'The Lost Constitution' by William Martin (2007)

As promised before I got sidetracked with text searches in Google Books, the subject this time is The Lost Constitution, another New England historical by William Martin. The title gives away one big difference between this book and Cape Cod. The focus of this story is a document rather than a place. That difference releases the action from restriction to a small geographical area. Martin takes advantage of that release to let his story roam all over New England. Another thing the title tells you is that the earliest historical period in this novel will be close to 1787, when the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia to produce a new form of government for the United States. In fact, the historical story begins in 1786 with Shays' Rebellion. Martin describes those events as illustrating the need for a stronger national government to replace the weak Articles of Confederation.

The fictional element of the story takes the form of a quest for a semi-legendary 'lost' copy of the first draft of the Constitution belonging to Massachussets Convention delegate Rufus King. This plot line is similar to one in Cape Cod, which included a lost ship's log purportedly written by the captain of the Mayflower. The action shifts back and forth from the present to a sequence of historical periods and places, as a modern antiquities dealer attempts to trace the movements of the missing document through the years and generations. A collection of shady and/or dangerous characters are also pursuing the document, for a variety of reasons. This plot line gives The Lost Constitution a historical-thriller feel, a la Da Vinci Code. OK, no spoilers; let's move on to the five criteria:

1. Did the novel inspire me to further historical research?

Yes. A large number of historical people are incorporated into the novel, from the aforementioned Daniel Shays and Rufus King to Harriet Beecher Stowe and Joshua Chamberlain. Interesting places too, such as Crawford Notch and Newport, R.I. during the Gilded Age. Plenty of inspiration here. Score = 4

2. Did the novel include enough history to make it an interesting historical story?

Yes. The historical story traces the political, social and economic evolution of New England, including longer-term trends such as the rise and fall of the textile industry. Score = 4

3. Was the depiction of historical events accurate?

As in Cape Cod, Martin seems to be very strong on historical accuracy. Score = 4

4. Was the depiction of historical characters accurate?

Again similar to Cape Cod, historical characters are either mentioned only in passing or given small supporting roles. The biographical information given about these characters is accurate; there's just not much of it. Score = 3

5. Would I read another novel by this author, continuing in this historical period, with these characters (or new ones)?

Definitely, although none of Martin's novels are written in series. I might give New England a break and read Citizen Washington next. Score = 4.

A tip for better Google Books text searches

I've been reading Champlain's Dream (not a novel, I know), by David Hackett Fischer, and was curious about a colorful character known as "Captain Provençal"; Champlain's swashbuckling uncle. I typed the name into the Google search box but was disappointed to get only two relevant hits. I looked again at the search box; oops, I had typed "captain provancal". Correcting my spelling yielded much better results. Even the misspelling, however, led me to Champlain's Dream in Google Books. I decided to do some search engine testing there, since I already knew that the Captain was mentioned many times.

In case you haven't used it, Google Books has a great search feature that will search within a book and show snippet views of passages containing your search terms. I was puzzled, though. A search usually highlights instances of the search words. My search showed only a page of the book, without any highlighted words. That was when I discovered my spelling error. Correcting the spelling improved my results in the regular Google Search, but still no highlights appeared in the Google Books text search results. Maybe capitalization is important? I tried searching on "Captain Provencal" - still no highlights. It was only when I replaced the regular "c" with the French "ç" that the search found and highlighted the name "Captain Provençal" inside Champlain's Dream. It seems that the search engine inside Google Books is much less "fuzzy" than regular Google Search. So, to find exactly what you're searching for, don't forget those diacritical marks.

'Cape Cod' (1991) by William Martin

Cape Cod is, on one level, a multi-generational study of the well-known historic place and several families that lived there, somewhat in the style of Michener or his younger admirer Edward Rutherfurd. On another level, it's a behind-the-history detective story, adding a present-day plot line featuring descendents of early families and a search for a legendary lost document. The mystery plot reminds me of Stone's Fall, by David Liss. Add the two together and you get a novel that's highly entertaining yet packed with historical detail.

