Literary
The Nature of Monsters
This is Clare Clark’s second novel and, like her first, The Great Stink, it is immersed in the filth, chaos…
Burning Bright
The novel takes its title from what is probably William Blake’s most famous poem, and its premise is the contrasting,…
Luncheon of the Boating Party
Editors' choice
Paris, 1880. Pierre-Auguste Renoir is thirty-nine, his enchantment with the revolutionary Impressionist style is fading, and the movement threatens to…
The Truth About Lou: A (Necessary) Fiction
In late 19th-century Germany, the passionate Louise “Lou” Salomé, writer, seeker, and friend to Nietzsche, Freud and Prague poet Rilke…
Dream of the Dragon Pool: A Daoist Quest
“There is another Reality – not of the human realm.” Shame and anguish haunt Li Bo, the famous Tang Dynasty…
The God of Spring
It is 1818, and French artist Théodore Géricault is in danger of becoming the 19th century equivalent of a one-hit…
Liszt’s Kiss
Editors' choice
Paris, 1832. A cholera epidemic rages, and Anne de Barbier-Chouant has lost her beloved mother to its deadly grasp. Alone…
The Solitude of Thomas Cave
Editors' choice
Set in the first half of the 17th century, this is a poetic and highly literate novel that has as…
My Mother’s Lovers
In a recent talk at the University of East Anglia, Christopher Hope described Africa as “a great comic opera” which…
Haweswater
In 1936, the Cumbrian village of Mardale is selected as the site for the Haweswater reservoir. The people of Manchester…
About our Reviews
Over the last 15 years The Historical Novels Review (the society’s print magazine for our members) has published reviews of some 12,000 historical fiction books. We plan to upload them all and make them searchable here.
