Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the setting of particular real historical events . Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature , it can also be applied to other types of narrative, including theatre , opera , cinema , and television , as well as video games and graphic novels . It often makes many use of symbolism in allegory using figurative and metaphorical elements to picture a story.
204-584: The Egyptian ( Sinuhe egyptiläinen , Sinuhe the Egyptian) is a historical novel by Mika Waltari . It was first published in Finnish in 1945, and in an abridged English translation by Naomi Walford in 1949, from Swedish rather than Finnish. Regarded as "one of the greatest books in Finnish literary history", it is, so far, the only Finnish novel to be adapted into a Hollywood film , which happened in 1954. The Egyptian
408-422: A bull-headed sea serpent ), and realises that she has been killed by the god's high priest Minotaurus to prevent her from returning and telling the god is dead. Sinuhe loses his mind from grief, but Kaptah eventually succeeds in calming him down and convinces him that it's best to move on and return to Syria. In Syria, Sinuhe returns to medical profession and regains his previous status. He notices, however, that
612-571: A propagandist during the Winter War and Continuation War at the State Information Bureau, causing him to realise how much historical information is actually relative or made of half-truths. Waltari also witnessed Finland's sudden, perfidious change of policy towards the USSR from "enemy" to "friend" upon the signing of the armistice on 4 September 1944, another ideal shattered. The war provided
816-403: A Nobel prize candidate. A film version with a budget of 5 million dollars and an extensive marketing campaign started production in 1952 and was released in 1954. However, there were issues with actors and inexperience with the then new Cinemascope technology, and the film received mixed reviews and modest financial success. Historical novel An essential element of historical fiction
1020-566: A brooding threatening figure of a completely ruthless conqueror and tyrannical ruler. Other historical figures with whom the protagonist has direct dealings are: Aziru (ruler of Amurru kingdom ), Thutmose (sculptor) , Burna-Buriash II (Babylonian king), and, under a different name, Zannanza , son of Suppiluliuma I. Zannanza's bride is a collage of at least three historical figures: herself, first wife of Horemheb and, by him, mother of Ramesses I . Historical Horemheb died childless. Sinuhe recounts, in his old age at his location of forced exile by
1224-473: A businessman and buys a pub called "Crocodile's Tail". There Sinuhe meets a woman named Merit, who becomes Sinuhe's life partner. In Egypt, a new king, Akhenaten, has begun to convey a monotheistic teaching centered around the sun god Aten . According to Akhenaten's doctrine, all people are equal, and in the new world order there no longer would be slaves and masters. Aspects of Akhenaten prove to be unpopular: his pacifism, among Horemheb and others concerned with
1428-500: A century prior and its author asserted that her work could present a "fuller and therefore 'truer ' " version of history. One of the early examples of the historical novel in Europe is La Princesse de Clèves , a French novel published anonymously in March 1678. It is regarded by many as the beginning of the modern tradition of the psychological novel and as a great work. Its author generally
1632-453: A close resemblance to our own world at various points in history. Historiographic metafiction combines historical fiction with metafiction . The term is closely associated with postmodern literature including writers such as Salman Rushdie and Thomas Pynchon . Several novels by Nobel Prize laureate José Saramago are set in historical times including Baltasar and Blimunda , The Gospel According to Jesus Christ and The History of
1836-707: 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 Honoré de Balzac , the American James Fenimore Cooper , and later the Russian Leo Tolstoy . However, the melding of historical and fictional elements in individual works of literature has a long tradition in many cultures; both western traditions (as early as Ancient Greek and Latin literature ) as well as Eastern, in
2040-472: A contemporary narrative, but rather as a distinct social and cultural setting. Scott's Scottish novels such as Waverley (1814) and Rob Roy (1817) focused upon a middling character who sits at the intersection of various social groups in order to explore the development of society through conflict. Ivanhoe (1820) gained credit for renewing interest in the Middle Ages . Many well-known writers from
2244-490: A culture of real human beings in a way achieved by few other novels". Waltari has been mistaken for an egyptologist. He never visited Egypt, because he feared it would ruin his mental image of Egypt and modern Egypt was completely different from the ancient one. He has said: "I have lived in Egypt although I have never visited the place." Nonetheless, Markku Envall cautions that the novel cannot be taken as absolutely free of errors on
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#17328582062232448-489: A distinct subgenre recognized by both publishers and libraries. Romantic themes have also been portrayed, such as Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak and Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell . One of the first popular historical romances appeared in 1921, when Georgette Heyer published The Black Moth , which is set in 1751. It was not until 1935 that she wrote the first of her signature Regency novels, set around
2652-627: A further 16 tombs to the list, and explored several tombs that had already been discovered. During this time Georges Daressy explored KV9 . When Gaston Maspero was reappointed as head of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, the nature of the exploration of the valley changed again. Maspero appointed English archaeologist Howard Carter as the Chief Inspector of Upper Egypt, and the young man discovered several new tombs and explored several others, clearing KV42 and KV20 . Around
2856-484: A good ruler by combining Akhenaten and Horemheb, and an individual capable of surviving through everyday life by combining Sinuhe and Kaptah. Sinuhe is dependent on Kaptah's street-smartness and life experience, and they are inseparable to such an extent that in Kaptah's absence Sinuhe is forced to imagine his voice. The portrayal of Atenism , as a doctrine advocating peace and equality, has attracted readings as an allegory of
3060-636: A historical event or biography , to the degree that the available historical research will allow. Other historical dramas are fictionalized tales that are based on an actual person and their deeds, such as Braveheart , which is loosely based on the 13th-century knight William Wallace 's fight for Scotland 's independence. For films pertaining to the history of East Asia , Central Asia , and South Asia , there are historical drama films set in Asia , also known as Jidaigeki in Japan. Wuxia films like The Hidden Power of
3264-831: A historical work in the manner of Sir Walter Scott. This was subsequently incorporated into La Comédie Humaine . The bulk of La Comédie Humaine , however, takes place during the Bourbon Restoration and the July Monarchy , though there are several novels which take place during the French Revolution and others which take place of in the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, including About Catherine de Medici and The Elixir of Long Life . Victor Hugo 's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) furnishes another 19th-century example of
3468-419: A human being can not change in the foreseeable time-frame due to the fact that they have 10000, 100000, 200000 years old inherited instincts as their basis, people's relationships can be altered and must be altered, so that the world can be saved from destruction." Commenting on the prevalence of this interpretation, Finnish literary scholar Markku Envall [ fi ] views that the novel's main thesis
3672-469: A literal level. A Swiss scholar complained that a sand flea species mentioned did not exist in Africa until it migrated via slave ships. Rostislav Holthoer has doubted the historicity of the depiction of trepanation prominent in the novel, and the act of abandoning newborns in reed boats. He has not been able to confirm nor deny some specific manners or traditions, such as breaking vases to conduct marriage, but
3876-544: A long time. The book is indeed a work of art, its language and effects fit splendidly with the French language, it contains not a single tasteless nor crude spot nor archaeological error. Its word order, language, closely resembles the language of Egypt, and it would be a crime to translate it with less care than what it has been written with." Critics had been concerned that Waltari might have played fast and loose with historical events, but this article dispelled these doubts and begot
4080-503: A moralist, I nonetheless cannot ignore the erotic gluttony that dominates the work, as if conceived by a sick imagination – the whole world revolves for the sole purpose that people can enjoy..." French egyptologist Pierre Chaumelle read The Egyptian in Finnish and, in a letter featured in a Helsingin Sanomat article in 13. 8. 1946, wrote of his impressions: "I shall with utmost sincerity attest that I haven't read anything as remarkable in
4284-567: A mutual understanding regarding these matters and Waltari would always remain loyal to her in the end. His mother died during this; his wife managed the funeral arrangements, Waltari attended the funeral, and on the next morning he resumed writing the novel where he left off. The completed manuscript, totaling almost one thousand pages, was delivered by Waltari to WSOY in the first half of August 1945. Editor Jalmari Jäntti had typically cut risqué material from Waltari's prior works. This time, however, little to no corrections or deletions were required by
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#17328582062234488-456: A new capital, Akhetaten , dedicated to Aten, is built. However, the conflicts between Amon and Aten continue, and it all develops into a civil war. Aten's kingdom on Earth begins to fall, and the courtiers, one after another, abandon Akhenaten and Akhetaten in favor of Amon and Thebes. The final battle also takes place in Thebes. Sinuhe fights for the sake of Aten and Pharaoh to the end, but ultimately
4692-468: A novel. Works of historical fiction are sometimes criticized for lack of authenticity because of readerly criticism or genre expectations for accurate period details. This tension between historical authenticity and fiction frequently becomes a point of comment for readers and popular critics, while scholarly criticism frequently goes beyond this commentary, investigating the genre for its other thematic and critical interests. Historical fiction as
4896-508: A prior life or was a reincarnation of Sinuhe. Waltari followed a consistent schedule, writing from 9 AM to 4 or 5 PM, meal breaks at predetermined times, family members leaving him to his work. A state of happiness and being in love during creative work was essential to Waltari, and on evenings he wrote long love letters to one Helena Kangas (later known as Leena Ilmari) throughout the summer. Waltari's extramarital relationships were no danger to his marriage, as he and his wife Marjatta had developed
