Excerpt from History in Fiction: A Guide to the Best Historical Romances, Sagas, Novels, and Tales It is hoped that the arrangement Of the books by the country and date of the subject, with the appendix at the foot Of the page giving contem porary or nearly contemporary stories when such are available, will prove of use to lecturers, teach ers and students, and also to the general reader who may perhaps be induced by reading a group Of novels about a period, a man, or an event, to take a more serious interest in history. Some Of the works included lie very near the borderland Of history and romance, if not right on the other side. Many of the Icelandic sagas, for instance, are substantially history, though cast by the drama tic instinct oi the chronicler in an artistic mould. Much the same must be said Of several of Defoe's narratives. But the principle Of inclusion has been simply this: when in doubt, it is better to leave in than turn out. The entries of books have been made approximately according to the chronological order of succession of the chief events or the periods dealt with but this arrange ment is Of course not more than approximate, exactness being practically unattainable. Every effort has been made to fix the dates Of the period with which each work is concerned; but, as can well be imagined, with such an irresponsible Class Of literature as historical romance, this has been a difficult and deceptive task, and it is as well to apologize for inevitable inaccuracies beforehand. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.