Posts Tagged ‘robert graves’
Trends in historical fiction
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
The Tudors are very hot right now. So is Ancient Rome, and, with Ridley Scott’s latest historical epic blockbuster, Robin Hood, having just been released, we may see a corresponding resurgence of the popularity of the Angevins. I’m referring, of course, to historical fiction, and the trends that seem to sweep through the genre every ten years or so.
Certain historical periods seem to lend themselves to fictional reworkings better than others. The Tudor era is never out of fashion, and right now there’s something for every Elizabethan enthusiast, from Philippa Gregory’s bodice-ripping, soap operatic tales of Henry VIII, Anne and Mary Boleyn, Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots to Hilary Mantel’s Man Booker Prize-winning novel Wolf Hall, which tells the tale of Thomas Cromwell’s rise to power.
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