The historical novel

It is the time of the Hay literary festival. On the radio I heard one history professor commenting there on the impact of literature on the study of history. He finds these days he interviews many young people as potential history undergraduates. He asks them what has inspired them. The answer so often is the Tudor period of British history & Thomas Cromwell in particular. A little more digging reveals the fact they enjoyed Hilary Mantel’s “Wolf Hall” books. And no, they had done no further reading on the subject. He despaired & I could understand.

I often read historical fiction, including “Wolf Hall” but I am under no illusion that they represent historical fact. Indeed at the moment I am reading “Song of the Sea Maid” by Rebecca Mascull, set in Georgian times.

Any historical novel is the novelist’s interpretation of the facts. Facts are often omitted or manipulated for the sake of a better story. They are no substitute for researching a range of historical textbooks or for getting back to original materials, documents written at the time of the events. Novels may capture the feel of a period but even that is not necessarily historically accurate. Admittedly Hilary Mantel, as so many modern historical novelists, does have at the back of her books a whole list of references to history texts which would suggest some attempt at historical accuracy but that doesn’t make her book a dependable authority on the life of Thomas Cromwell & his times.

Personally I didn’t even find her novel a good read but clearly I am in the minority. I found some of her historical statements dubious & positively misleading, but maybe that just goes to show my ignorance on the subject, that I am being prejudiced by other interpretations of the period. Maybe I just need to read more & in greater depth about the period to be convinced. But then I am not a historian, nor even a history student. I am just looking for entertainment when I read, & hopefully some insight into some aspect of life & the motivations of people.

For me the format of a historical novel is designed for entertainment with hopefully some basis of historical fact. I hope they are not being positively misleading in the facts, but when it comes to characterisation of feelings, motives etc. I’m under no illusion that that is a matter of the writer’s imagination being used for the author’s ulterior motives. For facts I go to textbooks, to documents written at the time, to multiple sources so I can form my own idea of the reality of the period, not unquestioningly taking over someone else’s.