Best of
Historical-Fiction

1948

The Young Lions


Irwin Shaw - 1948
    Told from the points of view of a perceptive young Nazi, a jaded American film producer, and a shy Jewish boy just married to the love of his life, Shaw conveys, as no other novelist has since, the scope, confusion, and complexity of war.

The Chestry Oak


Kate Seredy - 1948
    Young Michael of Hungary carries an acorn all the way from his castle home in Chestry Valley to the warm soil of the Hudson Valley farm in the USA where he makes a new home after WWII.It was difficult to decide which are the most unforgettable; the scenes in Hungary, Michael's proud, valiant father and his beloved Nana, or the friendly young GI and his family who take Michael to their hearts and make him their own.Perhaps the most compelling character of all is Midnight, the dancing black stallion, full of fire and beauty, and trained to perform before princes.Kate Seredy's drawings make this a book to treasure.

The Adventurer


Mika Waltari - 1948
    Fictional tale of a young Finnish man, Mikael Karvajalka, set in 16th century medieval Europe.

The Big Fisherman


Lloyd C. Douglas - 1948
    Sheltering the King's well-guarded domain, a mile above and a dozen miles east of the Dead Sea, motionless masses of neighbourly white clouds hung suspended from a remote blue ceiling. There had been an unusually heavy snowfall in the winter, not only upon the King's land but throughout the country. It was going to be a prosperous season for everybody. Intertribal jangling and discontent would be reduced to a minimum.

My Glorious Brothers


Howard Fast - 1948
    Simon, the oldest of five brothers, chronicles the transformation from farmers to soldiers of the five Maccabee brothers and of their struggle for freedom against the Syrian-Greek conquerers of Judea, in a historical novel that recreates the events celebrated by Jews during the holiday of Hanukkah.

Peony


Pearl S. Buck - 1948
    The novel follows Peony, a Chinese bondmaid of the prominent Jewish family of Ezra ben Israel's, and shows through her eyes how the Jewish community was regarded in Kaifeng at a time when most of the Jews had come to think of themselves as Chinese.

Nettie's Trip South


Ann Turner - 1948
    She remembers the sweet cedar smell in the air and the sun pressing on her head. But she also remembers Tabitha, the slave at the hotel who doesn’t have a last name, and she remembers the heaps of rags the slaves use for beds. Most of all, though, she remembers the slave auction where people were bought and sold like sacks of flour. Nettie can't forget these images, and she can't help but wonder what life would be like if she were a slave.

The Ides of March


Thornton Wilder - 1948
    Through imaginary letters and documents, Wilder brings to life a dramatic period of world history and one of its magnetic personalities.In this novel, the Caesar of history becomes Caesar the human being as he appeared to his family, his legions, his Rome, and his empire in the months just before his death. In Wilder’s inventive narrative, all Rome comes crowding through his pages. Romans of the slums, of the villas, of the palaces, brawling youths and noble ladies and prostitutes, and the spies and assassins stalking Caesar in his Rome.

The Hearth and Eagle


Anya Seton - 1948
    In one of her most ambitious novels, Anya Seton here created one of her most memorable heroines, and one of her most varied tales.

Judith of France


Margaret Leighton - 1948
    The story of Princess Judith, granddaughter of Charlemagne, who is honor bound to marry an aging British king (father of Alfred the Great) when her first love is the handsome warrior, Bras-de-Fer.

The Burnished Blade


Lawrence Schoonover - 1948
    Among the onlookers at that terrible spectacle was Pierre, a frightened boy whom Hugh, the armourer, had rescued that morning on the road outside Rouen. Under Hugh's tutelage, Pierre learns the closely guarded secrets of the armourer's trade. But he is destined not to use them...

The Golden Warrior


Hope Muntz - 1948
    Who was to succeed King Edward? From the welter of political cross-currents, rivalries, violence and intrigue set up by this question, the two dominating figures of the novel emerge - Earl Harold and Duke William of Normandy. The issue was decided at the Battle of Hastings. With her stirring account of the battle and of the invasion threat which preceded it,

River of the Wolves


Stephen W. Meader - 1948
    

Roanoke Hundred


Inglis Fletcher - 1948
    Much of the action takes place in England before the expedition sails and after the explorers return. The reader gets a good sense of Elizabethan politics and the excitement that exploration held for well-born adventurers. Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, John White, Richard Hakluyt, and Thomas Hariot all have roles in the novel. The lowly-born Colin provides additional human interest, as he becomes a trusted aide to Grenville and a suitor to one of Grenville’s wards.

Bride of Fortune: A Novel Based on the Life of Mrs. Jefferson Davis


Harnett T. Kane - 1948
    She knew giddy triumph -- the tinseled success of a great beauty, a triumphant woman of the world of Washington, D.C. She knew sudden ups and downs -- defeat, sorrow, loss, and retirement to her river plantation.Then, again, came a swift rise to rank higher than before -- that of a Cabinet wife, with the country's decisions being made all around her, and a part for her in the making. For a time it seemed that the White House of Washington would be her eventual home. Again, a step downward, and then up again, to the rank of the Confederacy's Lustrous Lady. Dazzling days again, and then trial and defeat -- the black hours of a fugitive, her husband facing death. In these hours she became a great personage, a human being fighting for survival: and she won.Above all, Bride of Fortune is the story of a woman in love -- a portrait of a passionate, warm-hearted woman who never faltered in her devotion. For Varina and Jefferson Davis it was one long love affair. Here is a picture of modern America in the making, of Washington and wartime Richmond from inside; and the story of the woman behind the man in the spotlight.No conventional crinolined miss, Varina was a firm-spirited, firm-minded woman who knew what she wanted her life to be and waded forth to make it that way. Some hated her; others loved her; nobody was ever neutral. And all about her moved the great of her day -- Presidents, grand dames, plantation owners, Cuban revolutionaries, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee.Here is a rich and moving story, a superbly readable one, a remarkable evocation of the native South. Harnett T. Kane, who has never written a book that wasn't a best seller, outdoes all his other successes, bringing to surging life the vivid-hued Richmond: gay-hearted Natchez on the river; lush New Orleans of the Creoles, and Washington, capital of the nation when its life was at stake.