Historical Fiction Classics

The epic of Thesus, the boy-king of Eleusis, ritually preordained to die after one year of marriage to the sacred queen but who defies God's decree and claims his inheritance - the throne of Athens. This re-creation of a Greek myth is written by the author of The Last of the Wine.

A Western Adventure by Ronnie Ashmore A simple trip to Austin so his wife can shop is anything but simple for Sam Bolton. Caroline is attacked and gunned down in the streets by an outlaw with a taste for killing. With her life in the balance, Sam sets off to find the man responsible. Along the way he discovers that chasing this outlaw will test his limits and his patience. Teaming up with the man’s cousin, they follow the killer’s crooked trail of destruction and deception. This is one trail Sam Bolton won’t let go cold because this time he is riding to settle a score with the man who...

Set in the 14th century, the classic story of one boy's personal heroism when he loses the use of his legs.

Margaret George's novel brings into focus the larger-than-life King Henry VIII, monarch of prodigious appetites for wine, women, and song.

Ethan Cole is a gunslinger with a reputation for justice – no matter the cost. When his brother is murdered by Victor Slade, a ruthless outlaw building an empire in the lawless town of Red Hollow, Ethan rides in with one goal: vengeance. But Victor Slade is no ordinary criminal. He’s a man with a vision – to keep the West wild and free from the railroad’s reach. When Ethan barely survives an ambush in Red Hollow’s blood-soaked streets, he realizes he can’t take on Victor alone… Not without Rachel McCabe, a sharpshooter with her own score to settle. Together, they uncover a ...

Elinor is an Extraordinary and the only one in England capable of wielding fire in over 100 years. As an Extraordinary she is respected and feared, but to her father she represents power and prestige for himself. Mr. Pembroke, having spent his life studying magic, is determined to control Elinor and her talent by forcing her to marry whom he chooses, a marriage that will produce even more powerful offspring.

After his service in the Union Army, Damon Jarret’s only goal is to fulfill a promise he made to his dead brother-in-arms and return an heirloom to his lost kin. But the Oregon Trail is long – and it’s just as rabid as the war he left behind. Before setting off, Damon joins the Union Pacific side of the immense transcontinental railroad project and makes his way across a frontier filled with new settlers braving the isolated landscape, hostile Indians, and… men who want to tempt and swindle railroad workers. Men like Harris Gill. Gill’s cheated his way into corrupted fortunes from...

This is Kazuo Ishiguro's profoundly compelling portrait of a butler named Stevens. Stevens, at the end of three decades of service at Darlington Hall, spending a day on a country drive, embarks as well on a journey through the past in an effort to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving the "great gentleman," Lord Darlington. But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington's "greatness," and much graver doubts about the nature of his own life.

Among Jane Austen's favorite novels, and a key work in the rise of Romanticism, Camilla follows the story of three young women, from childhood to young adulthood, and their pursuit of matrimony. Kind but naive Camilla is in love with Edgar Mandlebert, a handsome and noble young man. Intelligent Eugenia, destined to inherit her uncle's great wealth, is plagued with misfortune as she is left disfigured by smallpox and has men court her for financial gain only. Meanwhile their cousin, beautiful but selfish Indiana, never finds a fortune for her good looks.

Unless one knows the value of loyalty, he cannot appreciate the cost of betrayal. What if Darcy and Elizabeth met weeks before the Meryton assembly? What if there is no barely “tolerable” remark to have Elizabeth rejecting Mr. Darcy’s affections, but rather a dip in a cold creek that sets her against him? What if Mr. Bennet is a renown Shakespearean scholar who encourages Darcy to act the role of Petruchio from Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” to bring Elizabeth’s Katherina persona to the line? ELIZABETH BENNET’s pride has her learning a difficult lesson: Loyalty is ...

In the early 1800s (1830s – 1860s) it has been estimated that as many as 300,000 men and women may have traveled from the eastern States to the unknown lands of the American west. Some were searching for a better life; some were argonauts, seeking adventure. Whatever the reason, it was not an easy journey. Thousands lost their lives along the trail. Eventually, however, the west was settled and those who survived had stories to tell. Bitter Honey is a fictional story, although some of the experiences in this book could have been a reality for many of those pioneers. The story begins in ...

