The historical novel from Scott to Sabatini

Sir Walter Scott, in theory and practice, established a rationale for the writing of historical novels. He identified the relative importance of the roles to be played by real men and women of the past, and discussed the significance of language, the importance of research as opposed to the claims of the imagination, and the proper use of strong passions in his fictional characters.

Some of his contemporaries and successors thought that they could surpass his achievement by being more faithful to the 'facts' of history, or by moralizing about more up-to-date issues, but their efforts proved less successful.

Not until Robert Louis Stevenson redefined the possibilities inherent in the genre - beginning in the 1880s - did the historical romance attract a wider audience. The resurgence of this type of fiction, called by some 'The New Historical Novel', attracted the impressive storytelling talents of Sir Walter Besant, Richard Doddridge Blackmore, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Stanley John Weyman, Anthony Hope, Sir Henry Rider Haggard, and Rafael Sabatini.

The Armistice that concluded the Great War brought to an abrupt end this amazing forty-year vogue for costume novels. The story of how and why they became so popular is well worth reviewing.