“Show what actually happened” was once a dictum for historians. Luckily, writers of historical fiction did not follow suit. “On peut violer l’histoire à condition de lui faire de beaux enfants,” argued Alexandre Dumas, recognising a creative license without which the writing of War and Peace, The Red and the Black, and Radetzky March would have been tricky. Concerned about giving a fair account of ancient Carthage in Salammbô, Flaubert wrote in his letters: “It’s history, I know that. But if a novel is as boring as a scientific book…”
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