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

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

I'd say a novel can be "historic" if its time setting is intrinsically vital to the plot. For instance, Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty is steeped in the 1980's and as such displays all the characteristics of an historic novel.

And "History"? Does that need to be something that happened long ago? Of course there needs to be enough temporal difference to allow reflection on the social and cultural setting, but I think that can be possible even if it's well within living memory.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I believe I'm changing my mind here. History is a particular form of discourse- a way of looking at things...