Waverley; or, βTis Sixty Years Since is a historical novel by Walter Scott (1771β1832). Scott was already famous as a poet, and chose to publish Waverley anonymously in 1814 as his first venture into prose fiction. It is often regarded as one of the first historical novels in the Western tradition.
First Edinburgh edition
Disbanded, Waverley in Highland garb, illustration to 1893 edition, by J Pettie.
Depicts Edward Waverley leaving his father's home of Waverley Honour on horseback (Waverley, ch. 2).
Steel engraving by C. Heath after a drawing by P. De Wint of a scene relating to Scott's novel Waverley. 1832. The University of Edinburgh Collections.
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the setting of particular real historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other types of narrative, including theatre, opera, cinema, and television, as well as video games and graphic novels. It often makes many use of symbolism in allegory using figurative and metaphorical elements to picture a story.
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, published 1869 and set 60 years before
Notre-Dame de Paris. 1482, Victor Hugo (1831)
The Fifth Queen, 1906β1908 by Ford Madox Ford, is written about the 16th century.
A page from a printed copy of the Chinese historical novel Sui Tang yanyi (Romance of the Sui and Tang dynasties) by Chu Renhuo, collection of the University of Tokyo