The five criteria:

1. Did the novel inspire me to further historical research?

Most definitely. From cryptic clues to past visits by Vikings of Vinland and early European explorers (Hudson and/or Champlain?) to the native American tribes awaiting the arrival of the Pilgrims, to fishermen, privateers, smugglers, whalers, runaway slaves and reclusive writers; Cape Cod is full of potential side trips into historical study. Score = 4

2. Did the novel include enough history to make it an interesting historical story?

As noted above, the history content was high throughout the novel. Although there is some interesting historical speculation, I didn't find any distortions, errors or significant omissions. Recently, I've been searching out novels that include events leading up to and during the Revolutionary War, and was not surprised to find that it was a time when not too much happened on Cape Cod other than coastal smuggling. The major events occurred in nearby Boston and elsewhere, but one interesting event is included - the shipwreck of HMS Somerset in 1778. Score = 4

3. Was the depiction of historical events accurate?

Judging from the follow-up study I've done, events and historical characters included in the novel seem to be presented accurately. The story includes some interesting fictional speculations, such as the story of what really caused the wreck of the Somerset. In future, I'm going to find one or more straight history texts and/or biographies to read in conjunction with historical novels, but Martin seems to be very good on historical accuracy. Score = 4

4. Was the depiction of historical characters accurate?

Most historical characters are only mentioned in passing, but a few have a bit of dialog, including pre-Revolution era lawyer James Otis (born on Cape Cod) and a beach-wandering Henry David Thoreau. Young Senator Jack Kennedy does a cameo in a telephone conversation. Score = 3

5. Would I read another novel by this author, continuing in this historical period, with these characters?

Definitely; in fact, I already have. Next post will be The Lost Constitution. Not a sequel, but set in New England. Score = 4.

'The Wind in the Forest' by Inglis Fletcher

The Wind in the Forest is a 'historical romance', written way back in 1957 by Inglis Fletcher. A search for pre-American Revolution settings at historical novels.info led me to this one (as with the Edward Cline Sparrowhawk series). Curiosity overcame 'historical romance' skepticism when I learned that Herman Husband and William Tryon appear as characters. Tryon was colonial governor of North Carolina from 1765 to 1771, then was promoted to become the last colonial governor of New York. Husband is both less well-known and more interesting. Labeled today as a 'populist', he became the main propagandist for the North Carolina Regulators. The Regulators were settlers in the western parts of the colony (Piedmont), who organized to oppose what they saw as unfair taxation and policies imposed on them by the eastern-dominated government. Against this backdrop of colonial politics, the fictional characters are primarily members of old planter families. As Fletcher describes it, these families were torn between loyalty to the colonial status-quo, sympathy for the injustices suffered by the westerners, and hunger for the latest London fashions. The struggle of opposing forces previews the revolutionary break with the mother country a few years later.

The 'romance' aspects of the novel were not overdone and, in fact, were no more prominent than in most historical novels. A different issue is likely to be more troubling to the modern reader; Fletcher's benign depiction of slavery. The novel is full of happy, hymn-singing, 'yes, Massa - no, Massa' slave characters. No whippings, runaways, horror stories of kidnapping and transport from Africa or fears of slave revolt disturb the idyllic tranquility of the plantations. Still, the story is not about them and doesn't try to promote slavery or demonize slave owners.

The five criteria:

1. Did the novel inspire me to further historical research?

I picked up this novel because of its inclusion of Herman Husband. Although Fletcher claimed that his fictionalization was based on his own writings, he came off as ultimately less interesting than straight history would indicate. The same thing happened to Tryon and other historical characters. On the other hand, my interest in the east/west, rich/poor issues of the time were piqued. Score = 3

2. Did the novel include enough history to make it an interesting historical story?

Most of the important events of the Regulator uprising are included (although lacking depth), and those events are integral to the story. Score = 3

3. Was the depiction of historical events accurate?

The narrative follows historical events pretty faithfully, without obvious invention or distortion. Analysis of those events and the characters' motivations are, however, pretty shallow. Score = 3

4. Was the depiction of historical characters accurate?

As noted in 1. above. Score = 3

5. Would I read another novel by this author, continuing in this historical period, with these characters?

Possibly - this novel seems to be part of a series. They are mostly out-of-print, however, and not easily found. Score = 2.

