The Island of Sea Women

March

Geraldine Brooks2005

The father from Little Women serves as a chaplain in the American Civil War. The story follows his idealism as it is tested by the reality of combat.

Same elegiac register, still historical fiction

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The Wake

Paul Kingsnorth2014

A landowner in 1066 leads a guerrilla resistance against Norman invaders. The story is written in a modified version of Old English.

elegiac → bleak, still historical fiction

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

Gravity's Rainbow

Thomas Pynchon1973

During the end of WWII, an American lieutenant's sexual encounters seem to predict where German V-2 rockets will fall. The narrative is fragmented.

elegiac → sardonic, still historical fiction

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Ulysses

James Joyce1914

Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.

elegiac → playful

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Wild Iris Ridge

RaeAnne Thayne2014

Lucy Drake returns to her small hometown to renovate an inheritance and encounters the widowed husband of her late best friend.

pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

City of Girls

Elizabeth Gilbert2019

A nineteen-year-old dropout becomes a seamstress at her aunt's Manhattan theater in 1940. She navigates the city's nightlife and wartime culture.

elegiac → warm, still historical fiction

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

The Jane Austen Society

Natalie Jenner2020

In post-WWII England, a group of villagers tries to save Jane Austen's former home. They bond over their shared grief and love for her novels.

elegiac → warm, still historical fiction

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Candide

Voltaire

A naive young man travels the world while his tutor insists that everything is for the best. He encounters a series of global catastrophes.

elegiac → sardonic

pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown2003

A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.

elegiac → propulsive

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

The Martian

Andy Weir2011

A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

elegiac → wry

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The English Patient

Michael Ondaatje1992

Four people shelter in a ruined Italian villa at the end of WWII. They care for a burned, anonymous man who recounts his past in the desert.

pace-1·prose0·bleak0

Ulysses

James Joyce1914

Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.

elegiac → playful

pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

Umbrella

Will Self2013

A psychiatrist in 1971 treats a woman who has been catatonic for decades. The prose shifts between eras and consciousnesses without paragraph breaks.

elegiac → clinical

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The Known World

Edward P. Jones2003

A black man who was once a slave becomes a slave owner in antebellum Virginia. The story follows the fallout on the plantation after his death.

elegiac → meditative, still historical fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak+1

A Long Long Way

Sebastian Barry2005

A young Irishman joins the British Army to fight in the trenches of World War I while his home country moves toward rebellion.

Same elegiac register, still historical fiction

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Brotherless Night

V. V. Ganeshananthan2023

A young woman in Sri Lanka tries to study medicine while her brothers join militant groups during the civil war. It covers a decade of conflict.

Same elegiac register, still historical fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak+1