Historical Fiction
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
So there I was, on the train, after a day of work on my historical novel. I had the latest New Yorker on my lap, was reading back to front, as I do, was all caught up in the Updike critique of Andrew Sean Greer's new "The Story of a Marriage," when I came upon this quoted bit from none other than Henry James, who was writing (Updike tells us) to Sarah Orne Jewett:
"You may multiply the little facts that can be got from pictures & documents, relics & prints, as much as you like—the real thing is almost impossible to do, & in its essence the whole effect is nought.... You have to think with your modern apparatus a man, a woman,—or rather fifty—whose own thinking was intensely-otherwise conditioned, you have to simplify back by an amazing tour de force—& even then it's all humbug."
Humbug? I thought. Oh my. Please, after all this time and work, don't tell me that.
The key, I've always thought, to historical fiction, is to live it in your mind as if it is happening right now. To not let a single speck of dust layer down upon the story. To achieve the essential urgency.
2 comments:
I agree 100% Beth, you really do have to live the historical fiction you are writing, in your mind at least. You have to prepare yourself and "get in character"
I've just finished reading "El Tigre" by John Manhold, and to me it really feels like he was living in America in the late 19th century, during the Texas Revolution and such. The book tells the story of Johann Heinrich von Manfred from his youth as a student in a Prussian military academy through his many exciting and dangerous adventures leading up to his time in Texas and California. It's packed with action and all sorts of amazing historical references woven into the story so seamlessly you hardly even realise.
Peter,
I'm grateful for this comment, and for this recommendation. I have never liked the term "historical fiction" but I have been deeply impressed with what writers like Kate Greenville, Geraldine Brooks, E.L. Doctorow, Michael Ondaatje, and Colum McCann have been able to do with eras or places we can no longer actually touch or see.
It's a deeply difficult challenge. Some days I wonder if I am up to it. But always I want to know what happens next, and I push through.
Thank you for commenting,
Beth
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