On Why We Write “ Historical Fiction ” … and Why I Do
by Brooks Hansen ’ 78
Most historical fiction isn ’ t really about history . It ’ s about the exact opposite , in fact . This has always been my official explanation for why , despite having spent the last three decades writing stories set so squarely in the past , I ’ ve never really considered myself an honest scholar of it . For the record , these stories have included one novel about Napoleon ’ s exile on St . Helena , another about the life John the Baptist , a few more set during the turn-of-the century – in South Africa , London , and Finland , respectively , and then again in my most recent book , The Unknown Woman of the Seine , which takes place during the last three days of the World ’ s Fair in Paris , 1889 .
And yet for all of the years of research that these efforts have entailed , all the library stacks and diaries and codices , correspondences and maps , all the trips and interviews and twisted , bottomless rabbit holes , I ’ ve never felt like much more than an amateur when it comes to history . Why would this be ? Well because , as I say , there is a dirty little secret hiding behind the whole idea of historical fiction , and that is that – at least from the perspective of the writer – setting your sites upon remote times and places is less about discovering other worlds , more about disciplining yourself . It ’ s kind of like traveling abroad in real life , or camping in the wilderness : the decision to deliberately install yourself in unfamiliar and maybe even inhospitable environments forces you to keep it simple . To rely upon essentials . And in the case of storytelling , those essentials have nothing to do with research or expertise . They have to do with what makes your characters tick – what they want , what they fear , what drives them to make the choices they do . These are what get you through the rough terrain . Not snuff boxes and wig powder .
To give an example : If you wanted to write a novel about Cain and Abel , say , set in the time of Cain and Abel , you would be wise to do some research on agrarian practices in the 4th millennium BC . And animal husbandry , for that matter . You ’ d pretty much have to . In the course of doing so , however , you would soon come to recognize just how vanishingly little you know , or can ever really know , about the lived experience of this time and place , and therefore just how vain it is – in every sense of the word – trying to capture that experience in contemporary and parochial language . No matter how descriptive you are , no matter how exhaustively you do your homework , each scene will be an exercise in smoke and mirrors . A deliberate deception . A narcissistic fantasy –
That is unless …
Summer 2022 • 37