Jerome de Groot is Lecturer in Renaissance Literature and Culture at The University of Manchester. His publications include Consuming History (2008) and Royalist Identities (2004).

The historical novel is not only an immensely popular genre, but also one that raises fascinating questions about the nature of key foundational concepts such as fact and fiction, history, reading and writing. This wide-ranging guide offers an accessible introduction to both the genre and the critical debates around it.

Introduction 1. 'Origins': early manifestations and some definitions 2. 'Low' genre or sensational novels 3. High or Literary Fiction 4. Postmodernism and the Historical Novel 5. Challenging History History from the margins: colonial, sexual Glossary Further Reading