s/o bizarre SL: Favorite inaccurate historical fiction

[Violet Crown]

Reading that thread, I cringed to recall that Great Girl's Favoritest Book Ever was "Trail Boss in Pigtails." The Kirkus review tells you everything you need to know:

 

'Trail boss Emma Jane drives the family's pint-sized herd of longhorns north after her Pa's death in Waco, and makes it all the way to Chicago by dint of lucky breaks, hard bargaining with the hungry Indians who try to extort a percentage of her stock (""They're displaced people, just like us""), and lots of help from tough cowboys who melt at the sight of a ""mere slip of a girl"" doing a man's job.'

 

Pretty heady stuff for an urban Texas girl. She read it over and over and over. Good thing she's majoring in math!

 

What ahistorical fiction did your children love, as it filled their impressionable minds with wrong views of the past?

[Aslana]

The story of Pocahontas and the story of the first thanksgiving.

 

Both of these are written by a specific publisher whom I won't mention for fear of derailing the thread out the gate. I'll just say those two things have been written about so many times that they no longer resemble what actually happened.

 

As for what my children liked? When younger, my oldest did like the American Girl books. She did dabble in other books that are Newberry Winners and Caldacott winners but are labeled as historical fiction (vague only because names escape me right now). I do remember one book about an Egyptian boy in an apprenticeship, but I cannot remember the name of that book either.

 

 

eta: Oh! HAHAHA... I'm sorry. I wrote my "favorite". Not my actual favorite. I totally misread the thread title to mean favorite as in "these really aren't your favorite but you like them because they just get it so very wrong". Is that what you mean? If not, I do truly apologize that I misread the title.

[Shahrazad]

Well, on the thread of 'not really my favorite but they are so wrong they're hysterical', I'd like to nominate Phillipa Gregory's books. In reality, I hate those books with the passion of 100 burning suns. Ack!

 

On a positive note, I find Jean Plaidy's (aka Victoria Holt aka Phillipa Carr) work to be really fun reads despite their historical inaccuracy. They don't rub me as badly as PG does.

[SarahW]

Well, on the thread of 'not really my favorite but they are so wrong they're hysterical', I'd like to nominate Phillipa Gregory's books. In reality, I hate those books with the passion of 100 burning suns. Ack!

 

 

My favorite aunt loves to read those books. "It's so terrible for those girls, it's a true story!" And then she keeps on trying to get me to read them, since I like history and all. My "eh, no thanks" response is always met with the protest: "But, they're historical!" :smilielol5:

 

She also likes to discuss Dan Brown's books over Christmas dinner. "I never knew Jesus had a wife. They never taught us that in Catholic school!" :w00t:

[Rosie_0801]

My favourite horrible historical fiction is Marion Zimmer Bradley's 'The Firebrand.' A bit of romance really perks things up. :p

[Shahrazad]

LOL. I guess what gets me is that some of the things she writes about real people and she really takes slander up a notch too far. Bad enough to speak ill of the dead, worse still to slander them with false stories especially when they were essentially murdered for those same sorts of false stories... I especially hated the ones about Anne Boleyn but the one on Katherine of Aragon was pretty bad too (despite being a devout Catholic, she lies to her confessor about not having consummated her first marriage so she can marry Henry VIII, among other things, and IMO this is probably one of her more sympathetic portrayals of his queens!)

[PeterPan]

Remember the Value Tales books where they add parrots to tell the story of Nellie Bly...

[Element]

We actually don't read a lot of historical fiction, but my favorite bad historical nonfiction is "The Age of Discovery" by Kovacs. It's like if SOTW was wrong... and totally biased. :D We can't stop reading it even though it may as well be fiction for as many inaccuracies as I have to correct. I certainly wouldn't use it with my dd7, but ds9 and I love to pick it apart while enjoying the story aspect of it.

[Shahrazad]

Oh, a really bad historical non-fiction was 'Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women' or something like that. One time, I actually thought to go through and compile all the errors and give some proof for each to show how it was incorrect. I burnt out in the first chapter when I realized I had to highlight something on every page, usually multiple times per page. Really, a horribly inaccurate book marketed as non-fiction.

