Historical Novels

[poliphilo]

How long ago does a novel have to be set for it to qualify as an historical novel?

I reckon the events it deals with need to be outside living memory (at the time of writing).

Thus a contemporary novel set in the trenches of WWI would be an historical novel and one set on the beaches of Dunkirk wouldn't.

I'm reading Stevenson's Weir of Hermiston,  He was writing it in the 1890s and it's set around the time of Waterloo. That's a gap of about 80 years- which puts it on the cusp. Is it an historical novel ? I can't decide. 

Comments

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

In my humble opinion hsitorical novels are ones written before the 20th century or written now in the genre of an historical novel. So, for example, Virginia Woolf's "To The Lighthouse" is not histotrical whereas Peter Ackroyd's "Chatterton" is.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The question of genre is interesting. I think there are probably things that distinguish the genre that aren't just to do with when the book is set- but I don't know what they are. :)