what is Historical fiction?

Answer 1

What is in most history books, especially K-12.
No, really, it's fiction set in a historical setting, like one of those historical romances.
As an aside, my mother always called them 'hysterical romances' :)

Answer 2

It is fiction (a novel or short story) set in the past. So, a modern day author who writes a book where most of the action takes place in medieval England, or 18th Century Scotland or 1940s India would be writing historical fiction.

A lot of people lump Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Mark Twain etc. into historical fiction, but all of them wrote contemporary fiction - they set their books in the era they lived in. So, while their books today are set in the past, they're not really "historicals" by the strictest definition.

Nathanial Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" was a historical novel when it was written, though. It's set a couple hundred years before Hawthorne was born.

Answer 3

Historical fiction is generally classified as fiction with a specific historical setting, where the setting is as much a character or element of the story as the characters themselves. For example, "Master and Commander" was not written in the Napoleonic Wars that it is set in. It was written in the 20th century. The novel relies upon certain historical facts and figures to provide tension and setting.

Answer 4

It is a story told during a specific time-period, using the known facts and sometimes the known characters from that time period or specific incident. The fiction comes in when the author imagines what might have happened to cause events to unfold as history tells us they did. That is, the author will attribute thoughts and words to the characters that are totally fabricated, even if they "fit" with what we know about their personalities.

Or it could be a totaly invented story, set within the framework of an important historical event or period. For example, a complete piece of fiction could be built around a couple's chance meeting aboard the Titanic.

Mike

Answer 5

Historical fiction is a fiction which is based with a Historical background. Unlike Sci-Fis which are based in total imagination, these stories intertwine fictional characters or occurences in true stories. For example, the love story of an imaginary soldier in the freedom struggle. So although the struggle was true, the love story wasn't. I hope this clears your doubt.
||Good Luck||

Answer 6

They are fictitious stories that are based on historical events. Like movies that are "based on a true story."