The Oxford Book of Historical Stories - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192832085 ISBN 13: 9780192832085

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1995

Synopsis

Historical fiction has long produced many of our best-loved works, from War and Peace to Gone with the Wind, from A Tale of Two Cities to Lonesome Dove. The imaginative recreation of a period beyond living memory has a power to evoke the past better than any history textbook. Now, veteran anthologists Michael Cox and Jack Adrian have collected fifty years worth of historical short stories, offering entertainment and illumination for general readers and devoted fans.
The Oxford Book of Historical Fiction ranges far and wide, bringing together the work of a diverse array of writers. Here Aldous Huxley rubs shoulders with Arthur Conan Doyle, Rafael Sabatini with William Faulkner, and Elizabeth Gaskell with John Buchan. There are tales of adventure, studied chronicles of lives of the past, tightly plotted stories, and well-informed illustrations of the experience of life in ages long gone. The settings range from Alexander the Great's empire to the American South during the Civil War, from Napoleonic France to Cromwell's England. Emperors and kings, poets and soldiers walk these pages, in tales of intrigue, quest, mystery, and romance.
For serious short story readers or those with a taste for history, The Oxford Book of Historical Stories is a marvelous collection.

About this title

About the Author

About the Editors:
Michael Cox is the editor of such books as The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories and The Oxford Book of Victorian Detective Stories. Jack Adrian has compiled a number of anthologies, including Detective Stories from the Strand, Strange Tales from the Strand, and is the editor of two E.F. Benson volumes, Desirable Residences and Other Stories and Fine Feathers and Other Stories.

Review

'... an ideal Christmas gift! The editors have gathered a diverse collection of 36 stories, written over the past 150 years ... this book offers much more. It is designed for entertainment and for those with a taste for fiction set in the past. ... there is an excellent introduction to the
collection as a whole. The editors have done a magnificant job. It is a "literary feast".'
Peter Berresford Ellis. Hampstead and Highgate Express. Dec '94

'splendid book ... It is as impressive and prestigious a collection of period pieces as can ever have been assembled in 400-odd pages, and proves yet again, that when it comes to illuminating the past, few if any academic historians are in the same street as the historical fiction writer who
knows his business ... we can be grateful for the best 17.99 worth I have struck in a long time; as someone said, you couldn't write it for the price.'
George MacDonald Fraser, The Oldie, Dec '94

'The writing styles in this excellent collection of derring-do romances are as various as the settings ... running throughout this invigorating, absorbing and of course frequently hilarious collection is a common theme. All the stories are rooted firmly in the imagination and present a
complementary means of understanding the past.'
Richard Edmonds, Birmingham Post

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0192832085
• ISBN 13: 9780192832085
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 460
• Editor: Cox Michael, Adrian Jack