'Outlander', by Diana Gabaldon

Normally, I stay away from the sub-genre known as 'historical romance', even though the more modern sort can be much more interesting than the bodice-rippers of the past. I made an exception for Outlander, first in the time-travel-to-the-past series by Diana Gabaldon, because later novels in the series are set in pre-revolution America. The period suffers from a dearth of novelists with significant interest in the history underlying the fictional story, so I went fishing. I hadn't previously read any of Ms. Gabaldon's novels, so I didn't know what to expect. Also, when choosing novels that are part of a series, I prefer to start with the first.

Outlander is set in the highlands of Scotland, beginning in 1945 and time-traveling back to 1743, just before the Jacobite Uprising of 1745. My historical accuracy antennae were aroused early in the opening section. The setting was September, 1945 - just a few months after the end of World War II. The novel's heroine, Claire, goes into a small highlands town and discovers that bare wartime shop shelves are now suddenly overflowing with goods. It doesn't take much study to conclude that, in reality, it's very unlikely anything like that happened. The UK was dead broke after the war, and stayed in a severe depression for a good many years. The 'Inspector Troy' series of historical-crime novels by John Lawton show a much more accurate picture of wartime and post-war Britain.

Following this opening section, I was prepared for the worst when Claire is magically transported back in time to 1743. However, apart from the usual difficulties involved in viewing the past through modern writing and the romanticizing of conditions in a remote, impoverished pre-industrial society, Ms. Gabaldon avoided issues of historical accuracy by the usual expedient of fuzzy details. Some actual place names are used (e.g. Loch Ness), and a few historical places (e.g. Fort William). The fictional Castle Leoch is identifiable as the historical Castle Leod, seat of Clan Mackenzie. The fictional castle is occupied by fictional Mackenzies (a real clan). The cast includes fictional members of several other actual highland clans, including Fraser, Grant, Munro and Ross. A few major political figures are mentioned in passing; the 'Old Pretender' James II, his son 'Bonnie Prince Charlie', King George II, but that's about it.

How does this novel rate on my five criteria? Let’s see:

1. Did the novel inspire me to further historical research?

There wasn’t a whole lot of historical material to use as a jumping-off point for further investigation. Score = 2

2. Did the novel include enough history to make it an interesting historical story?

No historical events or characters are included in the narrative, except where briefly mentioned as background. To be fair, the bulk of the action takes place in a short period of time, from autumn of 1743 into early winter of 1744. Thus, the novel has more of a setting than a story, in historical terms. Score = 2

3. Was the depiction of historical events accurate?

Outlander is first and foremost a romance novel, so historical accuracy is bent to that task. That said, it’s perhaps not completely fair to criticize a lack of accuracy. Still, when I read a novel that includes ‘historical’ in its genre classification, I expect the author to make an effort. In some areas, such as folk medicine and Highlands geography, the author goes into great descriptive detail. History gets much less attention. Score = 1.

4. Was the depiction of historical characters accurate?

There are no historical characters, so no score.

5. Would I read another novel by this author, continuing in this historical period, with these characters?

Probably not. Score = 1.

'Sparrowhawk, Book Two: Hugh Kenrick'

Sparrowhawk, Book Two: Hugh Kenrick, by Edward Cline, is the second novel in the Sparrowhawk series. It picks up the historical timeline in England right after the end of Book One (around 1750), with a new but familiar cast of characters. The main difference in the two stories arises from the differing social status of the titular characters. Where Jack Frake was a working class boy who became a smuggler, Hugh Kenrick is the only son of a wealthy aristocrat who becomes an intellectual radical. Hugh's father and uncle, in addition to their titles of Baron and Earl respectively, are secret investors in various smuggling operations, reaping the rewards of the illegal activity without any real risk. The story chronicles Hugh's coming of age much the way Book One did with young Jack.