[Aslana]

OP, I am truly sorry if I misread the title. I hope I did not derail the thread you meant to start with my misunderstanding.

[mommymilkies]

I read mostly history (non-fiction/biography) or fantasy. But I do have a stack of free Phillipa Gregory books I'm tempted to read. Of course, I threw stuff at my TV after 5 minutes of The Tudors, so I bet I'll hate them. :lol:

 

I'm pretty picky about kids' historical fiction, too. Does A Lion To Guard Us count? That's one of the few I've read to them and it wasn't too dreadful. I'm not sure about historical inaccuracy, though.

[WishboneDawn]

 

My favorite aunt loves to read those books. "It's so terrible for those girls, it's a true story!" And then she keeps on trying to get me to read them, since I like history and all. My "eh, no thanks" response is always met with the protest: "But, they're historical!" :smilielol5:

 

She also likes to discuss Dan Brown's books over Christmas dinner. "I never knew Jesus had a wife. They never taught us that in Catholic school!" :w00t:

 

Dan Brown has done more damage to history then he can ever redeem. The people that I've talked to that thought that book had actual history in it...

[SarahW]

Well, this wasn't really a favorite, I had to google a bit to land on the title, but I read a lot of Janette Oke as a kid (I was a homeschooled advanced reader, ok? lol), and one book that stuck with me was A Bride for Donnigan. Beside the fact that the overall plot is pretty bizarre, the whole subplot that an Irish girl and a guy living in Western America in the 19th c. had no knowledge of God or the Bible, and by reading the Bible straight through become ardent Evangelicals, is just very strange.

[Dana]

 

 

Dan Brown has done more damage to history then he can ever redeem. The people that I've talked to that thought that book had actual history in it...

 

He's pretty crappy with his math in DaVinci Code as well. I've read Harlequins that had better plotting and pacing.

[SarahW]

My favourite horrible historical fiction is Marion Zimmer Bradley's 'The Firebrand.' A bit of romance really perks things up. :p

 

 

Bradley. She wrote The Mists of Avalon, yes?

 

I only saw the movie. I seem to have a higher tolerance for costume dramas in film. I watched The Other Boleyn Girl, too. And the Elizabeth movies. :blushing:

[SarahW]

Dan Brown has done more damage to history then he can ever redeem. The people that I've talked to that thought that book had actual history in it...

 

 

Yes, and it didn't help that on the first page of the book was a list of "facts" that seemed to lend historical credence to his book.

[Violet Crown]

eta: Oh! HAHAHA... I'm sorry. I wrote my "favorite". Not my actual favorite. I totally misread the thread title to mean favorite as in "these really aren't your favorite but you like them because they just get it so very wrong". Is that what you mean? If not, I do truly apologize that I misread the title.

 

No worries. "Favorite" in any sense: straight, ironic, post-ironic. Favorite = the one you most want to mention.

 

The fable of Pocahontas is a good choice.

 

ETA: I'm not even sure myself in what sense "Trail Boss in Pig Tails" is my favorite. It's so cheesy, and improbable, but a little Texan part of me is pleased that Great Girl liked to imagine herself as the heroine, showing those tough cowpokes that a little slip of a girl could herd longhorn cattle. It makes me think of the book a little fondly.

 

More ETA: Sarah's erudite posts have made me feel horribly guilty for the zero historical research I did for Great Girl's history education. But at least, when she was taking a university course on the middle ages that focused on Charlemagne, though she probably had acquired some bad history about him through my neglect, she reported that a substantial number of her classmates had never even heard of Charlemagne.

[kentuckymom]

I just LOVE it when historical heroines have a 21st century view of women's rights, religious freedom, etc. I recently read a book from the Girls of Many Lands series: Layla: The Black Tulip

 

It's about a girl from 18th century Armenia who is sold into slavery and ends up in the harem of the Ottoman emperor. She's a Muslim, but both she and her father seem to have pretty universalist beliefs. She's also incredibly independent and strong minded for a peasant girl of her era.

 

I did actually enjoy the book, but I kept thinking, "Really? Would she really be thinking those things?"

