Fiction Friday: A Blast from the Past

Fiction Friday: A Blast from the Past

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DariuszSankowski

Part of my research process is to read books from the time period in which my story is set. My next project is a series of books set during the 1880s. Here are just a few of the publications from that decade: 

Ben Hur by Lew Wallace: Published in 1880, the story tells the adventures of Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish prince who is enslaved by the Romances at the beginning of the first century. A parallel narrative is the story of Jesus, who was from the same region and around the same age. The book became a bestseller and is considered one of the most influential Christian books of the nineteenth century. 

The Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: Published in 1883, this novel consists of a series of episodes, compiling traditional material into a narrative using invented “Old English” idiom. The book is credited with influencing later authors, artists, and filmmakers. 

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain: Published in 1889,

the book is about Yankee engineer Hank Morgan who receives a blow to the head and is somehow transported in time and space to England during the reign of King Arthur. Hank uses his knowledge to make people believe he’s a magician and tries to modernize the past. In the end, he is unable to prevent the death of Arthur. 

 

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson: Published in 1886, the book is about a London legal practitioner who investigates the strange occurrences between his old friend Dr. Henry Jekyll and the evil Edward Hyde. The impact of the novella is such that the phrase Jekyll and Hyde is known to refer to people with an unpredictably dual nature. 

 

The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling: Published in 1888, the story is narrated by a British Indian journalist, correspondent of The Northern Star, in nineteenth-century India (Kipling himself in all but name), and tells of the adventures of two British young men who become kings of Kafiristan, a remote part of Afghanistan.  

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle: Published in 1887, the detective novel marks the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The title comes from a speech given by Holmes during which he says, “There’s a scarlet thread of murder running through the colorless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.” The story and its characters attracted little public interest when it first appeared. 

 

Which of these classics have you read? 

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Legacy of Love (On tour and on sale!)

Will their love come at a cost? 

Escaping Boston to avoid a marriage of convenience aimed at garnering society’s respect for her family name in the shadow of her father’s war profiteering, Meg Underwood settles in Spruce Hill, Oregon. Despite leaving behind the comforts of wealth, she’s happy. Then the handsome Pinkerton agent, Reuben Jessop, arrives with news that she’s inherited her aunt’s significant estate, and she must return home to claim the bequest. Meg refuses to make the trip. Unwilling to fail at his mission, Reuben gives her until Christmas to prove why she should remain in Spruce Hill and give up the opportunity to become a woman of means. When he seems to want more than friendship, she wonders if her new-found wealth is the basis of his attraction.

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