BRADSHAW'S `ISLAND OF GHOSTS' IS A HISTORICAL NOVEL OF RARE DEPTH.(Lifestyle)(Review)

From: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | Date: October 14, 1998 | Copyright information

For once a jacket blurb (Philadelphia Inquirer) gets it right: ``Those looking for a successor to Robert Graves would do well to consider Gillian Bradshaw.'' A classics scholar out of Cambridge University, she has written a highly regarded Arthurian trilogy and several other historical novels distinguished by their atmospheric accuracy, period characterizations and rousing plots.

The case against historical fiction is usually couched in terms of romance vs. reality. ``When I can read actual history,'' the realist might argue, ``why read about an imagined past?'' But the ...

Read all of this article with a FREE trial to HighBeam Research

Related newspaper, magazine, and trade journal articles from HighBeam Research

(Including press releases, facts, information, and biographies)

The historical novel in Ayi Kwei Armah and David Caute: African literature, socialist literature, and the bourgeois cultural tradition.(Postcolonial African Writers)
; ...influential The Historical Novel (first published...identifies the great historical novels of the nineteenth...discussion of the historical novel--and in his...best bourgeois historical novels, because they...centrality of the historical novel to both ...
New angels for storms of progress? Two historical novels of Australian feminism.
; The historical legacy and...see how the historical novel contributes...Australian feminist historical novel be written...renovates the historical novel, they offer...production of historical novels, which have...one of the historical dynamics that...While the ...
Changó, el gran putas: Contemporary Afro-Hispanic Historical Novel
; ...reality. As a writer of historical fiction, many of Manuel...could easily be considered historical novels that reflect upon one of...to analyze his works as historical novels or as new Latin American historical novels. Within the field of Afro-Hispan...text by means of making ...
History, Sex, and Physics - The historical novel can sharpen our vision of elusive aspects of existence, even if Volpi's exploration of Nazi- era physics does not quite succeed.(Book Review)
; ...Scribner, 2002 414 pp., $26.00 Historical novels sit uneasily on the fault...always find its way in. But historical fiction may be a special case. Just how are we to take historical novels? Are they a sugarcoated form...and uncompromising? Or is historical fiction more ...
Books: Literary sleuth in search of an impossible precision In her new book, A S Byatt sets out to defend the historical novel; her task would have been easier, thinks D J Taylor, if she had called in the services of Flashman; On Histories and Stories: essays by A S Byatt Chatto & Windus, pounds 16.99, 232pp
; THE HISTORICAL novel has come in for more than its...that while writers are writing historical novels, much of the discussion of why...are in fact some of the finest historical novels in the language, and of sufficient...
5 of the best; PHILIPPA GREGORY, 51, is the author of The Other Boleyn Girl. She tells DEANY JUDD about her favourite historical novels.
; ...Georgette Heyer Anyone who wants to know how to write a historical novel should read this. The descriptions of the Battle of...s not about the plantations and it's not about the historical-novel cliche of enslavement. Instead, it's an extremely moving...Possession by A.S. Byatt I adore this ...
The Problem with Historical Novels.
; ...figures more as scenery than as characters. And while the historical novel has had its fair share of serious practitioners, including...dishonesty at best; cheesy sensationalism at worst. Three new historical novels demonstrate both the colorful attractions and the almost...
Historical novel with a hint of innocence
; ...author of "Girl With a Pearl Earring" and three other historical novels, has combined her standard set of ingredients to make another...squalid city. But facts alone are not enough to make a historical novel compelling, and Chevalier does try to impose some thematic...
The Woman's Historical Novel: British Women Writers, 1900-2000.(Book review)
; The Woman's Historical Novel: British Women Writers, 1900...in her preface to The Woman's Historical Novel: British Women Writers, 1900...makes a persuasive case that the historical novel was (and remains) a highly significant...often employed to understand the historical ...
HISTORICAL NOVEL TURNS FIERY SOAP OPERA INTO AN UNEVEN, TEPID TALE
; A historical novel is a guilty pleasure with minimal guilt. Even if the story equals...entertainment, often offering a panorama of another time and place. Historical novels can focus on a single event, or build on generations to tell...