What are good novels with this premise? Don't care what time period. Just looking for some good shit that takes place at some point in human history but has fictional characters. Something that shows what that period was like and something I can learn from while being entertained. Here are some examples:
Shogun
King Rat
River God
A tale of two cities
Yoshikawa Eiji wrote some great historical fiction (that's the name of the genre I believe you're after)
Try "Musashi" if you want to read about a single guy's exploits, or "Taiko" if you want a more grander, political scale. Both are amazing.
For more Roman times, try "I, Claudius" or "Memoirs of Hadrian"
>>7692093
>>7692101
I Claudius
Master and Commander
Soldier of the Mist
Blood Meridian
War and Peace
A lot of shit by Faulkner
>>7692153
>>7692160
>>7692101
Will second Musashi. Fantastic book. Need to get a copy of Taiko.
>>7692086
Henry Adams' Democracy
Underworld - Dellilo
Tree of Smoke - Johnson
The Zone - Enard
Europe Central - Vollmann
I'm currently reading The Kindly Ones by Littell which seems like it would fit. I like these kind of books too. Is the modest mouse song named after the Clavell book?
>>7692086
Yasushi Inoue wrote lots of slightly fictionalized historical novels. He's not as popular in the English-speaking world as he should be, though. I think Kodansha published some.
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is something of an epic historical novel set in China about 1800 years ago.
Eiji Yoshikawa has already been named and I totally second that.
You have no excuse for not reading War and Peace.
>>7693365
It is. It's the kid all grown up.
Wolf Hall
Bring Up the Bodies
The War at the End of the World
Citizen Tom Paine
April Morning
>>7692235
>Underworld - Dellilo
This explores history in such a fascinating manner. Did you know that the last portion of that novel was written in the 70s. So as Delillo takes you on his thematic quest through America's detritus, he's also exploring how his own writing and perspective have shifted over the years.
>>7693485
>>7693510
Stephen King - 11/22/63
Simplicissimus, The German Adventurer
Ring of Fire series
>>7692086
>want to buy the entire Asian Saga
>Bantam Books released every one of them except Whirlwind
>now my Whirlwind copy will look different from the rest
Fuck
>>7693510
I had no idea. It's been a while since I've read it, I'll have to keep that in mind when I give it a re-read