5100-512: A relatively minor king, and other burials probably had more numerous treasures. In the same central area as KV62 and KV63, is "KV64" , a radar anomaly believed to be a tomb or chamber announced on 28 July 2006. It was not an official designation, and the actual existence of a tomb at all was dismissed by the Supreme Council of Antiquities , prior to finally excavating and describing it during 2011–2012. The nearby tomb of Horemheb , ( KV57 )
5304-444: A reputation of almost mythical accuracy around the novel. This lack of errors was also confirmed by the egyptological congress of Cairo, and egyptologist Rostislav Holthoer also has since then noted that later research has confirmed some of Waltari's speculations. The Swedish translation by Ole Torvalds was published in late 1946, abridged with Waltari's approval. Torvalds was careful not to omit anything essential while streamlining
5508-648: A systematic search, they discovered the actual tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62) in November 1922. Various expeditions have continued to explore the valley, adding greatly to the knowledge of the area. In 2001 the Theban Mapping Project designed new signs for the tombs, providing information and plans of the open tombs. A map of the Valley of the Kings with locations of tombs marked The earliest tombs were located in cliffs at
5712-465: A total of 24) on the area around Thebes. European exploration continued in the area around Thebes during the nineteenth century. Early in the century, the area was visited by Giovanni Belzoni , working for Henry Salt , who discovered several tombs, including those of Ay in the West Valley ( WV23 ) in 1816 and Seti I ( KV17 ) the following year. At the end of his visits, Belzoni declared that all of
5916-465: A total of 61 sepulchers being known by the start of the 20th century. KV5 was only rediscovered in the 1990s after being dismissed as unimportant by previous investigators. Some of the tombs are unoccupied, others remain unidentifiable as regards to their owners, and still others are merely pits used for storage. Most of the open tombs in the Valley of the Kings are located in the East Valley, and this
6120-444: A veiled attack on Austria, which controlled the region at the time the novel was written. The critical and popular success of The Betrothed gave rise to a crowd of imitations and, in the age of unification , almost every Italian writer tried his hand at the genre; novels now almost forgotten, like Marco Visconti by Tommaso Grossi (Manzoni's best friend) or Ettore Fieramosca by Massimo D'Azeglio (Manzoni's son-in-law), were
6324-465: A virgin to the local bull god who lives in a mountain cave at the sea. Sinuhe is horrified by this and fears that he will not see her again. In the evening before Minea should enter the mountain cave, they marry each other unofficially. A while after Minea has been escorted into the mountain cave, Sinuhe enters the cave in search for her. He finds Minea's dead body and the remains of the Cretan god (described as
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6528-478: Is Christopher Meredith (b. 1954), whose Griffri (1991) is set in the 12th century and has the poet of a minor Welsh prince as narrator. Nobel Prize laureate William Golding wrote a number of historical novels. The Inheritors (1955) is set in prehistoric times, and shows "new people" (generally identified with Homo sapiens sapiens ) triumphing over a gentler race (generally identified with Neanderthals ) by deceit and violence. The Spire (1964) follows
6732-475: Is Peter I (1929–34) by Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy , and I, Claudius (1934) and King Jesus (1946) by Robert Graves . Other recent biographical novel series, include Conqueror and Emperor by Conn Iggulden and Cicero Trilogy by Robert Harris. The gothic novel was popular in the late eighteenth century. Set in the historical past it has an interest in the mysterious, terrifying and haunting. Horace Walpole 's 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto
6936-483: Is a doctor, and Sinuhe decides to walk in his footsteps. As an assistant to a royal doctor who knows his adoptive father, Sinuhe is allowed to visit the court, during a trepanation on the dying Amenhotep III – here Sinuhe, the young crown prince Akhenaten and Horemheb meet for the first time. Well educated, Sinuhe sets up a clinic and acquires the sly and eloquent slave Kaptah, who will be his companion and close friend throughout his life. One day he gets acquainted with
7140-464: Is a genre of largely Italian-made historical or biblical epics (costume dramas) that dominated the Italian film industry from 1958 to 1965. Most pepla featured a superhumanly strong man as the protagonist, such as Hercules , Samson , Goliath , Ursus or Italy's own popular folk hero Maciste . These supermen often rescued captive princesses from tyrannical despots and fought mythological creatures. Not all
7344-402: Is a tomb commencement that is thought to have been started for Akhenaten , but it is no more than a gateway and a series of steps. The tomb of Ay , Tutankhamun 's successor is close by. It is likely that this tomb was started for Tutankhamun (its decoration is of a similar style), but later usurped for Ay's burial. This would mean that KV62 may have been Ay's original tomb, which would explain
7548-481: Is able to internalise much of these aspects, combining idealism and realism. Although Horemheb is able to reinstate peace and order, rebuilding that which Akhenaten destroys, his ingenious realpolitik is rejected by Sinuhe, because it also abolishes freedom. Whether suffering is increased or decreased during Horemheb's reign is left ambiguous, however. Envall constructs the following graph: He argues that "whole" individuals are achieved by combining these "partial" ones:
7752-576: Is an epic retelling of the story of an Italian nobleman who lives through the Napoleonic period in Italian history. It includes a description of the Battle of Waterloo by the principal character. Stendhal fought with Napoleon and participated in the French invasion of Russia . The Betrothed (1827) by Alessandro Manzoni has been called the most famous and widely read novel of the Italian language. The Betrothed
7956-518: Is considered to be an influential work. Historical mysteries or "historical whodunits " are set by their authors in the distant past, with a plot that which involves the solving of a mystery or crime (usually murder). Though works combining these genres have existed since at least the early 1900s, many credit Ellis Peters 's Cadfael Chronicles (1977–1994) with popularizing them. These are set between 1137 and 1145 A.D. The increasing popularity of this type of fiction in subsequent decades has created
8160-404: Is denied: "There are also those, who say that which has happened has never before happened, but this is useless talk." This thesis is repeated by multiple other characters as well. The main thesis is borrowed from Ecclesiastes: What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9) Like The Egyptian , Ecclesiastes strengthens
8364-517: Is held to be Madame de La Fayette . The action takes place between October 1558 and November 1559 at the royal court of Henry II of France. The novel recreates that era with remarkable precision. Nearly every character – except the heroine – is a historical figure. Events and intrigues unfold with great faithfulness to documentary records. In the United Kingdom, the historical novel "appears to have developed" from La Princesse de Clèves , "and then via
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8568-416: Is little more than a truncated descending corridor and a burial chamber. However, KV16 has vibrant decoration and still contains the sarcophagus of the king. Its central location makes it one of the more frequently visited tombs. It shows the development of the tomb entrance and passage and of decoration. His son and successor, Seti I 's tomb KV17 (also known as Belzoni's tomb , the tomb of Apis , or
8772-659: Is not simply that people can not change, but rather that it contains a contradiction that nothing can change and everything can change; on some levels things remain the same, but on other levels the hope of future change survives in the novel. Envall brings up the "familiarity" of the depiction of 14th-century BC Egypt as highly developed: the novel describes phenomena – inventions, knowings, institutions etc. – that, although resembling familiar modern day equivalents that are rather new in Finland, are nonetheless egyptologically accurate. The similarity between ancient and modern times supports
8976-597: Is of royal blood and must be the son of Amenhotep III and his Mitannic consort, and thus closer to the throne. With Akhenaten out of the way, Horemheb gathers all fit men and conducts a full-scale war against the Hittite kingdom – Egypt's premier rival at this time. Both Sinuhe and Kaptah participate in this battle, as Sinuhe wanted to know what war is like. A peace treaty is ultimately established, and king Aziru and his royal family are captured and publicly executed. Sinuhe later succeeds with Horemheb's and Ay's mission to assassinate
9180-459: Is one of the earliest examples of the historical novel in English and went through at least 84 editions, including translation into French and German. The first true historical novel in English was in fact Maria Edgeworth 's Castle Rackrent (1800). In the 20th century György Lukács argued that Scott was the first fiction writer who saw history not just as a convenient frame in which to stage
9384-445: Is one of the most famous 19th-century American historical novels. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne , who conceives a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. In French literature, the most prominent inheritor of Scott's style of the historical novel was Balzac . In 1829 Balzac published Les Chouans ,
9588-405: Is rarely open to visitors, but it has many unique features and is extensively decorated. The decoration shows a transition from the pre-Amarna tombs to those of the 19th dynasty tombs that followed. The Nineteenth Dynasty saw a further standardisation of tomb layout and decoration. The tomb of the first king of the dynasty, Ramesses I , was hurriedly finished due to the early death of the king and
9792-511: Is set amid the Gordon Riots , and A Tale of Two Cities in the French Revolution . In some works, the accuracy of the historical elements has been questioned, as in Alexandre Dumas ' 1845 novel Queen Margot . Postmodern novelists such as John Barth and Thomas Pynchon operate with even more freedom, mixing historical characters and settings with invented history and fantasy, as in
9996-588: Is set in 16th century Småland and his widely read novel series The Emigrants tells the story of Småland emigrants to the United States in the 19th century. Per Anders Fogelström wrote a hugely popular series of five historical novels set in his native Stockholm beginning with City of My Dreams (1960). Other writers of historical fiction in Swedish literature include Sara Lidman , Birgitta Trotzig , Per Olov Enquist and Artur Lundkvist . The historical novel
10200-517: Is situated over 1,000 feet of limestone and other sedimentary rock, which form the cliffs in the valley and the nearby Deir el-Bahari , interspersed with soft layers of marl . The sedimentary rock was originally deposited between 35 and 56 million years ago during a time when the Mediterranean Sea sometimes extended as far south as Aswan . During the Pleistocene the valley was carved out of
10404-521: Is that it is set in the past and pays attention to the manners, social conditions and other details of the depicted period. Authors also frequently choose to explore notable historical figures in these settings, allowing readers to better understand how these individuals might have responded to their environments. The historical romance usually seeks to romanticize eras of the past. Some subgenres such as alternate history and historical fantasy insert intentionally ahistorical or speculative elements into
