Literature Atlas

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Historical Fiction and Romance

Narrative fiction organized around a real or legendary past, and the related tradition of chivalric and courtly romance. Belongs here: the historical novel proper and the medieval or early modern romance narrative. Does not belong here: a novel set in the present or near-present with no organizing historical premise, placed under realist and literary fiction instead.

Facts
Comparison
Era of Emergence
1800 1
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Sources
1. Historical fiction (Wikipedia)
Historical fiction, lead section, early-19th-century foundations sentence
Quote, Historical fiction, lead section, early-19th-century foundations sentence
Historical fiction as a contemporary Western literary genre has its foundations in the early-19th-century works of Sir Walter Scott and his contemporaries in other national literatures such as the Frenchman Honore de Balzac, the American James Fenimore Cooper, and later the Russian Leo Tolstoy.
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