Example of Historical Fiction

Historical fiction is an extremely popular and influential genre of fiction, set in a specific period, or in some cases actually written as a history, a continuum from past to future. These novels are often romances or historical allegories, depicting the times and the issues. (Arguably, modern fiction is simply a current form of historical fiction.) The great value of this type of fiction is that it often acts as a particularly effective type of background and knowledge base for readers. It can also be a particularly good method of humanistic representation, allowing the author to show the realities of the time. (Some modern fiction is actually based on this principle. Dickens was one of the first authors to produce a 'social comment' form of fiction.)