The great virtue of this volume is that it reveals a lighter, comic side of Sade. He was a man obsessed, like many great writers, and his obsessions are still present here: his hatred of all things pretentious, his loathing of a corrupt judicial system, his damning of hypocrisy and false piety. One of the great anarchists of all time, he was nevertheless far from mad (as many pretended) and these works of fiction shed another light on this most feverish of minds.

When the shah is thrown out of Iran, the nation's turmoil becomes world headlines. Caught in this shifting world of fanaticism, ambition, duplicity, and violent death are the foreign helicopter pilots who have been servicing the oil fields up and down the country. Their one objective is to make a bold, concerted escape to safety across the Gulf.

It's the end of the 19th century in San Francisco's Chinatown, and ghost hunters from the Maoshan traditions of Daoism keep malevolent spiritual forces at bay. Li-lin, the daughter of a renowned Daoshi exorcist, is a young widow burdened with yin eyes - the unique ability to see the spirit world. Her spiritual visions and the death of her husband bring shame to Li-lin and her father - and shame is not something this immigrant family can afford.

The time is World War II. The place is a brutal prison camp deep in Japanese-occupied territory. Here, within the seething mass of humanity, one man, an American corporal, seeks dominance over both captives and captors alike. His weapons are human courage, unblinking understanding of human weaknesses, and total willingness to exploit every opportunity to enlarge his power and corrupt or destroy anyone who stands in his path.

After his parents freeze to death, seventeen-year-old Garret Brassfield takes responsibility for his surviving kin and their herd of starving cattle. It’s the Big Die Up – the worst winter in anybody’s memory. With the little help he has left, Garret fights to spare his loved ones from a lonely, frigid death on the open range and learns the ways of ranching so they may survive. Come springtime, everybody’s cattle are half-dead and the money has evaporated from the once booming industry… with one exception. Delmer Potter. His fortunes are securely built on a foundation of ...

At the dawn of the nineteenth century, two very different magicians emerge to change England's history. In the year 1806, with the Napoleonic Wars raging on land and sea, most people believe magic to be long dead in England—until the reclusive Mr Norrell reveals his powers, and becomes a celebrity overnight. Soon, another practicing magician comes forth: the young, handsome, and daring Jonathan Strange. He becomes Norrell's student, and they join forces in the war against France. But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic.

First published in 1956, No-No Boy was virtually ignored by a public eager to put World War II and the Japanese internment behind them. No-No Boy tells the story of Ichiro Yamada, a fictional version of the real-life "no-no boys". Yamada answered "no" twice in a compulsory government questionnaire as to whether he would serve in the armed forces and swear loyalty to the United States. Unwilling to pledge himself to the country that interned him and his family, Ichiro earns two years in prison and the hostility of his family and community when he returns home to Seattle.

Mitchell Rankin couldn’t stop his parents’ violent death when he was a boy. Now the outlaws and Indians of South Texas can’t stop Mitchell Rankin. Fifteen years after a Comanche raid upturned his young life, Mitchell joins the newly formed Frontier Battalion to help bring peace to his Texan homeland. He’s putting desperadoes on notice: someone has to pay the price for what was done to his family. But after setting out as a Texas Ranger, Mitchell discovers there’s an evil greater than the Comanche lurking on the borderlands of the Lone Star State… His name is Dudley Haddock – ...

Veinte años tardará Ulises, el rey de Ítaca, en volver a su patria. Luego de luchar en la guerra de Troya por diez años, siendo uno de los héroes, Ulises emprende el regreso a su tierra natal. Pero una ofensa al dios Poseidón lo alejará de su camino por otros diez años, siendo condenado a navegar sin rumbo y a vivir las más extrañas aventuras y vicisitudes en el camino. Así, en su retorno a Ítaca, Ulises desafiará monstruos y tempestades, se enfrentará a encantamientos y a las seductoras sirenas, sobreponiéndose al designio de los dioses, en su intento por volver a su hogar.