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

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

From my experience (right up to my neck in it) I would say the historical-ness of a novel is proportional to the amount of times you have to Stop What You're Doing In the Middle Of Your Narrative and Hit Google...

...in my case, "very often".

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've toyed with historical fiction- and, yes, one of the joys of writing it is doing the research and sharing the results with one's readers.

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

It's a bit irritating when you're on a roll though and then realise you have to check if ping-pong balls were around in 1914...and end up deleting that whole section anyway afterwards :)