism could scarcely be maintained now. If there is still exclusion to some extent, there is ( fourth edition) inclusion to a very much larger extent. I have allowed the utmost elasticity in my later decisions as to his torical qualification. How comprehensive hasbeen my selection, may be judged from the fact that, while in my enlarged third edition the annotated lists covered between twelve and thirteen hundred novels and tales, I have now passed under review about seventeen hundred more. In the total of nearly three thousand novels and tales thus reached, over two thousand are not to be found in Mr. Bowen's catalogue, and some thirteen hundred are absent from Dr Baker's lists. Comprehensiveness alone, however, would be a poor advantage, and I believe that, in its present form, besides being the largest bibliography