Talking about POE and Udayar I remembered another novel "Harem".It was written by colin faulkaneer.It talks about the sultan suleiman,the magnificient.He was the greatest caliph in history of ottomon empire.He earned the wrath of a woman Roxelena,who vowed to do what the crusaders and emperors of Europe always dreamt of.She vowed to bring down the ottomon empire.She does that in style a.l.a nandhini.She bewitches sultan,makes him kill his loyal wazir,hate his wife,kill his effecient sons.She finally makes her illegitimate son heir to the throne.On her death bed she has the final revenge.She tells sultan the truth in her death bed ,She tells him that the son who is in the throne is born to a eunuch and not to him and dies happily.
That is a real painful novel.When we finish reading it,we will shed a drop of tear for roxalena.Not only her story,but there is a beautiful love story of two Italian lovers in 'harem'.I forgot the lovers' name.That story is so moving that I was on the verge of crying after I read it.
The tactics of Roxelena is similiar to that of nandhini's.Certainly harem isnt for the faint hearted.It will be very painful.But its history based novel similiar to PS.
For history lovers another novel 'Mogul' will be very interesting.It was written by 'Alan savage'.Its simply astonishing.It talks of a british family which served moguls (from babur to aurangazeb).I am searching for 'ottomon' by alan savage,but its gone out of print.But 'Mogul' will be a great reading.
but full of plots and twists and turns is "delhi" by khuswant singh traces history of delhi thro the lives of the protagonsits over the last 1000 years
another must read for history buffs is the river god by wilbur smith. writes about the pharohs of egypt. how the greatest empire on earth succumbed to the enemy hyscos ( basically a goat herd clan)because the latter had knowledge on the use of the wheel and the egyptians did not.
Since this is just a list of the historical novels, I will list my favs.
1. 'Masters of Rome' series by Colleed McCullough. This is actually five novels tracing life in Ancient Rome (110B.C till the ascendency of Octavius in 31B.C). It is a fantastic novel which traces the end of the Republican Rome and the start of the Empire. In my opinion, this is probably one of the best historical novel which uses hundreds of Roman sources (from Cinna to Cicero to Ceaser) and constructs the events skillfully. I still read the novels now and then and it is still interesting. The best of the series is 'Ceaser' Which traces the rise of Julius Ceaser and his death followed by the revenge taken by Octavian and Agrippa. Its mind boggling to read of such great characters like Marius, Sulla, Ceaser, Cato, Cicero and many more. If you are a history buff, this is a must read.
2. 'Julian' by Gore Vidal. This is not available freely and I had to order it through the Atlanta central libarary to get it. But it is well worth it. It follows the life of Julian the Apostate one of the emperors of Rome who rallied Rome against Christianity for one last stand and failed.
3. 'Creation' by Gore Vidal. Another rare book. It traces the travels of Cyrus Spitama, the grandson of Prophet Zoraster, from Greece to China in around 440B.C. Another meticulously researched novel and Cyrus visits India during the time of MahaVira and during the reigh of BinduSara(in Patliputra). It is a very interesting novel in that it attempts to describe the social life as well.
4. 'American Empire' series by Gore Vidal. I haven't read all the novels but it traces the history of America from 1776 to around 1960's. I have read '1776', 'Burr' and 'Lincoln' from the series and because it is recent history, the novels are researched well and interesting.
5. Ofcourse, can't leave the master, Alexandre Dumas, from this list. Greatest romance writer and ofcourse, his novels are more stories than based on historical facts.
6. 'Over the Edge of the World' - Laurence Bergreen. A very interesting novel about the circumnavigation of the world by Megallen and his crew.
Then, there is 'Gates of Fire', Jeffrey Shaara's series on the American Civil war, Leon Uris and many more.
There are another set of crappy novels which I have vowed never to go near. But thats for another day.
dear all Muthuprakash has furnished an excellent list for those like us who dwell in the cobwebs of the past members should also check for a huge qty of historical novels available in project gutenberg on the net since it has only books published 50 years back most authors must have been contemprories of kalki. i have read one about alexander in the eyes of a persian slave.