Historical fiction

August. Named, presumably, for Caesar Augustus, aka Octavius, aka Octavius Caesar. July was named for his great-uncle Julius Caesar. Those guys. Should I be ashamed to say that a lot of what I know about them and about the events leading up to Rome changing from a republic to an empire comes from a series of historical novels by Colleen McCullough?

Back in the day, meaning when I was young, she wrote a huge bestseller called The Thorn Birds. Later it was a made-for-TV movie that starred Mr. Mini-Series himself, Richard Chamberlain.

The Roman book series is called The Masters of Rome, and I think I did read them all. I bought the first few in paperback and the later ones on my Kindle. Although there is a pulpy quality to the writing, I think that her historical details are correct. At any rate, it helped me get those characters straight in my mind and know what they did: Marius, Sulla, Pompey the Great, Crassus, Cicero, Julius Caesar, Brutus, Mark Anthony, Cleopatra, and Augustus.

Historical fiction is not all bad. In high school, I read some novel about Elizabeth I, and developed enough interest in her that I went on to read many non-fiction biographies of her and her contemporaries, the history of the time, and history and biographies of the English monarchs before and after her, and then a few about the rest of Europe.

Actually, I just read The Splendid Century: Life in the France of Louis XIV, by W.H. Lewis, the brother of C.S. Lewis. He, too, was a member of the Inklings and read his works in progress at their meetings. It was a pretty good read.

There, too, I have previously met Louis XIV in the pages of historical novels. First Alexandre Dumas' The Man in the Iron Mask when I was in high school, to the best of my recollection. As an adult I read a novel about Madame de Maintenon, but I can't remember the title right now. In that book, she secretly married Louis XIV after the death of his royal wife, and I thought that was a little fictional detail. But it turns out everyone seems to accept that this happened. She was his maîtresse-en-titre, but troubled by the adulterous nature of their relationship. When the king's wife, Maria Theresa of Spain, died, he privately married Madame de Maintenon. She was not of suitable birth to become the Queen of France, and he could negotiate with foreign powers for a 2nd queen if he found it useful for a ruse.

Isn't that interesting? I find it so, but perhaps others would not.