The two main characters are also similar in sharing the moral outlook inspired in author Edward Cline by the novels of Ayn Rand. Thus, Hugh Kenrick and his actions suffer from the same plausibility issues that marred Jack's story. Hugh's very different social standing directs him through a very different set of circumstances, but the same moral challenges. Many of the supporting cast are also familiar from Book One. Instead of a band of philosophical smugglers, Hugh trades insights with a secret society of London free-thinkers. Instead of a villainous step-father, family resistance comes this time from Hugh's class-conscious, vindictive uncle. Henoch Pannell, bane of the smugglers in Book One, shows up again to personify the amoral social climber. An African former slave with the colorful name of Glorious Swain, also a member of the secret group, becomes Hugh's friend and mentor following a chance meeting, much as Jack Frake was befriended by one of the smugglers.

Despite the predictability of the fictional story and characters, Cline has studied his history and doesn't take obvious liberties with it. The novel includes many interesting details of life among 18th century British gentry. How does it score on my five criteria? See the post on Book One. All the scores are identical, and the accompanying comments very similar. I'm still interested in reading more of the Sparrowhawk series, but perhaps a bit less so this time.

It's time to try something different, so my next historical novel read will be Outlander, first in the time-travel-to-the-past series by Diana Gabaldon.

Oh no, not another history movie!

I promised myself to stay away from these things, but somehow it seemed this one might be different - alas, fooled again. I'm referring to Amazing Grace, a big-budget 2006 British film (yes, I know it's five years old - this review is for the NetFlix crowd) about 18th century MP William Wilberforce and his campaign to outlaw the slave trade. A worthy subject for a historical costume drama, certainly, but don't expect historical accuracy in this version. Why is it that a compelling true story about a remarkable man (really a group of remarkable people) is not good enough? It has to be adjusted, fudged, altered, exaggerated, simplified, romanticized and otherwise messed with until some really interesting (and really real) historical characters are transformed into standard Hollywood (or London) good v evil stereotypes? It would take me all night to list all the historical inaccuracies. The Wikipedia article barely scratches the surface.

In spite of all that, I liked the film because it got me interested enough in the history to want to find out more. It scores a 4 (of a possible 5) on my first criterion. Plus, maybe the opportunity to rant about the faults appeals to my curmudgeonly side. And, to be fair, the film's heart is in the right place. If the real Wilberforce didn't quite live up to Saint Wilbur of the film, why quibble? It's intended to be a feel-good story and I felt good at the end. Who needs credibility, subtlety, nuance and complex characters?

'Redcoat', by Bernard Cornwell

Bernard Cornwell was already well known for his Sharpe series of historical novels, but in 1988 he decided to do something a little different. The result was Redcoat, whose main protagonist is a British infantryman named Sam Gilpin, serving in the army of General William Howe during the capture and subsequent occupation of Philadelphia in 1777-78, critical years in the American Revolutionary War. While many historical novels include accounts of the American army's brutal winter at Valley Forge, fans of historical fiction set in this period should appreciate that Cornwell chooses to tell this story mostly from the perspective of the British soldiers and the civilians, both rebel and loyalist, who chose to remain in the occupied city. In the course of his duties, Sam gets to know several of the rebel sympathizers and falls in love with one, the beautiful and courageous (of course) Caroline Fisher. Also compelling is the detailed view of life within the city during the occupation. How does this novel rate on the five criteria? They are:

1. Did the novel inspire me to further historical research?
2. Did the novel include enough history to make it an interesting historical story?
3. Was the depiction of historical events accurate?
4. Was the depiction of historical characters accurate?
5. Would I read another novel by this author, continuing in this historical period, with these characters?

Here are the ratings for Redcoat.

