Tons of information for a researcher!
Is it legitimate to use historical novels as a research tool?
The infamous “They” once said, “if you want to learn what happened, read history books; if you want to know how people lived through it, read historical novels.”
Since even Google can’t tell me who “They” is, I’m going to add another caveat.
“If you’re looking for additional information for the historical novel you’re writing, read other historical novels.”
You have to be careful, of course; you don’t want to plagiarize or inadvertently take ideas from someone else’s work, much less adopt story ideas from them.
But you can gain insight and information from someone else’s work, particularly when you’re working in such a vast arena as World War I.
Amelia Peabody and me
When I began my project, I was surprised about how much I already knew–based on novels I’d already read.
Part of my story takes place in Egypt, for example, and who better to describe life in that country than Amelia Peabody, er, Elizabeth Peters in her novels about that intrepid archaeologist?
From the Peabody canon, I learned about the souks of Cairo, the name of the boats that sail the Nile to Luxor (feluccas), the horrors of a zeppelin raid.
She described the madhouse train station at Cairo and gave me a hint to the station’s name in Alexandria.
I’m not writing a novel about an archaeologist (though I was tempted to take a trip to Luxor), but her book Amelia Peabody’s Egypt: A Compendium, provided me with plenty of insight into the customs and locations of the country.
And of course, it was just fun to reread some of those novels. (The timeline for the books is listed by year here).
The Amelia Peabody books provided clues to facts. I then went hunting to verify.
Two novel series about World I were also helpful to set the mood and time for me. The mother-son duo writing under the name Charles Todd have produced a series of novels about Bess Crawford, a nurse during the war.
These are mysteries and Bess was stationed mostly at the Western Front, though she did a stint in Greece in one story.
I’m not writing about a nurse–many WWI stories have been written about nurses because it was the place most women were able to help (and thus write about with knowledge afterward).
From Bess I learned things about what women could do–Bess drives a car, for example. She also moves across the English Channel often–which surprised me and taught me the front was closer and more fluid than I imagined.
The Todd books also provided insight into clothing styles, issues in Britain with food, and the never ending rain and mud of northeastern France.
Nitty gritty from Anne Perry
Anne Perry’s five-book series about World War I also provided insight. I visited the Somme Valley to see the trenches and toured trench exhibits in Paris, London, Auckland and Indianapolis.
Even still, Perry’s description in We Shall Not Sleep of her hero soldier’s return to work shocked me:
“He could smell the front line long before they reached it. It was like nothing else he had ever known, thick and cloying. He gagged at the mixture of raw sewage and the sweet, stale odor of rotting flesh.”
It didn’t take long to confirm that in the historical record. Another novel reminded me authorities didn’t mind the rats that lived in the trenches because they . . . well, never mind.
I use historical novels to point me in the direction of further research.
As a researcher, I can’t trust everything a fellow historical novelist writes. Instead, once my story is firmly set in my mind, I use historical novels to expand my understanding of the setting, times and details.
I can also, however, recognize their errors . . . 🙂
Historical novels are a good resource, but there’s a caveat.
Writers will often put characters with a modern mindset into a historical context. The Viet Nam novels of the 70s show how little time really has to elapse before that becomes a problem; a novel set in the 60s, written from a 70s perspective, can unwittingly take for granted a change in social attitudes and mores that did not exist (at least to the same degree) ten years earlier.
Another example is Derek Robinson’s “Piece of Cake”, set during the Battle of Britain. It’s very entertaining, but his characters are not representative of the men who actually fought in the Battle (this, according to actual participants who read the book).
My feeling is that using historical novels for research has potential, but they must always be checked for ’emotional accuracy’ against memoirs of the time. Even these are not perfect, being an individual’s life seen through time’s filter, but they’re the best we have.
Until I finish the time machine I’m working on.
Excellent points, Andrew. There’s nothing more irritating that running into a feminist in the 15th century . . . .
Actually, there was a feminist in the 15th century, Christine de Pizan… 😉
Some authors are better than others at capturing the atmosphere of an age. Rosemary Sutcliff used techniques like archaic vocabulary and inverted word orders to make one feel they were in Roman or Dark Ages Britain. Mark Twain was surprisingly good at capturing the attitude of a former era in The Prince and the Pauper and Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc. Sir Walter Scott could capture historical Scotland in any era, but was shaky when he ventured into England. All three meticulously researched the time periods they wrote of – Scott added detailed footnotes to his work to show where he got his inspiration. I think the historical novelist is like an actor and the words he or she writes are an interpretation of the historical script. Some actors can convey a time period at will; others seem stuck in the 21st century no matter what era the production is set; still others can interpret some time periods but are lost in others.
I think there were feminists throughout the ages, just not as many as historical novels indicate. 🙂
Good point about Sir Walter Scott; my husband loves his work and crowed the day he got the complete set of Sir Walter Scott on Kindle for some minor price!
Thanks, too, for the reminder about language. It’s always a challenge to indicate a different time and place while telling a story people can understand. Twain’s dialect usage in Huckleberry Finn made it incomprehensible for our Brazilian foreign exchange student, and when I read it to help her (30 years after studying it), I had trouble myself!
Since I am writing a novel set in ancient Rome, historical novels are the only way to “visit” the people who once lived there. Novels help fill in the gaps left by photos and they often ask questions I hadn’t thought to wonder about.
Excellent point, Lisa!