Bernard Cornwell has some good historical fiction from a variety of time periods (a recent one from the American Revolution, one on Agincourt, and a whole series on England during the Great Heathen Army); Colleen McCullough did a classic series set in Ancient Rome; second the Aubrey-Maturin novels; and Conn Iggulden did a medieval-era series on Genghis Khan, although I absolutely despised his Rome books. Those are the Historical fictions on my shelf which I personally find fun -- none of them are anything close to perfect history, although each of these authors is very clear to lay out things that they had to fudge or make up entirely, which might be handy for the purposes of whatever you need to do with those books.

I have some Michael Curtis Ford books as well that I received as gifts. I hate them. I hate them so much. I read each one simply because of the value of knowing your enemy. Apologies to whoever got me those if you're reading this and know who you are.

• The Golden Mean, Annabel Lyon, B.C. Alexander the Great's early years as seen through the eyes of his tutor, Aristotle.

• I, Claudius, Robert Graves, B.C. The lives and intrigues of Rome's first five emperors, as seen through the eyes of the fifth. My personal favourite on the list.

• The Iron King, Maurice Druon, Medieval. A fictionalization of the War of the Roses, widely cited as the inspiration for A Song of Ice and Fire. Enormously readable and enjoyable.

• Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel, Medieval/Renaissance. On the rise of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII in the earlier half of the Renaissance.

• Generals Die in Bed, Charles Harrison, WWI. An Allied soldier's perspective on life in the trenches.

• All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque, WWI. A Central Powers soldier's perspective on life in the trenches.

• The Book Thief, Markus Zusak, WWII. Set in Germany c.1939. Minimal focus on the war so much as life in Germany with the Nazis at the height of their power and the war getting into full swing.

• Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut, WWII. An American POW has a life changing experience in Dresden shortly before its catastrophic firebombing. You may have to push for this one, as it has a few wild departures into sci-fi territory and only parts of the book take place in WWII, but since your course is also a lit course I think most teachers would probably allow it.

• The Reader, Bernhard Schlink, Post-war Europe. In the Germany of the 1950s, a young boy has a brief affair with a much older woman who suddenly disappears. He re-encounters her years later when she is being tried for her actions in WWII. This one is pretty adult at times, as a heads-up.

• Child 44, Tom Rob Smith, Soviet Union. A Soviet cop finds the Stalinist utopia he's always known unraveling around when he starts to investigate a string of murders happening in a country that's supposed to be free of crime.

I've read and loved all of these, so hopefully you can find a couple to read and love in here yourself. Happy hunting!

Edit: I forgot the crown jewel of historical fiction the Aubrey-Maturin epic by Patrick O'Brian, starting with Master and Commander, Industrial Revolution. These are some of the best historical novels ever written, IMO. The history is impeccable, and the fiction isn't half bad neither.

Well I don't know if it helps you in your assignment, but there is definitely an answer to your question. The Aubrey-Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian.

The series of twenty-and-a-half books is about the British navy during the Napoleonic Wars. Also, in my opinion, Dr. Stephen Maturin is the most interesting literary character of all time

hi! not at all discouraging anyone from weighing in on your categories, but thought you might be interested in suggestions that have come up on the past: a bunch of previous posts have been collected in this section of the FAQ

Historical Fiction

The Patrick O'Brian series is absolutely mindblowingly well written and drenched in historical fact. I've been slowly reading the series for years and still love every installment.

I've recommended these two a lot. They have the unusual combination of being meticulously researched, genuinely engrossing to read, thought-provoking, informative, and for lack of a better way to put it, just plain fun.

• Medieval: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. This is a murder mystery set in a Benedictine abbey during the 14th century. Everything in the book, even stuff that seems small, is wrapped up in the all-consuming politics of the age -- the question of Christ's poverty, the hatred between the Franciscans and John XXII, the Church's relationship with European monarchs, and whose interests the clergy were really serving. The murder mystery portion starts out looking fairly simple, but it gets scarier and scarier as it goes, creating events that the narrator is struggling to understand decades later. The Name of the Rose is one of those rare books that you can reread endlessly, finding something different in it each time.
• Victorian: This is a bit dodgy because we typically use the Victorian period to describe an era in British history, but oh well -- it's the same time period. If you're allowed to read stuff about the U.S. Civil War, The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara should be front and center, even thought it'll probably ruin you for all historical fiction that isn't Name of the Rose. It's the story of the battle of Gettysburg told from the perspective of officers on both sides of the conflict, and it shows you why really smart people sometimes find themselves making decisions that they know are wrong. It's also a window into the sort of mass psychosis seen on battlefields where everyone, even the most powerful general, is just a cog in a machine over which they have limited control at best. The book was so well-researched and written that it's had a huge impact on Civil War scholarship, and in particular scholarly evaluations of Robert E. Lee's health, James Longstreet's role in the Army of Northern Virginia, and what really turned the tide for the North. Killer Angels is perennially on the reading lists at West Point and other major U.S. military academies, and you'll see why less than a chapter into it.

Both books are available in inexpensive ebook formats, although I'm not sure why that option for The Name of the Rose isn't showing up on Amazon at present. Might be part of a publisher dispute.

The Flashman Papers.

A great insight into the period, but more importantly in a work of fiction intense fun to read!

Once accidentally bought a company exercise to a halt by giving one the books to the S2 who wasn't seen thereafter. Most people I know couldn't put them down when they first came across them.

I'm going to put in a plug for A Victor of Salamis by William Stearns Davis - out of copywrite and, I believe, available for free as an ebook. Davis was a history professor and A Victor... is just a wonderful, rich story.

Easily missed, well worth looking at.

Have to go with the Richard sharpe series. I really enjoyed them

C.S. Forester wrote a great series about Horatio Hornblower; a fictional character that works his way up in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic war. They are wonderful books and pretty quick reads (~300 pg). The first in the series is "Mr. Midshipman Hornblower" and can be read as a stand alone book but beckons a sequel.

For Middle East I suggest anything by Naguib Mahfouz, particularly "Middaq Alley" really captures the tension of British presence in Egypt before the coup of 1952.

For Medieval, I have a great affection for the Cadfael series by Ellis Peters - detective stories featuring a 12th Century former Crusader Welsh monk, of the Benedictine abbey at Shrewsbury in England. All set again the backdrop of The Anarchy.

Looking for something else on that period I found and greatly enjoyed Sharon Penman's "When Christ and His Saints Slept", which dramatises the whole period of the English civil/succession war between King Stephen and the Empress Maude. With further books in the series covering Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine and their sons.

Don't take it LOL