1. Score = 4. The rating would have been a '3', but I bumped it up one because of the unusual perspective. This novel should inspire readers, especially Americans, to read more about the British side of the Revolution - on both sides of the Atlantic. American fiction writers tend to present the war as a one-dimensional heroic struggle by freedom-loving rebels against the brutal and merciless tyranny and aggression of the British (think Mel Gibson in The Patriot). Redcoat provides some much-needed balance.
2. Score = 3. The historical story of the Philadelphia Campaign and occupation is related in some detail, and is intertwined with the fictional story, which is otherwise an interestingly complex but fairly conventional boy-meets-girl romance. The story lacks much reference to events outside of Philadelphia, but that contributes to the sense of isolation felt by the occupying army.
3. Score = 4. In the 'Acknowledgements', Cornwell credits his grasp of the details of day-to-day life in occupied Philadelphia mainly to one book: With the British Army in Philadelphia, by John W. Jackson. Those details contribute greatly to the realistic feel of the narrative. Cornwell introduces one fictional variation to the historical account of the Battle of Red Bank, in which a detachment of Hessian mercenary troops attempted to capture the rebels' Fort Mercer, located on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River, south of the city. In Cornwell's story, rebel spies betray the British plans for a surprise attack, allowing the defenders time to prepare and repulse the assault. Although I've found no evidence that this actually happened, it very well could have, given the situation.
4. Score = 3. Principal British commanders, while not main characters, do get some dialog which helps to give historical context. The fictional British Captain Vane becomes an aide to General Howe, which makes him privy to goings-on at headquarters. He meets fellow aide Captain John Andre, General Henry Clinton, General Howe's brother Admiral Lord Howe, The Hessian commander Colonel von Donop, General Corwallis and others. The portrayals of these characters seem to stay within the bounds of historical accuracy, and General Howe especially is presented in greater depth. Historical civilian characters, on the other hand, are in short supply. Prominent Philadelphians, especially traders and civic leaders like Edward Shippen and David Franks, should have shown up somewhere in the story.
   
5. Score = 4. I would gladly read a continuation of the story of Sam and Caroline, the fictional boy and girl involved in the novel's romance plot. Unfortunately, Cornwell has written only one other novel set in the Revolutionary War, entitled The Fort (2010). It's not a sequel, or connected in any way with this book, but sounds interesting.
   

'Sparrowhawk, Book One: Jack Frake' (2001) by Edward Cline

Sparrowhawk, Book One: Jack Frake, by Edward Cline, is the first of a series, and an interesting novel for a couple of reasons. The first one is history-related: the protagonists are members of a band of smugglers, operating in the south-western English county of Cornwall. No dates are mentioned in the text, but a brief discussion among the well-informed and politically astute smugglers indicates that the action begins during the years of the War of the Austrian Succession; after the 1743 Battle of Dettingen and before the 1745 Battle of Fontenoy. You won't find many other specific historical events embedded in the fictional story, so one suspects that this one bit was inserted just to establish a time and place. The historical interest lies rather in the descriptions of the machinations of English justice and government at that time, the attitudes of various sorts of Englishmen toward their government, and the way some of those attitudes were evolving toward the principles embodied in the founding of the United States.

The second interesting thing, or group of things, about this novel are the personalities of the main protagonists. While reading, there seemed to be something familiar in the characters of young Jack Frake, his mentor John Smith, and especially the smuggler chief Augustus Skelly. It wasn't until I got to the end and read the author's 'Acknowledgements' that I realized what made them seem so familiar. I learned that the author is a great admirer of the novels of Ayn Rand. That's it, I thought - the three all share character traits with the hero of The Fountainhead, the iconoclast architect Howard Rourk. These three all possess Rourk's rugged individualism, innate and unshakable personal convictions, the lack of any moral ambiguity or hypocrisy, and an unfailingly clear discernment of truth and falsehood, strength and weakness. Having even one, let alone three such characters in one novel can seem a bit over-the-top at times, but didn't detract too much from my enjoyment of the story. Plausibility suffered, at times, from the unrelenting heroism, but maybe I'm just a cynic. Anyway, let's move on to the historical-novel critique. Remember the five criteria:

1. Did the novel inspire me to further historical research?
2. Did the novel include enough history to make it an interesting historical story?
3. Was the depiction of historical events accurate?
4. Was the depiction of historical characters accurate?
5. Would I read another novel by this author, continuing in this historical period, with these characters?

How does Sparrowhawk, Book One: Jack Frake rate?

