The second in a series on the books I read during the past year. I realise we’ve slid into 2008 but who cares? Anyway after the last post on history, this time it’s fiction.

The People’s Act of Love

Set during the confused aftermath of the Russian Civil War, The People’s Act of Love is a dark tale of murder, cannibalism, betrayal and eunuchs. Actually to try and distil the book down to those keywords does not do this brooding, pondering work justice. At times the plot moves along slowly but the language is always deep and rich. The perfect book to read on a dark, wintry night when the wind is blowing all the way from Siberia.

Napoleon – The Song of Departure

I was drawn to this book by the interesting premise. Take one of history’s best-known figures, Napoleon, and write what is essentially a work of fiction but based around a framework of historical fact. Gallo has taken the life of the Corsican-born general and essentially filled in the blanks – what did the young Naopleon think about in school, what was he thinking as he struggled as a young artillery officer, and so on. These books, this is the first in a series of four, were hugely successful in continental Europe and I can understand why. It’s almost a voyeuristic look into the private life of Napoleon. I’ve half a mind to pick up one of the weightier non-fiction biographies on the future emperor, maybe this one which covers the same period.

Quicksilver

Quicksilver is a monster of a book. A trousers off, pants down, 926-page monster of a book. Set roughly in the period between the Great Fire of London and the Glorious Revolution, Quicksilver follows the story of several fictional characters as they interact with the historical giants of the day. Newton, William of Orange, Loius XIV, Leibniz, Pepys – they are all in here. While the story is at times slow, Stephenson is to be commended on the level of research that must have gone into making this novel feel so authentic. Even more impressive is that Quicksilver is merely the first book in The Baroque Cycle trilogy. (My thanks to Gavin for both insisting I read this book and lending me his copy)

Flashman

I’ve a vague recollection of flicking through my father’s boyhood copy of Tom Brown’s Schooldays when I was young but I’ve never read it myself. Flashman follows the fictional like of one Harry Paget Flashman, who, after being expelled from Rugby School in Tom Brown’s Schooldays, goes onto to live the life of a Victorian rogue bounding about the world dispatching rogues and shagging anything with two legs and a pulse. Flashman is the ultimate anti-hero and this is the kind of book every boy should read in his teenage years. The historical characters that litter the Flashman Papers are well drawn and the attention to detail is impressive. (Anyone noticing the historical theme running through my fiction collection yet?). I was saddened to hear that the book’s author George MacDonald Fraserpassed away this week at the age of 82.

The Wine-dark Sea

Saving the best until last, the twenty-book series of Aubrey-Maturin novels is, for my money at least, the defining work of historical fiction. As I’ve mentioned before, it is far beyond the scope of these blog posts to convey the epic majesty of Patrick O’Brian’s work. The books are written in the language of the time with an apparent authenticity that I’ve yet to encounter the like of. To paraphrase a book review I once saw, the English-speaking world is divided into those who have read Patrick O’Brian and those who are going to read Patrick O’Brian. Nothing short of epic.