[momma2three]

My favourite horrible historical fiction is Marion Zimmer Bradley's 'The Firebrand.' A bit of romance really perks things up. :p

 

I'll nominate all of MZB's books. Oh how I loved The Mists of Avalon when I was a kid!

 

Also, Clan of the Cave Bear.

[Farrar]

Clan of the Cave Bear was the first one I thought of!

 

As for children's ones... I don't know... I don't like any of the bad ones... Or something.

[aggieamy]

My favorite historical fiction to hate is Snow Treasure. It's about a bunch of Norwegian kids who hide gold from the NAZI's and talk about how wonderful America is. It reads like propaganda.

[nmoira]

Not inaccurate, but an alternate history: The Stolen Lake by Joan Aiken.

 

Spoiler:

 

 

We have a South American country founded by Romans abandoning Britain (IIRC, they stole boats from the invading Saxons) mashed with Arthur and Guinevere. It's brilliant, and a treat for anyone with a bit of a background in Latin.

 

[Ameena]

My favorite would have to be the Keepers of the Ring Series by Angela Hunt. They are for adults though, but starts off with the interesting question of what happened to the settlers of Roanoke? The basic idea if that they married into one of the native tribes, and then the story goes from there. VERY well written IMO. Nothing is completely against historical fact, but it's not supported by fact either.

[musicianmom]

I guess this is not the place to admit how much I've been enjoying Phillippa Gregory's latest books that are set pre-Henry VIII. If someone can point me to some better writings that cover Jacquetta and Elizabeth Wodeville, please do.

[PachiSusan]

I guess this is not the place to admit how much I've been enjoying Phillippa Gregory's latest books that are set pre-Henry VIII. If someone can point me to some better writings that cover Jacquetta and Elizabeth Wodeville, please do.

 

 

Ha ha!! It's okay - I like her too. I love Victoria Holt more though...and she's not much better at historical accuracy.

[PachiSusan]

Not inaccurate, but an alternate history: The Stolen Lake by Joan Aiken.

 

Spoiler:

 

 

We have a South American country founded by Romans abandoning Britain (IIRC, they stole boats from the invading Saxons) mashed with Arthur and Guinevere. It's brilliant, and a treat for anyone with a bit of a background in Latin.

 

 

 

How did you do that spoiler thing???

[nmoira]

 

 

How did you do that spoiler thing???

 

 

Click on the little twitter icon in the text box menu for a list of code options.

[nansk]

He's pretty crappy with his math in DaVinci Code as well.

Did you know that he is the son of Richard Brown, who was Maths teacher at Phillips Exeter and co-wrote the Brown/Dolciani books? :)

[Five More Minutes]

 

 

I'll nominate all of MZB's books. Oh how I loved The Mists of Avalon when I was a kid!

 

Also, Clan of the Cave Bear.

 

 

Yes -- these ones!

[Dana]

 

Did you know that he is the son of Richard Brown, who was Maths teacher at Phillips Exeter and co-wrote the Brown/Dolciani books? :)

 

 

Ha! No, I didn't.

A friend got me to read the book with her. I got to the classroom part and had to read parts of it aloud to my husband. It was so so so bad.

[SarahW]

I just LOVE it when historical heroines have a 21st century view of women's rights, religious freedom, etc. I recently read a book from the Girls of Many Lands series: Layla: The Black Tulip

 

It's about a girl from 18th century Armenia who is sold into slavery and ends up in the harem of the Ottoman emperor. She's a Muslim, but both she and her father seem to have pretty universalist beliefs. She's also incredibly independent and strong minded for a peasant girl of her era.

 

I did actually enjoy the book, but I kept thinking, "Really? Would she really be thinking those things?"

 

 

 

And... that whole premise strikes me as historically odd.

 

That reminds me of a book I found recently on some random online booklist, forget the title, but it was classified under historical Christian fiction I think. And the basic plot, as I understood it, is that the daughter of one of the Babylonian kings is a tomboy, puts on pants, and climbs around the hanging gardens while thinking all sorts of modern things about independence - and I guess that's how she runs into some captive Jews. But pants? Pants didn't exist! Not even men wore pants! Where did she get her pants?!