1. Score = 3. Because much of my current historical reading is about the period leading up to the American Revolution, this novel's discussion of conditions in England was interesting. The protagonists struggle with the inequities of the legal system in England at that time. Their objections dovetail neatly into the arguments soon to come in the American colonies. Indeed, I'm sure that's exactly the course the author intends to pursue in the rest of the series. The end of Sparrowhawk, Book One (spoiler alert!) finds young Jack Frake headed for America aboard the good ship 'Sparrowhawk'.
2. Score = 2. Pending further research on 18th century British smuggling and legal procedures, I suspect that historical fact has been somewhat shaped in pursuit of a clean ideological arc. That pursuit required no falsehoods, merely selective inclusion of historical data. Nothing wrong with that, of course. The reader of historical fiction can never forget that the purpose of a novel is to tell a story, not necessarily to present an accurate historical narrative.
   
3. Score = 2. As noted above, there are no easily identifiable historical events that are part of the story in this novel so it's hard to judge accuracy. That was probably another intentional move by the author.
4. Score = 2. I detected no historical characters, other than those distant figures connected with the events mentioned above, though there may be some modeling. The smugglers' Rourk-ish willingness to face punishment rather than back down or run away reminded me somewhat of the career of English 'radical' John Wilkes. It seems highly unlikely that any actual band of smugglers ever resembled Skelly's gang, but I'll reserve final judgment until I do a search to see if any smuggler-penned novels or memoirs exist.
5. Answer = yes. Not right away, perhaps, but I am curious to see what becomes of young Jack Frake in America.
   

Next time: Redcoat by Bernard Cornwell. Thanks again to Margaret Donsbach at Historical Novels.info for categorizing historical novels by period and location, making it much easier for me to locate novels with similar settings.

'Dissolution' by C. J. Sansom (2004)

Taking a break from more recent history, I picked up Dissolution, by C. J. Sansom. Intrigued by a positive review of Sansom's most recent novel in this series, entitled Heartstone, I decided (as I usually do) to start with the first in the series. Before even cracking the cover, however, the novel had one strike against it in my personal historical-novel rating system. The setting is England during the reign of King Henry VIII. This blog's very first post noted a problem shared by all novels using older historical settings: Accurate depiction of historical characters. More than the more-or-less contemporaneous Wolf Hall, Dissolution suffers from characters that feel too modern. The author obviously put a lot of thought and research into avoiding that pitfall, but the result is not entirely convincing. Happily, the novel novel is entertaining enough to overcome that handicap.

Maybe now is a good time to institute a rating system, based on the four ingredients I consider important in a historical novel. A 1 to 5 range should be sufficient, where 1 is so bad that I couldn't finish the book and 5 is 'practically perfect in every way' (I don't expect to award many 1s or 5s). A more detailed discussion of these criteria can be found in the Jan. 13 post. Briefly, they are:

1. The ability to inspire me to further research a historical topic,
2. Inclusion of enough history to make the novel an interesting historical story,
3. Accurate depiction of historical events,
4. Accurate depiction of historical characters.

Note that these criteria apply only to historical novels. Things like interesting characters, descriptions, plots and dialog are essential to any well-written novel. So, how does Dissolution rate?

1. Score = 2. Because...
2. Score = 3. There's some history, but not enough. The action takes place almost exclusively at a remote fictional monastery, far from all but the most general current events. This was the time of Henry's attack on the Catholic monastic orders, beginning in 1536, which by 1540 brought about the dissolution of nearly all of the old monasteries and convents in England. There is some interesting historical background on the methods used, by Henry's chief minister Thomas Cromwell, to bring this about. Still, there's not much historical meat to chew on. Perhaps later novels in this series will offer more.
   
3. Score = 3. What history there is seems accurate; there's just not much of it. Sansom earns a gold star for including a 'Historical Note' at the end.
   
4. Score = 2. Apart from the inherent problem caused by the antiquity of the setting, the problem here is the same as for #2; there are too few historical characters. Thomas Cromwell is the most prominent, and he appears only very briefly.
5. I'll add a fifth item to the original four. This one asks the question, 'Would I read another novel by this author, continuing in this historical period, with these characters? For Dissolution and Cromwell's hunchback investigator Matthew Shardlake, the answer is yes.

Next post will discuss Sparrowhawk, Book One: Jack Frake.