Waverley

Capitolo 1 Lady Isadora, un'affascinante giovane aristocratica, passeggiava nel giardino di Kensington, circondata da aiuole fiorite e alberi secolari. Il sole del pomeriggio filtrava tra le foglie, creando un gioco di ombre sul sentiero. Isadora amava quel luogo; era il suo rifugio segreto, dove poteva sognare e riflettere lontano dagli sguardi curiosi della sua famiglia. Ma oggi, la sua mente era occupata da pensieri contrastanti. Da un lato c'era Lord Nicholas, un giovane affascinante con un sorriso disarmante e un'intelligenza acuta. Dall'altro, c'era Hastings, il potente duca di Waverley, noto per la sua determinazione e il suo carattere tenace. Entrambi erano su pretendenti, entrambi avevano catturato la sua attenzione. “Isadora!” chiamò una voce, interrompendo i suoi pensieri. Era Lady Margaret, la sua migliore amica, con un'espressione vivace sul volto. “Ho sentito voci di un ballo a palazzo la prossima settimana. Dovremmo andarci!” “Un ballo?” rispose Isadora, i suoi occhi brillavano di curiosità. “Senza dubbio, sarà l’occasione perfetta per incontrare Lord Nicholas e il duca.” Margaret, divisa tra l'eccitazione e la preoccupazione, smise di camminare. “Spero che tu non scelga Hastings. È affascinante, ma è anche molto ambizioso. Potrebbe non essere il partito giusto per te.” Isadora sorrise, ma il suo cuore batteva forte. “Nicholas è un gentiluomo, ma c’è qualcosa in Hastings che mi attrae; la sua forza, la sua presenza… è difficile da spiegare. Ma come posso scegliere, quando entrambi gli uomini sembrano interessati a me?” Lady Margaret, prendendo la mano di Isadora, lo fece con affetto. “Ricorda, cara amica, che non è solo il tuo cuore a dover decidere, ma anche la tua mente. Ascolta ciò che senti veramente.” Mentre le due ragazze si allontanavano verso casa, Isadora sentì un misto di emozione e incertezza. La danza tra il dovere e il desiderio era appena cominciata.*

historical novel, a novel that has as its setting a period of history and that attempts to convey the spirit, manners, and social conditions of a past age with realistic detail and fidelity (which is in some cases only apparent fidelity) to historical fact. The work may deal with actual historical personages, as does Robert Graves’s I, Claudius (1934), or it may contain a mixture of fictional and historical characters. It may focus on a single historic event, as does Franz Werfel’s Forty Days of Musa Dagh (1934), which dramatizes the defense of an Armenian stronghold. More often it attempts to portray a broader view of a past society in which great events are reflected by their impact on the private lives of fictional individuals. Since the appearance of the first historical novel, Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley (1814), this type of fiction has remained popular. Though some historical novels, such as Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace (1865–69), are of the highest artistic quality, many of them are written to mediocre standards. One type of historical novel is the purely escapist costume romance, which, making no pretense to historicity, uses a setting in the past to lend credence to improbable characters and adventures.

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.[15][16][17][18][19] Jane Porter's 1803 novel Thaddeus of Warsaw is one of the earliest examples of the historical novel in English and went through at least 84 editions.[20] including translation into French and German,[21][22][23] The first true historical novel in English was in fact Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent (1800).[24] 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 a contemporary narrative, but rather as a distinct social and cultural setting.[25] 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.[26] Ivanhoe (1820) gained credit for renewing interest in the Middle Ages. Many well-known writers from 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,[27] when the town was then anxious about the possibility of invasion by Napoleon.[28] In the United States, James Fenimore Cooper was a prominent author of historical novels who was influenced by Scott.[29] His most famous novel is The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 (1826), the second book of the Leatherstocking Tales pentalogy.[30] 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,[31] John Neal, wrote Rachel Dyer (1828), the first bound novel about the 17th-century Salem witch trials.[32] Rachel Dyer also influenced future American fiction set in this period, like The Scarlet Letter (1850) by Nathaniel Hawthorne[33] which is one of the most famous 19th-century American historical novels.[34] 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.[35] In 1829 Balzac published Les Chouans, a historical work in the manner of Sir Walter Scott.[36] This was subsequently incorporated into La Comédie Humaine. The bulk 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.

historical novel, a novel that has as its setting a period of history and that attempts to convey the spirit, manners, and social conditions of a past age with realistic detail and fidelity (which is in some cases only apparent fidelity) to historical fact. The work may deal with actual historical personages, as does Robert Graves’s I, Claudius (1934), or it may contain a mixture of fictional and historical characters. It may focus on a single historic event, as does Franz Werfel’s Forty Days of Musa Dagh (1934), which dramatizes the defense of an Armenian stronghold. More often it attempts to portray a broader view of a past society in which great events are reflected by their impact on the private lives of fictional individuals. Since the appearance of the first historical novel, Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley (1814), this type of fiction has remained popular. Though some historical novels, such as Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace (1865–69), are of the highest artistic quality, many of them are written to mediocre standards. One type of historical novel is the purely escapist costume romance, which, making no pretense to historicity, uses a setting in the past to lend credence to improbable characters and adventures. Key People: Winston Churchill Victor Hugo Xenophon Aleksandr Pushkin Sir Walter Scott Related Topics: genre The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Augustyn. Home Literature Novels & Short Stories Novelists A-K Thomas B. Costain American writer Alternate titles: Thomas Bertram Costain By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica • Edit History Thomas B. Costain, in full Thomas Bertram Costain, (born May 8, 1885, Brantford, Ontario, Canada—died October 8, 1965, New York, New York, U.S.), Canadian-born American historical novelist. Costain, Thomas B. Costain, Thomas B. See all media Born: May 8, 1885 Brantford Canada Died: October 8, 1965 (aged 80) New York City New York Notable Works: “For My Great Folly ” “The Black Rose ” “The Silver Chalice ” A journalist for many years on Canadian newspapers and a Saturday Evening Post editor (1920–34), Costain was 57 when he published his first romance, For My Great Folly (1942), dealing with the 17th-century rivalry between England and Spain. An immediate success, it was followed almost yearly by historical adventure tales, the best known of which are The Black Rose (1945), whose medieval English hero ranges as far as Kublai Khan’s China, and The Silver Chalice (1952), about the early Christians in Rome. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Hompepage blog 2009, arts and entertainment, history and society. BRITANNICA QUIZ Literary Favorites: Fact or Fiction? Love literature? This quiz sorts out the truth about beloved authors and stories, old and new. This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen. fashionable novel Home Literature Novels & Short Stories fashionable novel literary subgenre Alternate titles: “silver-fork” novel By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica • Edit History fashionable novel, early 19th-century subgenre of the comedy of manners portraying the English upper class, usually by members of that class. One author particularly known for his fashionable novels was Theodore Hook. Related Topics: novel comedy of manners