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Humorous Historicals
Return to Fiction_L Booklists Menu
April 1999
Compiled by Karen Kleckner
of Deerfield (IL) Public Library, from contributions by the members of Fiction_L.
(To use this list in your library, book club, etc., please include the following credit line: "Compiled by the subscribers of the Fiction_L mailing list." This list may not be used for commercial purposes.)
A few notes:
Our library is defining "historical fiction" as books set in a time
other than that in which the author was writing, so titles like Three
Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome have been omitted from the list.
These suggestions range from laugh-out-loud funny, to mildly amusing.
From broad comedy to dark satire. Some of them I personally don't think
sound funny at all, but to each his own. As always, I would recommend
that you investigate any titles with which you are unfamiliar before
putting them on a bibliography for your library.
The Carl Wilcox Mystery Series by Harold Adams
Depression-era sign-painter in South Dakota-- First title "Murder" published in 1981.
The High Crusade by Poul Anderson
Aliens land during the crusades and fight knights.
In the Garden of Iden: A Novel of the Company by Kage Baker
Five-year-old Mendoza is saved from the Spanish Inquisition by the 24th-century "Company" and in return she must travel through time collecting rare plant species, beginning in 1553 in an English Lord's garden.
The Sot-weed Factor by John Barth
A picaresque, bawdy, and witty novel in which no sacred cows are spared. The setting is colonial America, particularly the Maryland/Virginia tidewater, and the main plot device has to do with the burgeoning of the tobacco trade, but this doesn't even begin to describe all the plot strands...
Little Big Man by Thomas Berger
From his room at the Marville Center for Senior Citizens, 111-year-old Jack Crabb dictates his version of life in the wild west.
The Road to Wellville by T. Coraghessan Boyle
Dr. Kellogg himself is among the cast of eccentric characters that meet at the Kellogg sanitarium in 1907.
Addie Pray, a novel by Joe David Brown
Addie and her father travel through the American south as grifters until they meet up with a man planning the ultimate con.
Two for Texas by James Lee Burke
Burke revisits the Texas Revolution of 1835.
Crazy in Alabama by Mark Childress
Coming of age in racially divided Alabama in 1965 a young boy learns some hilarious and heartbreaking lessons about growing up.
The Marcus Didius Falco Mystery Series by Lindsey Davis
P.I. in ancient Rome-- First title "Silver Pigs" published in 1989.
Deadwood by Pete Dexter
Wild Bill Hickok earns his name as he takes a wagonload of prostitutes through the boomtown of Deadwood.
The "My Friend" Series by Jane Duncan
1910-1960 Scotland
Flashman & The Angel of the Lord: From the Flashman Papers, 1858-59 by George MacDonald Fraser
Victorian rogue and soldier of misfortune, Captain Harry Flashman finds himself in the antebellum south aiding John Brown's rebellion. (Don't forget others in the Flashman series!)
Making History by Stephen Fry
An alternate history based on the premise --what would the world be like if Hitler had never been born?
The Cowboy and the Cossack by Clair Huffaker
A group of American cowboys and their Russian counterparts have to move a herd of cattle from here to there in Russia.
Fanny: Being the True History of the Adventures of Fanny Hackabout-Jones: a novel by Erica Jong
A female Tom Jones, Fanny battles witches, highwaymen, and pirates as she sets out to find her fortune.
The Toby Peters Series by Stuart Kaminsky
1940s Hollywood P.I.-- First title "Bullet for a Star" published in 1977.
Shield of Three Lions by Pamela Kaufman
A young girl of noble birth disguises herself as a boy to travel the Crusades route in search of Richard Lionheart, who is the only one who can restore her family home. Much of the humor comes from her efforts to dress, act, and look like a boy--as her body betrays her and matures.
His Master's Voice: a novel by Robert Kotlowitz
Trying to forget his Polish past, Sigmund Safer finds a brighter future for himself and his daughter as a Baltimore cantor.
Exile by William Kotzwinkle
An adventure of a celebrated movie star who turns a Jekyll and Hyde from the opulent glitz of Hollywood to a black marketeer hunted by the Gestapo.
The Magic Wagon by Joe R. Lansdale
In 1907, an orphaned Texas boy is taken in by a travelling medicine show featuring such attractions as a wrestling chimpanzee and a man who claims to be the natural son of Wild Bill Hickock. Has been described as "like Huckleberry Finn as rewritten by Ray Bradbury."
An End to Bugling by Edmund G. Love
The Tillman & Muldoon Mystery Series by William Leonard Marshall
1890s policemen in New York City-- New York Detective (1989) and Faces in the Crowd (1991)
Pacific by Charles E. Mercer
A group of servicemen make the best of things during their time in the Pacific from just before Pearl Harbor through the bombing of Hiroshima.
Falstaff: Being the Acta Domini Johannis Fastolfe, or Life and Valiant Deeds of Sir John... by Robert Nye
Shakespeare's comic icon dishes the dirt on the Battles of Shrewsbury and Agincourt, John of Gaunt and Henry V.
The Amelia Peabody Mystery Series by Elizabeth Peters
19th-century archaeologist and Egyptologist-- First title "Crocodile on the Sandbank" published in 1975.
True Grit by Charles Portis
Fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross teams up with U.S. marshal Rooster Cogburn and a Texas Ranger to get justice after her father is killed by a hired hand.
Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pynchon
Pynchon traces the mismatched partnership of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon as they map and measure pre-Revolutionary America, encountering Native Americans, warfare, settlers, taverns, and other surprises.
The Fenwick Travers Series by Raymond M. Saunders
Similar to the Flashman series
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
In 2057 Lady Schrapnell agrees to finance a time travel program if she can use it rebuild a Cathedral destroyed by the Nazis in 1940. While recovering church artifacts, time-lagged traveler Ned Henry is accidentally sent back to 1888, where he must prevent the future as he knows it from being destroyed.
The Green Leaves of Summer by Ted Willis
War widow Rosie Carr struggles to support herself 1918.
Romance Authors:
Jill Barnett
Loretta Chase
Marion Chesney
Georgette Heyer
Amanda Quick
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