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#173285820622310608-572: Is the German author Thomas Mann 's Buddenbrooks (1901). This chronicles the decline of a wealthy north German merchant family over the course of four generations, incidentally portraying the manner of life and mores of the Hanseatic bourgeoisie in the years from 1835 to 1877. Mann drew deeply from the history of his own family, the Mann family of Lübeck , and their milieu. This was Mann's first novel, and with
10812-597: Is the author of historical novels which were translated into 11 languages. Anton Donchev (1930–) is an old living author, whose first independent novel, Samuel's Testimony , was published in 1961. His second book, Time of Parting , which dealt with the Islamization of the population in the Rhodopes during the XVII century was written in 1964. The novel was adapted in the serial movie " Time of Violence ", divided into two parts with
11016-467: Is the first and the most successful of Waltari's great historical novels, and that which gained him international fame. It is set in Ancient Egypt , mostly during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten of the 18th Dynasty , whom some have claimed to be the first monotheistic ruler in the world. The novel is known for its high-level historical accuracy regarding the life and culture of the period depicted. At
11220-401: Is vast in size, about the same length, and a larger area, of the tomb of his father. At the same time, and just opposite his own tomb, Ramesses enlarged the earlier small tomb of an unknown Eighteenth Dynasty noble ( KV5 ) for his numerous sons. With 120 known rooms, and excavation work still underway, it is probably the largest tomb in the valley. Originally opened (and robbed) in antiquity, it
11424-609: Is where most of the tourist facilities are located. The Eighteenth Dynasty tombs within the valley vary quite a bit in decoration, style, and location. It seems that at first there was no fixed plan. The tomb of Hatshepsut has a unique shape, twisting and turning down over 200 metres from the entrance, so that the burial chamber is 97 metres below the surface. The tombs gradually became more regular and formalised, and those of Thutmose III and Thutmose IV , KV34 and KV43 , are good examples of Eighteenth Dynasty tombs, both with their bent axis, and simple decoration. Perhaps
11628-656: The Leatherstocking Tales pentalogy. The Last of the Mohicans is set in 1757, during the French and Indian War (the Seven Years' War ), when France and Great Britain battled for control of North America. Cooper's chief rival, John Neal , wrote Rachel Dyer (1828), the first bound novel about the 17th-century Salem witch trials . Rachel Dyer also influenced future American fiction set in this period, like The Scarlet Letter (1850) by Nathaniel Hawthorne which
11832-427: The 1930s and 1940s . The following American authors have also written historical novels in the 20th century: Gore Vidal , John Barth , Norman Mailer , E. L. Doctorow and William Kennedy . Thomas Pynchon 's historical novel Mason & Dixon (1997) tells the story of the two English surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, who were charged with marking the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland in
12036-825: The American Girl novels and the Magic Tree House series . A prominent award within children's historical fiction is the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction . Historical narratives have also found their way in comics and graphic novels. There are Prehistorical elements in jungle comics like Akim and Rahan . Ancient Greece inspired graphic novels are 300 created by Frank Miller , centered around Battle of Thermopylae , and Age of Bronze series by Eric Shanower , that retells Trojan War . Historical subjects can also be found in manhua comics like Three Kingdoms and Sun Zi's Tactics by Lee Chi Ching , Weapons of
12240-559: The Book of the Heavens , which again describes the sun's journey through the twelve hours of night. Again from Seti I's time, the Litany of Re , a lengthy hymn to the sun god began to appear. Each burial was provided with equipment that would enable a comfortable existence in the afterlife . Also present in the tombs were items used to perform magic rituals, such as shabtis and divine figurines. Some of
12444-564: The English Regency period (1811–1820), when the Prince Regent ruled England in place of his ill father, George III . Heyer's Regency novels were inspired by Jane Austen 's novels of the late 18th and early 19th century. Because Heyer's writing was set in the midst of events that had occurred over 100 years previously, she included authentic period detail in order for her readers to understand. Where Heyer referred to historical events, it
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#173285820622312648-551: The Gothic architecture of France , leading to the establishment of the Monuments historiques , the French governmental authority for historic preservation . Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti 's historical mystery saga Imprimateur Secretum Veritas Mysterium has increased interest in European history and features famous castrato opera singer Atto Melani as a detective and spy. Although
12852-1047: The Gothic novel ". Another early example is The Unfortunate Traveller by Thomas Nashe , published in 1594 and set during the reign of King Henry VIII . Historical fiction rose to prominence in Europe during the early 19th century as part of the Romantic reaction to the Enlightenment , especially through the influence of the Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott , whose works were immensely popular throughout Europe. Among his early European followers we can find Willibald Alexis , Theodor Fontane , Bernhard Severin Ingemann , Miklós Jósika , Mór Jókai , Jakob van Lennep , Demetrius Bikelos , Enrique Gil y Carrasco , Carl Jonas Love Almqvist , Victor Rydberg , Andreas Munch , Alessandro Manzoni , Alfred de Vigny , Honoré de Balzac or Prosper Mérimée . Jane Porter 's 1803 novel Thaddeus of Warsaw
13056-513: The Hittites . The main character of the novel is named after a character in an ancient Egyptian text commonly known as the Story of Sinuhe . The original story dates to a time long before that of Akhenaten: texts are known from as early as the 12th dynasty . Supporting historical characters include the old Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his conniving favorite wife, Tiy ; the wife of Akhenaten, Nefertiti ;
13260-832: The Napoleonic Wars . There are also adventure novels with pirate characters like Robert Louis Stevenson 's Treasure Island (1883), Emilio Salgari 's Sandokan (1895–1913) and Captain Blood (1922) by Rafael Sabatini . Recent examples of historical novels about pirates are The Adventures of Hector Lynch by Tim Severin , The White Devil (Белият Дявол) by Hristo Kalchev and The Pirate Devlin novels by Mark Keating. A number of work take place in variants of known history, in which events had occurred differently. This can involve time travel . There are also works of historical fantasy , which add fantastical elements to known (or alternative) history or which take place in second worlds with
13464-607: The New Kingdom of ancient Egypt . It is a wadi sitting on the west bank of the Nile , opposite Thebes (modern-day Luxor ) and within the heart of the Theban Necropolis . There are two main sections: the East Valley, where the majority of the royal tombs are situated; and the West Valley, otherwise known as the Valley of the Monkeys. With the 2005 discovery of a new chamber and
13668-543: The Partitions of Poland . Henryk Sienkiewicz wrote several immensely popular novels set in conflicts between the Poles and predatory Teutonic Knights , rebelling Cossacks and invading Swedes . He won the 1905 Nobel Prize in literature . He also wrote the popular novel Quo Vadis , which was about Nero 's Rome and the early Christians and has been adapted several times for film, in 1913 , 1924 , 1951 , 2001 to only name
13872-536: The Red Sea coast, the events of his life. His tone expresses cynicism, bitterness and disappointment; he says humans are vile and will never change, and that he's writing down his story for therapeutic reasons alone and for something to do in the rugged and desolate desert landscape. Sinuhe begins his life as a foundling discovered in a reed boat in the Nile , and grows up in the poor part of Thebes . His adoptive father Senmut
14076-570: The Theban rulers began to construct elaborate tombs that reflected their newfound power. The tombs of Ahmose I and his son Amenhotep I (their exact location remains unknown) were probably in the Seventeenth Dynasty necropolis of Dra' Abu el-Naga' . The first royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings were those of Amenhotep I (although this identification is also disputed), and Thutmose I , whose advisor, Ineni , notes in his tomb that he advised
14280-541: The historical romance genre and its subgenre Regency romance , which was inspired by Jane Austen . To ensure accuracy, Heyer collected reference works and kept detailed notes on all aspects of Regency life. While some critics thought the novels were too detailed, others considered the level of detail to be Heyer's greatest asset; Heyer even recreated William the Conqueror 's crossing into England for her novel The Conqueror . Naomi Mitchison's finest novel, The Corn King and
14484-504: The human condition , or to escape the depredations of the censor . In some historical novels, major historic events take place mostly off-stage, while the fictional characters inhabit the world where those events occur. Robert Louis Stevenson 's Kidnapped recounts mostly private adventures set against the backdrop of the Jacobite troubles in Scotland . Charles Dickens 's Barnaby Rudge
14688-428: The magnum opus by the 2018 Nobel Prize laureate Olga Tokarczuk . A 20th-century variant of the historical novel is documentary fiction, which incorporates "not only historical characters and events, but also reports of everyday events" found in contemporary newspapers. Examples of this variant form of historical novel include U.S.A. (1938), and Ragtime (1975) by E.L. Doctorow . Memoirs of Hadrian by
14892-511: The pacing . Waltari praised the result. In 1948 a complete French version by Jean-Louis Perret came out, as well as the Danish and Norwegian versions. The novel sold one million copies in Europe within the first five years after its publication. The Egyptian saw an English release in August 1949. Putnam had asked a Swedish woman of culture (coincidentally the wife of an editor who'd previously rejected
15096-403: The 18th century. More recently there have been works such as Neal Stephenson 's Baroque Cycle . In Italy, the tradition of historical fiction has flourished in the modern age, the nineteenth century in particular having caught writers’ interests. Southern Italian novelists like Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa ( The Leopard ), Francesco Iovine ( Lady Ava ), Carlo Alianello ( The Heritage of
15300-541: The 2008 discovery of two further tomb entrances, the Valley of the Kings is known to contain 65 tombs and chambers, ranging in size from the simple pit that is KV54 to the complex tomb that is KV5 , which alone has over 120 chambers for the sons of Ramesses II . It was the principal burial place for the New Kingdom's major royal figures as well as a number of privileged nobles. The royal tombs are decorated with traditional scenes from Egyptian mythology and reveal clues to
