HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Henry David Thoreau. Virtually everyone has heard of him and his book Walden. But how many have read it? And how many have read his influential treatise Civil Disobedience? I…
HISTORY versus OUR STORY
In an earlier post, I mentioned the frustration of discovering that the history on which an historical novel was based is incorrect. Imagine finding out that virtually everything you have…
WILLIAM MORRIS
News From Nowhere And Other Writings tells a whimsical tale of time travel from the 19th century to an unspecified future England in which people live without money, without government,…
Who are we?
"Better the lies that exalt us than the truths that demean us." That saying may be well known, and many may agree with it, but it would more accurately be…
JEFF SHAARA
Jeff Shaara wrote Gods and Generals as a prequel to his father's novel, The Killer Angels. Both approach the history of the American Civil War not as strictly historical narratives…
R. D. Blackmore
I had heard of the classic Lorna Doone, but had not had the opportunity to read it until recently. First published in 1841, it is a love story told from…
DAN BROWN
I've featured Dan Brown's work before, but The Lost Symbol bears special consideration. Even the cover hints at the complex layers of symbols and meanings found throughout the story: When…
Heroines
Once upon a time women in novels were frail creatures always in need of rescuing, or silly dolts who could not be expected to know the time of day, or…
Robert Harris
Pompeii is an historical novel through which the reader lives the last days of that doomed city of luxury and its neighbouring community, Herculaneum. The signs are there: Wells and…
Culloden
To paraphrase a famous saying: "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." To people of Scottish descent and especially Highlanders, the name "Culloden" still evokes…