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| Battle of Borodino, by Louis-François Lejeune |
In the
previous post I mentioned War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy as a paradigmatic
example of a good historical novel. In my opinion, the three golden rules for
good historical novels are the following:
1.
The main characters are
fictitious: In the case of War and Peace those
characters are Pierre, Natasha, Prince André and their relatives, friends and
spouses.
2.
The real historical characters
are secondary: In War and Peace the historical characters are
Napoleon, Alexander I of Russia and General Kutuzov. These characters act in
the novel exactly as they did in reality. Regarding them, facts are not
invented, they are interpreted.
3.
The lives of both groups
of characters are intertwined perfectly.