15504-593: The Belgian-born French writer Marguerite Yourcenar is about the life and death of Roman Emperor Hadrian . First published in France in French in 1951 as Mémoires d'Hadrien , the book was an immediate success, meeting with enormous critical acclaim. Margaret George has written fictional biographies about historical persons in The Memoirs of Cleopatra (1997) and Mary, called Magdalene (2002). An earlier example
15708-691: The Dragon Sabre (1984) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), based on novels by Jin Yong and Wang Dulu , have also been produced. Zhang Yimou has directed several acclaimed wuxia films like Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004) and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006). Although largely fictional some wuxia films are considered historical drama. Samurai films like Zatoichi and Lone Wolf and Cub series also fall under historical drama umbrella. Peplum films also known as sword-and-sandal,
15912-671: The Eastern Zhou Kingdoms ), Chu Renhuo 's Sui Tang yanyi ( Romance of the Sui and Tang dynasties ), Xiong Damu 's Liang Song Nanbei Zhizhuan ( Records of the Two Songs, South and North ) and Quan han zhi zhuan , Yang Erzeng 's Dong Xi Jin yan yi ( Romance of the Eastern and Western Jin dynasties ), and Qian Cai's The General Yue Fei , etc. Classical Greek novelists were also "very fond of writing novels about people and places of
16116-628: The Egyptian sovereignty in the area has now begun to be questioned and threatened. This rebellious mood is triggered not in the least by the Syrian, Hittite-friendly Prince Aziru, whom Sinuhe still befriends, among other things, through a medical assignment. One day Sinuhe decides to return to Egypt. He sails to Thebes and opens a clinic for the poor in the same neighborhood he grew up in. He does not get rich in this, being driven by ideological motives instead. His slave Kaptah (now released by Sinuhe) instead becomes
16320-528: The Eighteenth Dynasty, Tutankhamun , Ay , and Horemheb returned to the royal necropolis. The Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties saw an increase in the number of burials (both here and in the Valley of the Queens), with Ramesses II and later Ramesses III each constructing a massive tomb used for the burial of their sons ( KV5 and KV3 respectively). There are some kings that are not buried within
16524-592: The Gods by Wong Yuk Long as well as The Ravages of Time by Chan Mou . There are also straight Samurai manga series like Path of the Assassin , Vagabond , Rurouni Kenshin and Azumi . Several comics and graphic novels have been produced into anime series or a movie adaptations like Azumi and 300 . Historical drama film stories are based upon historical events and famous people. Some historical dramas are docudramas , which attempt an accurate portrayal of
16728-409: The Hittite prince Shubattu, secretly invited by Baketamon to marry her, preventing him from reaching Egypt and seizing the throne. Sinuhe now goes back, afflicted by all the losses, to a simple dwelling in Thebes, bitter and disillusioned in the heart. Every now and then he is visited by his former servant Kaptah, who only becomes richer and richer, and is now Sinuhe's patron. Sinuhe begins to criticise
16932-465: The Kings garnered significant attention following the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, and is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world. In 1979, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site alongside the rest of the Theban Necropolis. Exploration, excavation, and conservation continues in the area and a new tourist centre has recently been opened. The Valley of the Kings
17136-698: The Lion d'Or (concerned with the War's consequences); Pat Barker 's Regeneration Trilogy and Sebastian Barry 's A Long Long Way . American Nobel laureate William Faulkner 's novel Absalom, Absalom! (1936) is set before, during and after the American Civil War . Kenneth Roberts wrote several books set around the events of the American Revolution, of which Northwest Passage (1937), Oliver Wiswell (1940) and Lydia Bailey (1947) all became best-sellers in
17340-582: The Middle East, as depicted by the novel, is thought to represent the second world war. Waltari reluctantly approved this interpretation. These analogies are not exact but suggestive in nature; they are split up and mixed up, hidden among a vast amount of reliable historical knowledge. The relations between nations of the two time periods look as follows: The similarities between the warlike Hittites and Nazi Germany include their Lebensraum project, fast sudden warfare or Blitzkrieg , use of propaganda to weaken
17544-690: The Patriarch (1975) by Gabriel García Marquez . Other writers of historical fiction include Abel Posse , Antonio Benitez Rojo , João Ubaldo Ribeiro , Jorge Amado , Homero Aridjis . In the first decades of the 21st century, an increased interest for historical fiction has been noted. One of the most successful writers of historical novels is Hilary Mantel . Other writers of historical fiction include Philippa Gregory , Bernard Cornwell , Sarah Waters , Ken Follett , George Saunders , Shirley Hazzard and Julie Orringer . The historical novel The Books of Jacob set in 18th century Poland has been praised as
17748-722: The Po , a patchwork saga of a family of millers from the time of Napoleon to the First World War , one of the most epic novels of the last century. In 1980, Umberto Eco achieved international success with The Name of the Rose , a novel set in an Italian abbey in 1327 readable as a historical mystery, as an allegory of Italy during the Years of Lead , and as an erudite joke. Eco's work, like Manzoni's preceding it, relaunched Italian interest in historical fiction. Many novelists who till then had preferred
17952-701: The Prioress ) and more recently Andrea Camilleri ( The Preston Brewer ) retold the events of the Italian Unification , at times overturning its traditionally heroic and progressive image. The conservative Riccardo Bacchelli in The Devil at the Long Point and the communist Vasco Pratolini in Metello described, from ideologically opposite points of view, the birth of Italian Socialism . Bacchelli also wrote The Mill on
18156-466: The Siege of Lisbon . In a parallel plot set in the 12th and 20th century where history and fiction are constantly overlapping, the latter novel questions the reliability of historical sources and deals with the difference of writing history and fiction. A prominent subgenre within historical fiction is the children's historical novel. Often following a pedagogical bent, children's historical fiction may follow
18360-627: The Spring Queen (1931), is regarded by some as the best historical novel of the 20th century. Mary Renault is best known for her historical novels set in Ancient Greece . In addition to fictional portrayals of Theseus , Socrates , Plato , Simonides of Ceos and Alexander the Great , she wrote a non-fiction biography of Alexander. The Siege of Krishnapur (1973) by J. G. Farrell has been described as an "outstanding novel". Inspired by events such as
18564-528: The Theban hills is subject to infrequent, violent thunderstorms causing flash floods in the valley. Recent studies have shown that there are at least seven active flood stream beds leading down into the central area of the valley. This central area appears to have been flooded at the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty , with several tombs buried under metres of debris. The tombs KV55 , KV62 , and KV63 are dug into
18768-661: The Three Kingdoms concerns 3rd-century wars which ended the Han dynasty ; Wu Cheng'en 's 16th-century Journey to the West concerns the 7th-century Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang . In addition to those, there was a wealth of historical novels that became popular in the literary circles during the Ming and Qing periods in Chinese history; they include Feng Menglong 's Dongzhou Lieguo Zhi ( Chronicles of
18972-553: The United Kingdom published historical novels in the mid 19th century, the most notable include Thackeray 's Vanity Fair , Charles Dickens 's A Tale of Two Cities , George Eliot 's Romola , and Charles Kingsley 's Westward Ho! and Hereward the Wake . The Trumpet-Major (1880) is Thomas Hardy 's only historical novel, and is set in Weymouth during the Napoleonic wars , when
19176-416: The West Valley as WV1 through WV4. The tombs in the West Valley were later incorporated into the East Valley numbering system as WV22 through WV25 , and tombs that have been opened since Wilkinson's time have been added to the list. The numbers range from KV1 (Rameses VII) to KV64 (discovered in 2011). Since the early 19th century AD, antiquarians and archaeologists have cleared and recorded tombs, with
19380-552: The accuracy or lack thereof is irrelevant to a fictional work's literary merit, citing the errors of Shakespeare . The messages of the novel evoked a wide response in readers in the aftermath of the World War, and the book became an international bestseller. The Egyptian has been translated into 41 languages; it's the most internationally famous and translated Finnish novel, yet in 2009 100 Must-read Historical Novels estimated that "its fame has faded in recent decades". The Egyptian
19584-566: The actual wadi bedrock rather than the debris, showing that the level of the valley was five meters below its present level. After this event, later dynasties levelled the floor of the valley, making the floods deposit their load further down the valley, and the buried tombs were forgotten and only discovered in the early 20th century. This was the area that was the subject of the Amarna Royal Tombs Project ground-scanning radar investigation, which showed several anomalies, one of which
19788-584: The ancient graffiti is found in KV9, which contains just under a thousand of them. The earliest positively dated graffiti dates to 278 BC. In 1799, members of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt (especially Vivant Denon ) drew maps and plans of the known tombs, and for the first time noted the Western Valley (where Prosper Jollois and Édouard de Villiers du Terrage located the tomb of Amenhotep III , WV22 ). The Description de l'Égypte contains two volumes (out of
19992-605: The attempted rise of an early form of Christianity . Markku Envall finds many resemblances between phrases uttered by Jesus and the apostles in the New Testament , and those by characters in The Egyptian (especially in context of Atenism). He argues that by this Waltari anachronistically utilizes literature from after the story's setting, and that it demonstrates the parallelism of the two religions: both religions are prophetic (a single informant), noninstitutional (to experience God,
20196-514: The believer does not necessarily require an intermediary infrastructure), egalitarian (before God, secularly unequal people are equal) and universal (meant for all humanity). As reasons for these similarities, Envall explains that firstly, the religions of Egypt were a major influence on Judaism and hence Christianity, and secondly, that the religions share common archetypical material. Sigmund Freud has likewise called out in his work Moses and Monotheism that there are numerous similarities between
20400-406: The best-sellers of their time. Many of these authors (like Niccolò Tommaseo , Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi and D'Azeglio himself) were patriots and politicians too, and in their novels, the veiled politic message of Manzoni became explicit (the hero of Ettore Fieramosca fights to defend the honor of the Italian soldiers, mocked by some arrogant Frenchmen). In them, the narrative talent not equaled
