An Historical Novel
...national consciousness by familiarizing their readers with characters and events of the past” (Menton 18). In this case, historical novels are a way of creating a “mass experience.” They allow people to relate to the past and in doing so, help them to become aware of their current situation. As Menton explains, “we look to history now to provide clues for understanding, gauging, addressing the more absolute instability of our nuclear present” (Menton 32). The historical novel is an excellent example of the way in which the world finds it’s clues. Human experience is directly related to the plot within an historical novel. A novel usually tells of human experience. One of the primary concerns of an historical novel is to make events of the past a part of present human experience. An historical novel must draw its readers from the present and interest them in the past. The story, which is central to the historical novel, must be one which intrigues readers and tells them of an experience which might have happened rather than one that actually happened. In many cases, the historical novel accomplishes this by telling a fictional story in a factual setting. Menton theorizes that an historical novel “portrays or captures the social environment of its characters, even the most introspective ones” (Menton 15). Many historical novels use a fictitious human experience against an historical backdrop to attract readers who are not altogether concerned with or interested in history. The combination of those two elements is an important aspect of an historical novel. The next important part of any novel is it’s characters. The characters in an historical novel are especially key, because they are the mediums for human experience. Additionally, it is the characters that can change the classification of the novel from non-historical to historical. Take, for example, Sir Walter Scott– an author who Luk cs finds to be primarily an historical novel writer. Luk cs explains that “the ‘hero’ of a Scott novel is always a more or less mediocre, average English gentleman” (Luk cs 33). Luk cs claims that by using “an average Joe” as the primary character in an historical novel, the author allows the human experience which the plot centers around to be more accessible to readers. Having an average individual as the main character directly experiencing historical events assists in creating a “mass experience” for readers of the historical novel. In his description of Scott being an ideal historical novelist, Luk cs accentuates the difference between an historical novel and an epic through the differences in characters. He explains: The heroes of the epic are, as Hegel says, “total individuals who magnificently concentrate within themselves what is otherwise dispersed in the national character and in this they remain great, free and noble human characters”...The principal figures in Scott’s novels are also typical characters nationally, but in the sense of the decent and average rather than the eminent and all-embracing. The latter are the national heroes of a poetic view of life, the former of a prosaic one (Luk cs 36). This being said, it is important to emphasize that Scott’s characters emphasize a prosaic view of life; a novel in general is prosaic. Therefore, it is important that the heroes and characters in an historic novel display such a view of life. It is important to realize that real historical figures can occupy places within an historical novel. Recall that it is not necessary for such a novel to be entirely fictional; the historical backdrop might also include characters as well as events and locations. Luk cs stresses the importance of such historical characters when he declares that: in Scott’s life-work we meet with the most important personalities of English and even of French history...[and] all these figures appear in Scott in their real historical grandeur....[Yet] for him the great historical personality is the representative of an important and significant movement embracing large sections of the people...In Scott’s most important novels historically unknown, semi-historical or entirely non-historical persons play [the] leading role (Luk cs 38). A historical novel often contains prominent historical persons; however they cannot and should not be the primary character within the novel. Such characters are merely symbols of the historical situation. They are symbolic of the times in which the novel might be set; they are representations of a national event or a “mass experience” that the plot centers around. They are not the central plot; they are merely representations of the actual focus of the novel. The characters in an historical novel are very important and must be created with great care. These characters “are forced to be more rational than historical characters” because historical characters “have already lived” while non-historical characters “must be roused to life” (Luk cs 42). Non-historical characters in an historical novel must be defined and personalized before they can be effective in expressing human experience. They must not be romanticized or stylized. According to Luk cs, Scott does this successfully because “he portrays [his characters] as human beings with virtues and weaknesses, good and bad qualities” (Luk cs 45). They must be the type of characters that interest readers. The last aspect of an historical novel is the philosophical explanation for the events within the novel. This is based on the historical portion of the definition and it is not necessarily obvious to readers at first glance. This explanation occurs mainly on an individual, personal level. With the historical novel, the philosophy usually comes from the reader’s response to and interpretation of the plot. This happens as a result of the fictional ele...