[While I did teach a couple online courses during my Spring semester sabbatical, I didn’t have my usual slate of classes by any means. So in lieu of my usual Semester Reflections series, this week I’ll share a handful of texts I read over the last few months, leading up to a weekend post on what’s next!]
[NB. I haven’t actually read the books I’m writing about today—but my wife Vaughn Joy read and enjoyed ‘em all and talked with me about them extensively, so I think it counts!]
On a third category of historical fiction I’d add to my prior two, and what we might make of it.
In this long-ago blog post (and in many since where I’ve revisited and expanded upon the concepts), I argued that we can and need to differentiate two central subgenres of historical fiction: period fiction, which is set in the past but focuses on more universal human stories and themes (such as romantic relationships); and historical fiction, which is more fully interested not only in creating its historical settings, but also and especially in exploring questions of history as central themes. But as I chatted with Vaughn about Susan Elia MacNeal’s series of eleven novels about WWII-era Anglo-American spy Maggie Hope, which MacNeal published between Mr. Churchill’s Secretary (2012) and The Last Hope (2024), I realized that it might be helpful to add a third category into the mix: historical genre fiction, which works within other established genres like the spy novel but sets its stories in historical time periods.
There are a couple key takeaways from adding that third subgenre, each of which is exemplified by MacNeal’s enjoyable series. For one thing, there’s a real pleasure in seeing genre fiction tropes play out against distinct historical settings, and MacNeal’s an expert in moving each novel to a new such setting in order to see what that can produce in her storytelling. So, for example, in Mrs. Roosevelt’s Confidante (2015), Maggie finds herself back in the United States in early 1942, doing spy things like cracking secret codes and pursuing murderous villains in an effort to clear Eleanor Roosevelt’s name from various sinister accusations. That novel definitely could be defined as period fiction (ie.. Maggie’s romantic flirtations with the dashing journalist with whom she’s partnered in her investigations) or historical fiction (ie., the central role that Pearl Harbor and its aftermaths play in the novel’s events), but it seems clear that at the end of the day it is still first and foremost a spy novel, with the human and the historical layers in play inasmuch as they lend depth and stakes to the espionage story.
At the same time, I would add that the best historical genre fiction, like the best of those other two categories, can in any case push readers to learn and think about layers of the past beyond its main focal points. In Mrs. Roosevelt’s Confidante, for example, MacNeal introduces a subplot about the scheduled execution of a young Black man, and through him introduces a character who is clearly a fictionalized representation of the very real (and very amazing) Pauli Murray. The Murrayesque lawyer talks with Maggie about questions of law and justice that inform the novel’s central spy story and its contexts, so she’s still a character within the genre fiction for sure. But she’s also just a chance for MacNeal to ask her readers to learn more about a historical figure who was an important part of American in 1942 (and long before and after), one that at least many readers might be more likely to encounter in this enjoyable genre story than they would in a historical lesson or the like. One of many reasons to check out this series of historical genre fictions!
Special post on what’s next this weekend,
Ben
PS. What have you read recently?
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