20604-403: The building (and near collapse) of a huge spire onto a medieval cathedral (generally assumed to be Salisbury Cathedral ); the spire symbolizing both spiritual aspiration and worldly vanity. The Scorpion God (1971) consists of three novellas, the first set in a prehistoric African hunter-gatherer band ( Clonk, Clonk ), the second in an ancient Egyptian court ( The Scorpion God ) and the third in
20808-433: The city's scholars. One day he is summoned to the sick king Burraburiash , whom he manages to cure. Soon Kaptah is selected for the traditional day of the false king , where the city's greatest fool is king for a day and then killed. A young Cretan woman named Minea has been recently acquired to the king's harem against her will; during a feast, Sinuhe, in the process of falling in love with her, smuggles Minea and Kaptah from
21012-540: The company of Kaptah to Levant , which was under Egyptian rule at the time. In Syria, his medical skill earns him fame and wealth. During an Egyptian military operation in Syria, he re-encounters Horemheb, serving as a military commander. From this, Sinuhe is commissioned to travel at his expense in the known world to determine what military potential the established nations have. Sinuhe, in company of Kaptah, travels first to Babylon where he engages in science and socializes with
21216-482: The contemporary novel tried their hand at stories set in previous centuries. Among them were Fulvio Tomizza ( The Evil Coming from North , about the Reformation ), Dacia Maraini ( The Silent Duchess , about the female condition in the eighteenth century), Sebastiano Vassalli ( The Chimera , about a witch hunt ), Ernesto Ferrero ( N ) and Valerio Manfredi ( The Last Legion ). Fani Popova–Mutafova (1902–1977)
21420-428: The conventions of many of the other subgenres of historical fiction. A number of such works include elements of historical fantasy or time travel to facilitate the transition between the contemporary world and the past in the tradition of children's portal fiction. Sometimes publishers will commission series of historical novels that explore different periods and times. Among the most popular contemporary series include
21624-613: The court of a Roman emperor ( Envoy Extraordinary ). The trilogy To the Ends of the Earth , which includes the Rites of Passage (1980), Close Quarters (1987), and Fire Down Below (1989), describes sea voyages in the early 19th century. Anthony Burgess also wrote several historical novels; his last novel, A Dead Man in Deptford , is about the murder of Christopher Marlowe in the 16th century. Though
21828-418: The descending path of the sun god into the underworld) to the burial chamber. In the earlier tombs, the corridors turn 90 degrees at least once (such as KV43 , the tomb of Thutmose IV ), and the earliest ones had cartouche -shaped burial chambers (for example, KV43 , the tomb of Thutmose IV ). This layout is known as "Bent Axis", After the burial, the upper corridors were meant to be filled with rubble and
22032-449: The destructiveness of well-intentioned blindness; he is a tragic character and this blindness is his tragic flaw , by which he causes the destruction of his own kingdom – much like King Lear . The protagonist Sinuhe is an open-minded, learning and developing character, the sole such one in the novel according to Envall. Through him, the worldviews represented by other characters are experienced and evaluated, and during his character arc he
22236-423: The editor – it went on to be printed as it was on the same month. Central to the novel's themes is the conviction of the unchanging nature of mankind, exemplified by the recurring phrase "so there has ever been and ever will be". Its view on humanity is reputedly grim, displaying human failings such as selfishness, greed and prejudice as widespread. Waltari has gone on to state: "Although the basic characteristics of
22440-789: The eighteenth century, as well as historical novels written primarily in exile in France and California, including most prominently the Josephus trilogy set in Ancient Rome (1932 / 1935 / 1942), Goya (1951), and his novel Raquel: The Jewess of Toledo - set in Medieval Spain. Robert Graves of Britain wrote several popular historical novels, including I, Claudius , King Jesus , The Golden Fleece and Count Belisarius . John Cowper Powys wrote two historical novels set in Wales, Owen Glendower (1941) and Porius (1951). The first deals with
22644-507: The enemy, and worship of health and power while disdaining the sickly and weak. Mitanni is a border and buffer nation between the land of the Hittites and Babylon, like Poland between Germany and the USSR. Akhenaten's and Horemheb's battle for power mirrors the opposition of Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill ; the former seeks peace by conceding lands to the invader but helps the enemy, whereas
22848-471: The entrance to the tomb hidden. After the Amarna Period , the layout gradually straightened, with an intermediate "Jogged Axis" (the tomb of Horemheb , KV57 is typical of this layout and is one of the tombs that is sometimes open to the public), to the generally "Straight Axis" of the late Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasty tombs ( Ramesses III 's and Ramesses IX 's tombs, KV11 and KV6 respectively). As
23052-504: The events documented is perhaps the first recorded workers' strike, detailed in the Turin Strike Papyrus . The valley has been a major focus of modern Egyptological exploration for the last two centuries. Prior to this time, it was a site for tourism in antiquity (especially during Roman times). The area illustrates the changes in the study of ancient Egypt, starting as antiquity hunting, and ending as scientific excavation of
23256-428: The familiar biblical stories of Genesis , from Jacob to Joseph (chapters 27–50), setting it in the historical context of the reign of Akhenaten (1353–1336 BC) in ancient Egypt . In the same era, Lion Feuchtwanger was one of the most popular and accomplished writers of historical novels, with publications between the 1920s and 1950s. His reputation began with the bestselling work, Jud Süß (1925), set in
23460-505: The films were fantasy-based, however. Many featured actual historical personalities such as Julius Caesar , Cleopatra , and Hannibal , although great liberties were taken with the storylines. Gladiators, pirates, knights, Vikings, and slaves rebelling against tyrannical kings were also popular subjects. There are also films based on Medieval narratives like Ridley Scott 's historical epics Robin Hood (2010) and Kingdom of Heaven (2005) and
23664-487: The final impulse for exploring the subjects of Akhenaten and Egypt in a novel which, although depicting events that took place over 3,300 years ago, in fact reflects the contemporary feelings of disillusionment and war-weariness and pessimistically illustrates how little the essence of humanity has changed since then. The political and battle depictions of ancient Egypt and surrounding nations contain many parallels with World War II. The threatening King Suppiluliuma has many of
23868-510: The form of oral and folk traditions (see mythology and folklore ), which produced epics , novels, plays and other fictional works describing history for contemporary audiences. Definitions differ as to what constitutes a historical novel. On the one hand the Historical Novel Society defines the genre as works "written at least fifty years after the events described", while critic Sarah Johnson delineates such novels as "set before
24072-547: The genre has evolved since its inception, the historical novel remains popular with authors and readers to this day and bestsellers include Patrick O'Brian 's Aubrey–Maturin series , Ken Follett 's Pillars of the Earth and Dorothy Dunnett 's Lymond Chronicles . A development in British and Irish writing in the past 25 years has been a renewed interest in the First World War . Works include William Boyd 's An Ice-Cream War ; Sebastian Faulks ' Birdsong and The Girl at
24276-509: The gorgeous woman Nefernefernefer and is bewitched by her. Nefernefernefer gets Sinuhe to give her everything he owns – even his adoptive parents' house and grave. When the woman has realised that Sinuhe has run out of possessions, she gets rid of him. Ashamed and dishonored, Sinuhe arranges his adoptive parents to be embalmed and buries them in the Valley of the Kings (they had taken their lives before eviction), after which he decides to go to exile in
24480-436: The idea by denying its opposite: Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. (Ecclesiastes 1:10) Other shared themes are the futility of everything, and the suffering brought by knowledge. Conversely however, Sinuhe's preference of death over life is the antithesis of Ecclesiastes' love of life over death. The geopolitical situation of
24684-412: The items may have been used by the king during his lifetime ( Tutankhamun 's sandals for example), and some were specially constructed for the burial. The modern abbreviation "KV" stands for "Kings' Valley". In 1827, Wilkinson painted KV numbers over the entrances to the 21 tombs that lay open in the East Valley at that time, beginning at the valley entrance and moving southward, and labeled four tombs in
24888-402: The king to place his tomb in the desolate valley (the identity of this actual tomb is unclear, but it is probably KV20 or KV38 ). I saw to the excavation of the rock-tomb of his majesty, alone, no one seeing, no one hearing. The Valley was used for primary burials from approximately 1539 BC to 1075 BC. It contains at least 63 tombs , beginning with Thutmose I (or possibly earlier, during
25092-459: The kings in the Valley of the Kings were hidden, the kings' mortuary temples were located away from their burial sites, closer to the cultivation facing Thebes . These mortuary temples became places visited during the various festivals held in the Theban necropolis. Most notable is the Beautiful festival of the valley , where the sacred barques of Amun-Re , his consort, Mut , and son, Khonsu , left
25296-500: The latter knows that war is the only way to save the home country. The novel's reputation of historical flawlessness has been often repeated, by the egyptological congress of Cairo, French egyptologist Pierre Chaumelle, and U. Hofstetter of The Oakland Post . In 2008 Dr Richard Parkinson , the director and the curator of the Egyptian department of the British Museum , called it a "serious intellectual achievement" and that it "depicts
25500-697: The learned throughout various countries (like Greek in the Hellenistic period , Latin in the medieval period, French among diplomats and English in the 20th and 21st centuries); education takes place in faculties that provide degrees for qualification in posts (European universities began in the Middle Ages); people have addresses and send mail as papyrus and clay tablets; censorship is circumvented by cloaking subjects with historical stand-ins. There are precursors to aspects of modern medicine and monetary economy as well. Similar themes are expressed via repetition throughout
25704-421: The line between fiction and history, in order to get closer to the truth. The novel is set 60 years before it was composed, and alongside researching the war through primary and secondary sources, he spoke with people who had lived through war during the French invasion of Russia in 1812; thus, the book is also, in part, ethnography fictionalized. The Charterhouse of Parma by Marie-Henri Beyle (Stendhal)
