If you were to write historical-fiction

[Kyriakos]

If you were to write historical-fiction which era would you choose?

Sometimes i tried writing a piece about the Franco-Prussian war, and researched it to a degree. But it never got completed.

Also one short story i did complete was set in 19th century France, although the main character was a Greek immigrant. The narrator was French though, and the story was about a peculiar incident on a whaling ship.

ps: I know this is also about literature, but it focuses on history; it is a bit like asking which historical era is one's favourite, although the question is sufficiently different than that so as to warrant its own form

 

[NedimNapoleon]

1800's Bosnia managing to liberate its self from the Ottomans and making an independent country that lasts to today without any foreign conquests

 

[Verbose]

Oh, easy. For some reason there's currently bugger all in the form of popular historical novels around about the Swedish 17th c. great power era.

I once had a conversation with my boss about the lack of narratives with "the administrator as hero". Considering how the Swedish 17th c. great power operated, what made it work, it would be the perfect setting for stories about an "administrator as hero".

There's plenty of scope for tragi-comedy against a rather turbulent and colourful backdrop ranging from Imperial Germany, diplomacy in the salons of Paris - the deep vastes Russia - the Barbary States - the allied megalopolis of Istanbul (Swedish archibishops for a century tended to speak good Turkish, having held the position of legation priest in Istanbul as a career stepping stone) - humid West Africa (short lived Swedish slave trading post) - the savages of the New World (colony of New Sweden, i.e. modern Delaware, strategical alliance with the Minqas/Susquehanna, who fought the English, the Dutch and the Iroqois with Swedish bought guns).

I've got a collegue at work actually descended from two brothers high in the state in the 17th c., who told me a story of how these two on the Swedish crown's behalf ran a profitable scheme as middlemen in the grain trade from Archangelsk in Russia to the market in Antwerp, the Netherlands. Eventually the good burghers of Antwerp complained about the pair's business tactics to the Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna. It turned out their idea of how to close a deal was to sit the buyer down, and then put a loaded gun to his head to make him sign at the desired price. They had had their schooling on the battlefields in Germany, and were kind of new to the world of trade.

 

[holy king]

rome sells the best i guess. also, female main character.

 

[aelf]

Ming Dynasty and set in a treasure fleet, of course.

 

[Scirano]

I would say a rich egyptian pagan after the Arabian conquest ; female main caracter too.

 

[ParkCungHee]

Meiji Japan.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Ming Dynasty and set in a treasure fleet, of course.

Wrong thread, this one is about historical fiction.

 

[bombshoo]

I think China during the Warlords era or the Russian Civil War are great settings. There are so many crazy stories from these two periods that the stories almost write themselves for you.

 

[ParkCungHee]

Also you can't really claim anything is too over the top for the Russian Civil war.

 

[civ_king]

Wrong thread, this one is about historical fiction.

1400s as Zheng He colonizing the new world in flying turtle ships

 

[Tee Kay]

Ming Dynasty and set in a treasure fleet, of course.

Aw, shoot.

Umm... um... something else... alright, early 20th century New York, maybe. And I've always wanted to make a Cold War thriller.

 

[Lone Wolf]

*The British Empire, the Raj. Up yours, Kipling! Western-Indian cultural contacts, movements for independence, arrogant British and massive famines. What's not to like?

*Byzantium, under Komnenoi or early Palaiologoi. Or maybe Macedonian dynasty. Too much was written about Justinian and his era already.

 

[Leoreth]

The Congress of Vienna because it has so many great characters close to each other: Metternich, Castlereagh, Humboldt, Alexander I and of course Talleyrand.

 

[MikeL49NYVI]

I'd have to say the American Civil War. Lots of variations to explore, and with immigrants from just about everywhere, there is the potential for all kinds of interesting supporting characters.

 

[Quackers]

My historical fiction would be set in a Nazi dominated Europe in 1955 but ends up with Winston Churchill storming the Reichstag shouting: "HITLER, WHERE ARE YOUUUUU!!!" whilst wielding a Lanchester.

I'd pay to read that

Also one short story i did complete was set in 19th century France, although the main character was a Greek immigrant. The narrator was French though, and the story was about a peculiar incident on a whaling ship.

i wanna hear more about this

 

[Dachs]

I suppose it's incredibly trite of me, but I'd write something about the Hellenistic period if only because I know it so well; Hitoshi Iwaaki and Mary Renault are really the only people to do something with the Funeral Games, and I don't think there's any historical fiction about Baktria. Everybody zeroes in on the Ptolemaioi (but not the interesting Ptolemaioi like Physkon and Kleopatra Thea, of course) and/or Alexander himself. Cavafy is the only poet that I know has done anything with the period (I wonder why ).

 

[Kyriakos]

Not many people know of those Ptolemaioi, and Cavafy lived in Alexandria, furthermore he had very clearly tried to symbolize his own life through his ancient Greek-themed poems. Also, in my view, very few authors of the 20th century are of the same high level as Cavafy

 

[Dachs]

Yeah, the "I wonder why" was me being silly, not an actual question.

 

[Kyriakos]

Yes, but others might still be interested in knowing why