Literary Visions

Historical novels can be dicey propositions. Since they are framed around real events, they tend to build toward an endpoint that we already know. In the process, they risk presenting life as something predetermined and inexorable. But history in the making is in fact a flexible thing, subject to countless contingencies. To truly bring the past to life in literature, a writer must bring those possibilities to life as well, and present historical events as up for grabs, liable to fall into anyone’s hands. Depicting contingency might even trump strict historical accuracy, as when authors resort to anachronism to get their point across.