[*Michelle*]

Does it count if it's supposed to be inaccurate? I love alternate history fiction. Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus is my favorite.

[unfrumpable.]

 

Yes, and it didn't help that on the first page of the book was a list of "facts" that seemed to lend historical credence to his book.

 

 

 

Yes, I'm not exactly sure why he did that. I was good friends with Google for a while after reading his books and finding the stuff he listed as "fact" was stuff that had been debunked years ago. I enjoyed the two books I read of his, but they weren't keepers for rereading. :)

 

I do enjoy Phillipa Gregory's Tudor books, they led me to read some non-fiction books on that era which were rather interesting.

[Jane in NC]

Did you know that he is the son of Richard Brown, who was Maths teacher at Phillips Exeter and co-wrote the Brown/Dolciani books? :)

 

I had no idea. Life is stranger than fiction?

[stripe]

Oh, a really bad historical non-fiction was 'Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women' or something like that. One time, I actually thought to go through and compile all the errors and give some proof for each to show how it was incorrect. I burnt out in the first chapter when I realized I had to highlight something on every page, usually multiple times per page. Really, a horribly inaccurate book marketed as non-fiction.

 

Ha ha, how about the one about the Saudi princess?

[Julie Smith]

Does it count if it's supposed to be inaccurate? I love alternate history fiction. Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus is my favorite.

 

 

I really liked that book.

[kentuckymom]

How could I have forgotten about Clan of the Cave Bear and the rest of the Earth's Children series? Ayla managed to domesticate a horse and a wolf and invented a needle. I kept waiting for her to invent the wheel.

[Julie Smith]

How could I have forgotten about Clan of the Cave Bear and the rest of the Earth's Children series? Ayla managed to domesticate a horse and a wolf and invented a needle. I kept waiting for her to invent the wheel.

 

Then you haven't read the latest book in the series.....

 

(joking). :)

[Shahrazad]

Ha ha, how about the one about the Saudi princess?

 

 

OMG yes. That was horrible! I know a while ago it 'came out' that she had fabricated the whole character and everything but really, I don't know how people bought it in the first place, she didn't even do a good job at a semblance of being realistic. It was like every single woman who she came in contact with (could've been a shoeshiner from the street or a friend from school) had a dramatic story of being horribly, disturbingly mistreated by Arab men and just had to confide in her, the only "good" guy in the story, her husband, ends up being a cheater w/ prostitutes and gives her STDs (what the heck?), her daughter becomes an "extremist" because she fulfills the minimum obligatory prayers daily, and the main character herself is called a 'devout Muslim' by the author despite the fact that she repeatedly gets sloppy drunk in the story and actually becomes an alcoholic and doesn't seem to really practice at all. And of course, all of this packaged behind token picture of kohl-lined eyes and face veil. That isn't even getting into the hundreds of cultural errors (ex: it is not illegal to have your face uncovered in SA, I think basic research would reveal that).

[stripe]

OMG yes. That was horrible! I know a while ago it 'came out' that she had fabricated the whole character and everything but really, I don't know how people bought it in the first place, she didn't even do a good job at a semblance of being realistic. ...And of course, all of this packaged behind token picture of kohl-lined eyes and face veil.

 

Ha, virtually every book about Islam, much less about Muslim women, has that! I think it just played into the expectations, making it totally "believable" because of that.

 

What about (eta The Education of Little Tree(, about a Native American boy that was written by a (former?) white supremacist? Or that book about the white woman going on a walkabout in Australia? Aren't those invented, too?

[*Michelle*]

What about that book about a Native American boy that was written by a white supremacist?

 

 

The Education of Little Tree, wasn't it?

[Violet Crown]

How could I have forgotten about Clan of the Cave Bear and the rest of the Earth's Children series? Ayla managed to domesticate a horse and a wolf and invented a needle. I kept waiting for her to invent the wheel.