25908-551: The listless young Tutankhamun (King Tut), who succeeded as Pharaoh after Akhenaten's downfall; and the two common-born successors who were, according to this author, integral parts of the rise and fall of the Amarna heresy of Akhenaten: the priest and later Pharaoh Ay and the warrior-general and then finally Pharaoh, Horemheb . Though never appearing onstage, throughout the book the Hittite King Suppiluliuma I appears as
26112-598: The majority of religious ones are real. Even the day of the false king has its basis on reality, with ancient Babylonians killing a surrogate king to save their real king should he have been prophesied to die. On the other hand, he has given Waltari credit for his predictions, as later discoveries have confirmed dubious details of the novel. Waltari's unflattering characterisation of Akhenaten, Horemheb, Tiy and Ay as flawed persons proved to be closer to reality than their earlier glorification. Research at Long Island University has supported Tutankhamun having been murdered, as hinted in
26316-491: The middle of the last [20th] century ... in which the author is writing from research rather than personal experience." Then again Lynda Adamson, in her preface to the bibliographic reference work World Historical Fiction , states that while a "generally accepted definition" for the historical novel is a novel "about a time period at least 25 years before it was written", she also suggests that some people read novels written in
26520-411: The most imposing tomb of this period is that of Amenhotep III , WV22 , located in the West Valley. It was re-investigated in the 1990s by a team from Waseda University , Japan , but it is not open to the public. At the same time, powerful and influential nobles began to be buried with the royal family; the most famous of these tombs is the joint tomb of Yuya and Tjuyu , KV46 . They were possibly
26724-470: The most prominent. Sigrid Undset 's Kristin Lavransdatter fulfilled a similar function for Norwegian history ; Undset later won a Nobel Prize for Literature (1928). Many early historical novels played an important role in the rise of European popular interest in the history of the Middle Ages . Victor Hugo 's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame often receives credit for fueling the movement to preserve
26928-450: The name 'Monte Cristo' into their titles." Tolstoy's War and Peace offers an example of 19th-century historical fiction used to critique contemporary history. Tolstoy read the standard histories available in Russian and French about the Napoleonic Wars , and used the novel to challenge those historical approaches. At the start of the novel's third volume, he describes his work as blurring
27132-450: The narrative as "colorful, provocative, completely absorbing"; he compared it to Thomas Mann 's Joseph and His Brothers , writing: "Again, Mann's great work is a study of ideas and of personality. The Egypt emergent from his formidable style is shown within a limited social range and is detailed only in isolated scenes. If there are deeps of the personality that Mann plumbs further, Waltari makes an exciting, vivid, and minute re-creation of
27336-556: The necropolis. While the iconic pyramid complex of the Giza Plateau have come to symbolize ancient Egypt , the majority of tombs were cut into rock. Most pyramids and mastabas contain sections which were cut into ground level, and there are full rock-cut tombs in Egypt that date back to the Old Kingdom. After the defeat of the Hyksos and the reunification of Egypt under Ahmose I ,
27540-472: The new regime led by his old friend Horemheb, and as a punishment for this he is exiled to the Red Sea coast. Although Waltari employed some poetic license in combining the biographies of Sinuhe and Akhenaten, he was otherwise much concerned about the historical accuracy of his detailed description of ancient Egyptian life and carried out considerable research into the subject. Waltari's fascination of ancient Egypt
27744-665: The novel was no mere colourful retelling of history, but was relevant to the current attitude shaped by the events of recent years. More reviews followed in January, and a common element among the more negative or lukewarm reviews was the scolding of Waltari's previous work, but many saw it as a turning point for his career. The sexual depictions drew ire. Eino Sormunen of Savon Sanomat recommended discretion due to plenitudes of horrifying decadence at display, and Vaasan Jaakkoo of Ilkka warned about it as unsuitable for children. Yrjö Tönkyrä of Kaiku wrote: "Not wanting to appear in any way as
27948-431: The novel's printing be stopped, even in vain offering to buy the whole edition when told the printing machines were already in full action. The first two editions were sold out by the end of the year, and it became one of the most discussed topics in societal and literary circles. The few reviews before the end of the year were positive: Huugo Jalkanen of Uusi Suomi and Lauri Viljanen of Helsingin Sanomat said that
28152-439: The novel) for input, and she had urged them to publish it. It was translated by Naomi Walford, not directly from Finnish but rather Swedish, and abridged even further at the behest of the aforementioned Swede, the same also hired to abridge it. About a third of the text was lost: aside from the excision of repetitions, the philosophical content suffered and key facts were omitted. Edmund Fuller of The Saturday Review described
28356-455: The novel, such as: everything is futile, the tomorrow is unknowable, no one can know why something has always been so, all people are fundamentally the same everywhere, the world year is changing, and death is better than life. Markku Envall describes the work as a criticism of utopism, the advocation of an ideology or idealism while ignorant of the world where it is supposed to be realized. Idealistic and materialistic worldviews are at clash in
28560-415: The novel, the former represented by the pacifist pharaoh Akhenaten and latter by the cold-bloodedly realist warlord Horemheb – idealism and realism are similarly represented also by Sinuhe and Kaptah, respectively. This tension is played out in a world concerned chiefly with worldly matters and rampant with prejudiced attitudes and lust for material possessions, wealth and power. Akhenaten is an illustration of
28764-551: The novel. Some have doubted the possibility of an ancient Egyptian person writing a text for oneself only, but in 1978 such a papyrus became public; its author, a victim of wrongdoing, tells his life story in it with no recipient. According to Jussi Aro, the real Hittites were seemingly less cruel and stern than other peoples of the Middle East and the day of the false king was misdated among other errors, although Panu Rajala dismisses his claims as alternative readings of evidence rather than outright contradictions. Markku Envall argues that
28968-552: The novels The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) and Mason & Dixon (1997) respectively. A few writers create historical fiction without fictional characters. One example is the series Masters of Rome by Colleen McCullough . Historical prose fiction has a long tradition in world literature. Three of the Four Classics of Chinese novels were set in the distant past: Shi Nai'an 's 14th-century Water Margin concerns 12th-century outlaws; Luo Guanzhong 's 14th-century Romance of
29172-568: The overtones of Hitler . Waltari often said that the novel would have been a very different one had it not been for World War II. In April 1945 Waltari travelled to his mother-in-law's cottage in Hartola , where he began writing in the attic. The experiences of war and 20 years of research had pushed him into a state where the novel burst out of him: The novel was written within a three and a half-month period of great inspiration, with Waltari producing as many as between 15 and 27 sheets per day. So intense
29376-409: The palace and flees with the two to the neighboring country Mitanni. From there they proceed to Anatolia and to the fast-growing Hittite empire. Sinuhe and his companions feel unhappy about the militarism and tough rule of law that characterize the kingdom of the Hittites, and they decide to leave Anatolia and sail to Crete, Minea's homeland. Minea has grown up with the mission to sacrifice herself as
29580-410: The parents of Queen Tiy . Until the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, this was the best-preserved of the tombs that had been discovered in the Valley. The return of royal burials to Thebes after the end of the Amarna Period marks a change to the layout of royal burials, with the intermediate 'jogged axis' gradually giving way to the 'straight axis' of later dynasties. In the Western Valley, there
29784-440: The past". The Iliad has been described as historic fiction, since it treats historic events, although its genre is generally considered epic poetry . Pierre Vidal-Naquet has suggested that Plato laid the foundations for the historical novel through the myth of Atlantis contained in his dialogues Timaeus and Critias . The Tale of Genji (written before 1021) is a fictionalized account of Japanese court life about
29988-460: The past, like those of Jane Austen (1775–1817), as if they were historical novels. Historical fiction sometimes encouraged movements of romantic nationalism . Walter Scott's Waverley novels created interest in Scottish history and still illuminate it. A series of novels by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski on the history of Poland popularized the country's history after it had lost its independence in
30192-545: The patriotic passion, and their novels, full of rhetoric and melodramatic excesses, are today barely readable as historical documents. A significant exception is The Confessions of an Italian by Ippolito Nievo , an epic about the Venetian republic 's fall and the Napoleonic age , told with satiric irony and youthful brio (Nievo wrote it when he was 26 years old). In Arabic literature, the Lebanese writer Jurji Zaydan (1861–1914)
30396-407: The period's funerary practices and afterlife beliefs . Almost all of the tombs seem to have been opened and robbed in antiquity, but they still give an idea of the opulence and power of Egypt's pharaohs. This area has been a focus for Egyptologists and archaeological exploration since the end of the 18th century, and its tombs and burials continue to stimulate research and interest. The Valley of
30600-475: The plateau by steady rains. There is now little year-round rain in this part of Egypt, but there are occasional flash floods . These floods dump tons of debris into the open tombs. The quality of the rock in the Valley is inconsistent, ranging from finely grained to coarse stone, the latter with the potential to be structurally unsound. The occasional layer of shale also caused construction (and in modern times, conservation) difficulties, as this rock expands in
30804-488: The presence of water, forcing apart the stone surrounding it. It is thought that some tombs were altered in shape and size depending on the types of rock the builders encountered. Builders took advantage of available geological features when constructing the tombs. Some tombs were quarried out of existing limestone clefts, others behind slopes of scree , and some were at the edge of rock spurs created by ancient flood channels. The problems of tomb construction can be seen with
31008-616: The publication of the 2nd edition in 1903, Buddenbrooks became a major literary success. The work led to a Nobel Prize in Literature for Mann in 1929; although the Nobel award generally recognizes an author's body of work, the Swedish Academy's citation for Mann identified "his great novel Buddenbrooks " as the principal reason for his prize. Mann also wrote, between 1926 and 1943, a four-part novel Joseph and His Brothers . In it Mann retells
