History and the Novel

Article written Researched by Liam Brake. Edited by Rob Russell.

The relationship between the novel and the historian is an interesting one. As a source the novel can provide a useful avenue for historians to consider an unconventional view of the past; as a form the novel can provide a questionable method to present the past. Either way, exploration of the past allows one to experience a ‘foreign’ world quite apart from the mindset or geography of the present. From a novelists point of view, history provides a arena in which one can become immersed in a new world although a new world that has preordained restraints.

It is perhaps unsurprising that the two fields sometimes merge. Novels that typify an era are frequently used by historians as ideal representations of a particular past despite the recreated elements involved in a story. The Great Gatsby, considered by the Telegraph newspapers as the twenty second best book ever written, is a masterpiece in depicting the social life of 1920’s American Society; whether one wishes to draw conclusions about the books author or the typical flapper lifestyle it is useful as a source.

Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon and Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s A Day in Life of Ivan Denisovich are both excellent depictions for life in Soviet Terror. Solzhenitsyn’s work almost presents a fictional memoir of his time in the Russian Gulag. Both are well used and commented upon by historians with a Soviet focus. A novel such as Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, which recounts one day in the life of a London matron planning a reception for her diplomat husband in the evening, provides another good example. Her London, or rather the part of it which Woolf’s heroine symbolizes, is fully recognizable as a realistic image of what London ‘must have been like’ in or around 1920. Similarly, there has been much historical attention placed upon British novel by authors such as Dickens and the Bronte sisters.

Virginia Woolf, Solzhenitsyn, Koestler, Dickens, Fitzgerald, and the Bronte sisters create novels that constitute a kind of testimony, an example of a kind of ‘witness literature’.

Novels can help to generate an image of life in industrial Britain, depict existing social hierarchies and form a basis to comment on contemporary gender imbalances.

The next section is going to consider novels that discuss a specific period in the past rather than dealing with their contemporary period. The best ‘historical novel’ written is often considered to be War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, this is the view of the Guardian newspaper. More modern forms of the novel can be found in authors such as Ian Harris or Andrew Millar. The first is often traced back to Sir Walter Scotts Waverley, published in 1812. Waverley was a conscious effort to depict a Scotland sixty years in the past. Whilst the main character is undoubtedly a piece of fiction Scott uses factual events, footnoting and backs his novel up with historical research. The main character can then act as a device to present the period of history that Scott wishes to comment upon.

Memoirs Of Hadrian, a novel by Marguerite Yourcenar, contains a wealth of historical facts yet is written as if a dialogue from the point of view of Roman Emperor Hadrian. Perhaps due to its setting in a period of history for which we have limited source material, Memoirs of Hadrian is highly acknowledged by ancient history scholars as a useful text for understanding Hadrian. Indeed Yourcenar’s work has previously formed the basis for a museum exhibition on Hadrian.

In spite of this, the historical novel, was anathematized with the growth of professional historians, in particular Leopold von Ranke, virtually from the moment of its invention. Ranke and his followers condemned both the techniques and imaginative resources of invention and representation, within the novel, that were henceforth exiled into the domain of ‘fiction’. For some the historical novel is simply fiction born out of historical truth, the idea of history is to present the past from a subjective standpoint- the historical novelist becomes too involved and is potentially more able to succumb to the temptation of creating a false view of the past. Waverley, for example, is criticised for establishing national falsehood- it is blamed for creating a Scottish national traditional dress and customs.

This article has tried to asses the relationship between history and fiction. It almost seems to be the case that historians are happy to borrow from novels, to create for themselves an interdisciplinary subject, but neglect to acknowledge a novelists ability to use history. Although the work of Youcenar perhaps contradicts this although it would be questionable if her work would be so accepted outside of the ancient arena. Realistically the historical novel is a frame for presenting history in an accessible style and perhaps should become more accepted- it is certainly appreciated outside the realm of professional history within the best-seller lists.

Research

– According to the historical novel society on the internet a historical novel can only be such if the author is writing 50 years hence and is writing with the aim of producing a historically accurate text.

– The article refers to one Leopold Von Ranke, he was a historian famous for his ‘colourless’ history, often described as the founder of modern source based history and was a part of the move to professionalise history during the 19th century.

– Sir Walter Scott was exceedingly popular just after the time of the publication of Waverley despite the reduction in popularity of his novels in later centuries.

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