We have Olive Beaupré Miller's "A Picturesque Tale of Progress" world history series, which features a prehistoric family in which the children, Dee and Dart, play around outside the hut while mom does the housework (and I guess dad is at his 9-5 mammoth-hunting job). Dee and Dart invent animal domestication, pottery, and agriculture on their own (a friend invents cave painting). Middle Girl finds it hilarious. I suppose it's, in some sense, educational.

 

Oh I forgot, Dee and Dart and their parents go on a family vacation (though they fail to invent the station wagon), and discover the Lake Dwellers. Who are really nice.

[Ravin]

The Clan of the Cave Bear series were the first ones I thought of. Though really, for what they are they were painstakingly researched, but the first one was ridiculously out of date long before she came near to finishing the whole thing, just from how much more has been learned in paleanthropology in the intervening decades. They were still one of the big influences on my decision to major in anthropology in college--I read Clan of the Cave Bear the first time when I was 13.

 

Personally, I'm a huge fan of alternate history fiction. S.M. Stirling, for one. Island in the Sea of Eternity is great. The island of Nantuckett is thrown back in time to 3500 BC. He throws in pseudo-historical versions of epic Greek characters, Stonehenge astronomers, and then there's what happens to the unfortunate Nantucketers who find themselves in Mesoamerica...

[Candid]

My favourite horrible historical fiction is Marion Zimmer Bradley's 'The Firebrand.' A bit of romance really perks things up. :p

 

Darn, I really love MZB. Read the Darkover books instead? Or The Mists of Avalon?

[SarahW]

Oh I forgot, Dee and Dart and their parents go on a family vacation (though they fail to invent the station wagon), and discover the Lake Dwellers. Who are really nice.

 

 

Were the year-rounders really welcoming of the seasonal vacationers? This can't possibly be accurate. :lol:

 

Personally, I'm a huge fan of alternate history fiction. S.M. Stirling, for one. Island in the Sea of Eternity is great. The island of Nantuckett is thrown back in time to 3500 BC. He throws in pseudo-historical versions of epic Greek characters, Stonehenge astronomers, and then there's what happens to the unfortunate Nantucketers who find themselves in Mesoamerica...

 

 

That's amazing.

 

I was making a post on the other thread when it got locked about how I eventually channeled my fascination with underground history into an interest in fantasy. A princess living in a castle takes up basket weaving and invents nuclear physics? Sure, why not? Just don't try to sell me on it being true. :p As a teen I quite enjoyed the Lawhead books where Merlin is a descendant of refugees from Atlantis.

[PachiSusan]

As a teen I quite enjoyed the Lawhead books where Merlin is a descendant of refugees from Atlantis.

 

 

 

OOO, that sounds really interesting, Sarah!!! What's that series called?

[Violet Crown]

Were the year-rounders really welcoming of the seasonal vacationers? This can't possibly be accurate. :lol:

Maybe the Swiss Lake Dwellers had already invented the tourism industry, and were gaily overcharging them for lake hut rental.

[Kyr]

 

 

OOO, that sounds really interesting, Sarah!!! What's that series called?

 

The Pendragon Cycle

[beaners]

And the Elizabeth movies. :blushing:

 

I actually kind of like those too. :blushing:

 

Ha, virtually every book about Islam, much less about Muslim women, has that! I think it just played into the expectations, making it totally "believable" because of that.

 

What about (eta The Education of Little Tree(, about a Native American boy that was written by a (former?) white supremacist? Or that book about the white woman going on a walkabout in Australia? Aren't those invented, too?

 

That reminds me of Go Ask Alice.

 

 

Personally, I'm a huge fan of alternate history fiction. S.M. Stirling, for one. Island in the Sea of Eternity is great. The island of Nantuckett is thrown back in time to 3500 BC. He throws in pseudo-historical versions of epic Greek characters, Stonehenge astronomers, and then there's what happens to the unfortunate Nantucketers who find themselves in Mesoamerica...

 

I loved Stirling for a while, but the more books I read, the more I realized the characters were all being recycled into different stories. I might need to reread some of his books again as a break from all the non-fiction I've been reading.

[PachiSusan]

 

The Pendragon Cycle

 

Thank you. I am going to see if our local library has it!