31212-541: The quality of the rock being excavated (following the Esna shale). Between 1998 and 2002, the Amarna Royal Tombs Project investigated the valley floor using ground-penetrating radar and found that, below the modern surface, the Valley's cliffs descend beneath the scree in a series of abrupt, natural "shelves", arranged one below the other, descending several metres to the bedrock in the valley floor. The area of
31416-639: The rebellion of the Welsh Prince Owain Glyndŵr (AD 1400–16), while Porius takes place during the Dark Ages, in AD 499, just before the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain. Powys suggests parallels with these historical periods and Britain in the late 1930s and during World War II . Other significant British novelists include Georgette Heyer , Naomi Mitchison and Mary Renault . Heyer essentially established
31620-455: The reign of Amenhotep I) and ending with Ramesses X or XI , although non-royal burials continued in usurped tombs. Despite its name, the Valley of the Kings also contains the tombs of favorite nobles as well as the wives and children of both nobles and pharaohs. Therefore, only about twenty of the tombs actually contain the remains of kings. The remains of nobles and of the royal family, together with unmarked pits and embalming caches, make up
31824-454: The rest. Around the time of Ramesses I (ca. 1301 BC) construction commenced in the separate Valley of the Queens . The official name for the site in ancient times was The Great and Majestic Necropolis of the Millions of Years of the Pharaoh, Life, Strength, Health in The West of Thebes (see below for the hieroglyphic spelling), or Ta-sekhet-ma'at (the Great Field). At the start of the Eighteenth Dynasty , only kings were buried within
32028-425: The romantic-historical novel. Victor Hugo began writing The Hunchback of Notre-Dame in 1829, largely to make his contemporaries more aware of the value of the Gothic architecture , which was neglected and often destroyed to be replaced by new buildings, or defaced by replacement of parts of buildings in a newer style. The action takes place in 1482 and the title refers to the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, on which
32232-435: The same time, it also carries a pessimistic message of the essential sameness of flawed human nature throughout the ages. The protagonist of the novel is the fictional character Sinuhe, the royal physician, who tells the story in exile after Akhenaten's fall and death. Apart from incidents in Egypt, the novel charts Sinuhe's travels in then Egyptian-dominated Syria ( Levant ), in Mitanni , Babylon , Minoan Crete , and among
32436-418: The side of the Amon priesthood is victorious. During the chaos, Merit and her son Thot are killed – the latter would turn out to be Sinuhe's offspring. When defeat has become reality, Akhenaten dies after having drunk a cup of poison mixed by the embittered Sinuhe. Queen Nefertite's father, Ay, takes the throne, after the boy king Tutankhamun 's short reign, despite Sinuhe having realised from Tiy that he himself
32640-432: The sieges of Cawnpore and Lucknow , the book details the siege of a fictional Indian town, Krishnapur, during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 from the perspective of the town's British residents . The main characters find themselves subject to the increasing strictures and deprivation of the siege, and the absurdity of maintaining the British class system in a town no one can leave becomes a source of comic invention, though
32844-420: The smaller size and unusual layout for a royal tomb. The other Amarna Period tombs are located in a smaller, central area in the centre of the East Valley, with a possible mummy cache ( KV55 ) that may contain the burials of several Amarna Period royals – Tiy and Smenkhkare or Akhenaten . In close proximity is the burial of Tutankhamun, perhaps the most famous discovery of modern Western archaeology . It
33048-407: The society of Thebes and of Egypt and the related world in general, ranging from Pharaoh and his neighbor kings to the outcast corpse-washers in the House of the Dead. We see, feel, smell, and taste Waltari's Egypt. He writes in a pungent, easy style and it is obvious that he has been wonderfully served by his translator, Naomi Walford." Gladys Schmitt , writing for The New York Times , commented on
33252-430: The start of the 20th century, American explorer Theodore M. Davis held the excavation permit for the valley. His team (led mostly by Edward R. Ayrton ) discovered several royal and non-royal tombs (including KV43 , KV46 and KV57 ). In 1907, they discovered the possible Amarna Period cache in KV55. After finding what they thought was all that remained of the burial of Tutankhamun (items recovered from KV54 and KV58), it
33456-629: The story is centered. Alexandre Dumas also wrote several popular historical fiction novels, including The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers . George Saintsbury stated: " Monte Cristo is said to have been at its first appearance, and for some time subsequently, the most popular book in Europe." This popularity has extended into modern times as well. The book was "translated into virtually all modern languages and has never been out of print in most of them. There have been at least twenty-nine motion pictures based on it ... as well as several television series, and many movies [have] worked
33660-534: The story itself is fiction, many of the persona and events are not. The book is based on research by Monaldi and Sorti, who researched information from 17th-century manuscripts and published works concerning the siege of Vienna , the plague and papacy of Pope Innocent XI . The genre of the historical novel has also permitted some authors, such as the Polish novelist Bolesław Prus in his sole historical novel, Pharaoh , to distance themselves from their own time and place to gain perspective on society and on
33864-409: The story. The result has been praised not only by readers but also by Egyptologists . Waltari had long been interested in Akhenaten and wrote a play about him, Akhnaton, auringosta syntynyt ( Akhnaton, Born of the Sun ), which was published in 1936. In it, Waltari explored the disastrous consequences of Akhenaten's well-intentioned implementation of unconditional idealism in a society, and referenced
34068-617: The strength of it. The Finnish writer Mika Waltari is known for the historical novel The Egyptian (1945). Faroes–Danish writer William Heinesen wrote several historical novels, most notably Det gode håb (1964, "Fair Hope") set in the Faroe Islands in 17th century. Historical fiction has long been a popular genre in Sweden, especially since the 1960s a huge number of historical novels has been written. Nobel laureates Eyvind Johnson and Pär Lagerkvist wrote acclaimed historical novels such as Return to Ithaca (1946) and Barabbas (1950). Vilhelm Moberg 's Ride This Night (1941)
34272-438: The subgenred films based on the Arthurian legend such as Pendragon: Sword of His Father (2008) and King Arthur (2004). Valley of the Kings The Valley of the Kings , also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings , is an area in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the Eighteenth Dynasty to the Twentieth Dynasty , rock-cut tombs were excavated for pharaohs and powerful nobles under
34476-462: The subtitles ("The Threat" and "The Violence") by 1987 by the director Lyudmil Staykov. In June 2015, " Time of Violence " was chosen as the most beloved film of Bulgarian viewers in "Laced Shoes of Bulgarian Cinema", a large-scale consultation with the audience of Bulgarian National Television . One of the best known Scandinavian historical novels is Sigrid Undset 's Kristin Lavransdatter (1920–1922) set in medieval Norway. For this trilogy Undset
34680-411: The sun god passing through the twelve gates that divide the nighttime and ensures the tomb owner's own safe passage through the night. These earliest tombs were generally sparsely decorated, and those of a non-royal nature were totally undecorated. Late in the Nineteenth Dynasty the Book of Caverns , which divided the underworld into massive caverns containing deities as well as the deceased waiting for
34884-441: The sun to pass through and restore them to life, was placed in the upper parts of tombs. A complete version appears in the tomb of Ramesses VI. The burial of Ramesses III saw the Book of the Earth , where the underworld is divided into four sections, climaxing in the sun disc being pulled from the earth by Naunet . The ceilings of the burial chambers were decorated (from the burial of Seti I onwards) with what became formalised as
35088-535: The temple at Karnak in order to visit the funerary temples of deceased kings on the West Bank and their shrines in the Theban Necropolis . The tombs were constructed and decorated by the workers of the village of Deir el-Medina , located in a small wadi between this valley and the Valley of the Queens , facing Thebes . The workers journeyed to the tombs through various routes over the Theban hills. The daily lives of these workers are quite well known due to their being recorded in tombs and official documents. Amongst
35292-425: The tensions at the borders of the Egyptian empire which resemble those on the Soviet-Finnish frontier. Waltari would later revisit these themes, which only had a minor role in the play, in greater depth in The Egyptian . The character of Sinuhe makes no appearance in this play. With the advent of World War II , Waltari's idealism crumbled and was replaced with cynicism; this was in no small part due to him serving as
35496-560: The text is serious in intent and tone. In Welsh literature, the major contributor to the genre in Welsh is William Owen Roberts (b. 1960). His historical novels include Y Pla (1987), set at the time of the Black Death; Paradwys (2001), 18th century, concerning the slave trade; and Petrograd (2008) and Paris (2013), concerning the Russian revolution and its aftermath. Y Pla has been much translated, appearing in English as Pestilence , and Petrograd and Paris have also appeared in English. A contemporary of Roberts' working in English
35700-419: The themes of changelessness, and is in an "effective" tension with the archaic-style language. "The narration estranges the phenomena by portraying them as simultaneously archaic and timeless, alien and familiar," he writes. As examples of these cultural parallels, Envall lists: the pseudo-intellectuals exalt themselves by flaunting their usage of foreign loanwords; the language of Babylon is the common language of
35904-481: The threat of Syrian and Hittite invasion; his attempts at redistributing property to the poor; and his worship of Aten at the exclusion of the old gods, among the clergy of the mighty state god Amon. Sinuhe is attracted to the teachings that the new king proclaims and, as he feels, focus on light, equality and justice, and joins Akhenaten's court. After a particularly violent public incident, Akhenaten, fed up with opposition, leaves Thebes with Sinuhe to middle Egypt where
36108-460: The tomb of Psammis, son of Necho ), is usually regarded as the finest tomb in the valley. It has extensive relief work and paintings. When it was rediscovered by Belzoni in 1817, he referred to it as "a fortunate day." The son of Seti, Ramesses II (Ramesses the Great), constructed a massive tomb, KV7 , but it is in a ruinous state. It is currently undergoing excavation and conservation by a Franco-Egyptian team led by Christian Leblanc . The tomb
36312-423: The tombs had been located and nothing of note remained to be found. Working at the same time was Bernardino Drovetti , the French Consul-General and a great rival of Belzoni and Salt. John Gardner Wilkinson , who lived in Egypt from 1821 to 1832, copied many of the inscriptions and artwork in the tombs that were open at the time. The decipherment of hieroglyphs , though still incomplete during Wilkinson's stay in
36516-417: The tombs of Ramesses III and his father Setnakhte . Setnakhte started to excavate KV11 but unintentionally broke into the tomb of Amenmesse , so construction was abandoned and he instead usurped the tomb of Twosret , KV14 . When looking for a tomb, Ramesses III extended the partly excavated tomb started by his father. The tomb of Ramesses II returned to an early style, with a bent axis, probably due to
36720-414: The tombs' axes straightened, the slopes also lessened. They almost disappeared in the late Twentieth Dynasty. Another feature that is common to most tombs is the "well", which may have originated as an actual barrier intended to stop flood waters from entering the lower parts of the tomb. It seems to have developed a "magical" purpose later as a symbolic shaft. In the later Twentieth Dynasty, the well itself
36924-436: The top of scree slopes, under storm-fed waterfalls ( KV34 and KV43 ). As these locations were filled, burials descended to the valley floor, gradually moving back up the slopes as the valley bottom filled with debris. This explains the location of the tombs KV62 and KV63 buried in the valley floor. The usual tomb plan consisted of a long inclined rock-cut corridor, descending through one or more halls (possibly mirroring
37128-406: The town was then anxious about the possibility of invasion by Napoleon. In the United States, the first historical novelist was Samuel Woodworth , who wrote The Champions of American Freedom in 1816. James Fenimore Cooper was better known for his historical novels and was influenced by Scott. His most famous novel is The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 (1826), the second book of
37332-415: The unparalleled two years – 550 000 copies were sold in that time. Marion Saunders, the agent who had arranged its US publication, remarked that she had never seen anything like it during her 15-year career. It remained the most sold foreign novel in the US before its place was taken over by The Name of the Rose , by Umberto Eco . Overall the reception was highly positive and some predicted Waltari as being
37536-523: The unresolved philosophical dilemma posed between Ekhnaton's generosity for bettering the world and Horemheb's pragmatic belligerence for stability, and praised the vibrancy and historical research evident in the characterisation of countries and social classes; however, she criticised social struggles surrounding Akhenaton as obscured, and found events oversensational and the characters composed of predictable types. Kirkus Reviews wrote: "He [Sinuhe] observes- and remembers- and in his old age writes it down, –
37740-405: The valley in large tombs. When a non-royal person was buried, it was in a small rock cut chamber, close to the tomb of their master. Amenhotep III 's tomb was constructed in the Western Valley, and while his son Akhenaten moved his tomb's construction to Amarna , it is thought that the unfinished WV25 may have originally been intended for him. With the return to religious orthodoxy at the end of
37944-407: The valley or whose tomb has not been located: Thutmose II may have been buried in Dra' Abu el-Naga' (although his mummy was in the Deir el-Bahari tomb cache ), Smenkhkare's burial has never been located, and Ramesses VIII seems to have been buried elsewhere. In the Pyramid Age , the pyramid tomb of a king was associated with a mortuary temple located close to the pyramid. Since the tombs of
38148-559: The valley, enabled him to assemble a chronology of New Kingdom rulers based on the inscriptions in the tombs. He also established the system of tomb numbering that has been in use, with additions, ever since. The second half of the century saw a more concerted effort to preserve, rather than simply gather, antiquities. Auguste Mariette 's Egyptian Antiquities Service started to explore the valley, first with Eugène Lefébure in 1883, then Jules Baillet and Georges Bénédite in early 1888, and finally Victor Loret in 1898 to 1899. Loret added
38352-413: The whole Theban Necropolis . Despite the exploration and investigation noted below, only eleven of the tombs have actually been completely recorded. Many of the tombs have graffiti written by those ancient tourists. Jules Baillet has located over 2,100 Greek and Latin instances of graffiti, along with a smaller number in Phoenician , Cypriot , Lycian , Coptic , and other languages. The majority of
38556-452: The world as he knew it. It's a rich book, a bawdy book, a book that carries one to distant shores and makes one feel an onlooker as was Sinuhe. The plot is tenuous, a slender thread never wholly resolved. But the book opens one's eyes to an ancient world, nearer to ours than we think." Soon after its release in the USA , it was selected book of the month in September 1949, and then entered the bestseller lists in October 1949, where it remained
38760-400: The worship of Akhenaten's Aten, and the books of the bible. Ecclesiastes was an influence, both stylistically and thematically. A device Waltari uses to emphasise a theme is the "chorus" – the reiteration of an idea. On the first page Sinuhe states: "Everything returns to what it was, and there is nothing new under the Sun, and man never changes". Shortly afterwards, the opposite of this idea
38964-411: Was a Bulgarian author who is considered by many to have been the best-selling Bulgarian historical fiction author ever. Her books sold in record numbers in the 1930s and the early 1940s. However, she was eventually sentenced to seven years of imprisonment by the Bulgarian communist regime because of some of her writings celebrating Hitler , and though released after only eleven months for health reasons,
39168-400: Was announced that the valley was completely explored and that no further burials were to be found. Davis's 1912 publication, The Tombs of Harmhabi and Touatânkhamanou closes with the comment, "I fear that the Valley of Kings is now exhausted." After Davis's death early in 1915, Lord Carnarvon acquired the concession to excavate the valley, and he employed Howard Carter to explore it. After
39372-541: Was as background detail to set the period, and did not usually play a key role in the narrative. Heyer's characters often contained more modern-day sensibilities, and more conventional characters in the novels would point out the heroine's eccentricities, such as wanting to marry for love. Some historical novels explore life at sea, including C. S. Forester 's Hornblower series , Patrick O'Brian 's Aubrey–Maturin series , Alexander Kent 's The Bolitho novels , Dudley Pope 's Lord Ramage 's series, all of which all deal with
39576-430: Was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1928. Johannes V. Jensen 's trilogy Kongens fald (1900–1901, "The Fall of the King"), set in 16th century Denmark, has been called "the finest historical novel in Danish literature". The epic historical novel series Den lange rejse (1908–1921, "The Long Journey") is generally regarded as Jensen's masterpiece and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1944 partly on
39780-401: Was discovered by Howard Carter on 4 November 1922, with clearance and conservation work continuing until 1932. This was the first royal tomb to be discovered that was still largely intact, although tomb robbers had entered. Until the excavation of KV63 on 10 March 2005, it was considered the last major discovery in the valley. The opulence of his grave goods notwithstanding, Tutankhamun was
39984-416: Was first published in late November 1945. Initially knowledge of the novel spread through word of mouth in Finland; WSOY hadn't advertised it due to concerns over erotic content. It gained some early notoriety through an incident by historical novelist Maila Talvio : after hearing lewd sections read out beforehand in an autumn 1945 literature event, she took offense, marched into WSOY's office and demanded that
40188-474: Was forbidden to publish anything between 1943 and 1972. Stoyan Zagorchinov (1889–1969) also a Bulgarian writer, author of "Last Day, God's Day" trilogy and " Ivaylo ", continuing the tradition in the Bulgarian historical novel, led by Ivan Vazov . Yana Yazova (1912–1974) also has several novels that can be considered historical as " Alexander of Macedon ", her only novel on non-Bulgarian thematic, as well as her trilogy " Balkani ". Vera Mutafchieva (1929–2009)
40392-419: Was his state of inspiration and immersion that, in a fictionalised account called A Nail Merchant at Nightfall he would write later, he claimed to have been visited by visions of Egyptians and to have simply transcribed the story as dictated by Sinuhe himself. He repeated the same story four decades later in Kirjailijan muistelmia . This has caused some to speculate that Waltari in fact had been an Egyptian in
40596-402: Was inspired by Walter Scott's Ivanhoe but, compared to its model, shows some innovations (two members of the lower class as principal characters, the past described without romantic idealization, an explicitly Christian message), somehow forerunning the realistic novel of the following decades. Set in northern Italy in 1628, during the oppressive years under Spanish rule, it is sometimes seen as
40800-443: Was proved to be KV63. The Theban Hills are dominated by the peak of al-Qurn , known to the Ancient Egyptians as ta dehent , or "The Peak". It has a pyramid-shaped appearance, and it is probable that this echoed the pyramids of the Old Kingdom , more than a thousand years prior to the first royal burials carved here. Its isolated position also resulted in reduced access, and special tomb police (the Medjay ) were able to guard
41004-445: Was quite popular in 20th century Latin American literature , including works such as The Kingdom of This World (1949) by Alejo Carpentier , I, the Supreme (1974) by Augusto Roa Bastos , Terra Nostra (1975) by Carlos Fuentes , News from the Empire (1987) by Fernando del Paso , The Lightning of August (1964) by Jorge Ibargüengoitia , The War of the End of the World (1981) by Mario Vargas Llosa and The Autumn of
41208-429: Was sometimes not excavated (by the builders), but the well room was still present. The majority of the royal tombs were decorated with religious texts and images. The early tombs were decorated with scenes from Amduat ('That Which is in the Underworld'), which describes the journey of the sun god through the twelve hours of the night. From the time of Horemheb, tombs were decorated with the Book of Gates , which shows
41412-408: Was sparked as a 14-year-old by the 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun , which became widely publicised and a cultural phenomenon at the time. On his trips to foreign countries he would always first visit the local egyptological exhibitions and museums. Waltari didn't make notes, instead preferring to internalise all this vast knowledge; this allowed him to interweave his accumulated information smoothly into
41616-454: Was the most prolific novelist of this genre. He wrote 23 historical novels between 1889 and 1914. His novels played an important in shaping the collective consciousness of modern Arabs during the Nahda period and educated them about their history. The Fleeing Mamluk (1891), The Captive of the Mahdi Pretender (1892), and Virgin of Quraish (1899) are some of his nineteenth-century historical novels. A major 20th-century example of this genre
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