First of all, a great deal of fiction is historical fiction. Whether intended or not, most stories set in a different time and place from our own will teach us something about how people lived in those circumstances. As an example, I thought it interesting when I was reading through the Anne of Green Gables series that one of the later books covers Anne's family dealing with all of the struggles and hardships of World War I. I would imagine that the author hadn't intended to write "historical fiction" when she first started the series, but was probably so affected by World War I that she was moved to include these experiences in one of her stories.
Historical Fiction allows an author to present a certain event or time period from a particular perspective. Now, perspective might seem like an ambiguous consideration for the study of history, but I think it can tell you an awful lot about how people work. Understanding a person's background, upbringing, lifestyle and impressions of the world around him can give you a fairly clear picture about why he made certain decisions or acted in a certain way. When we read history texts, we only see things through our view of what the world is like. We need to understand history through the eyes of the people who were there! I believe that understanding human nature and learning from the experiences of others is a rather important part of the study of history. Perspective fits in very nicely with this too. Perspective also can help explain how two people (or nations), both thinking that they're in the right, can be opposed to each other.
Reading about a particular event from a unique perspective can also help us relate to it better. An example that comes to mind is Abigail and the Widow Mary by Noel Trimming. In this book, several of Jesus' miracles are elaborated on through the eyes of fictitious children who might have been involved in the story. "Abigail" is the younger sister of the bride of the Wedding Feast at Cana. Although the story as told in the Gospels is beautiful and moving, even an adult is assisted in seeing more fully the significance of the miracle by Abigail's concerns about her family's honor and her joy at witnessing Jesus miraculously changing the water to wine. The details of the story give us a more complete understanding of how serious the lack of wine at the Wedding was given the Jewish culture and customs.
Another example is The Song at the Scaffold by Gertrud von de Fort. Through the eyes of a Carmelite convent in France, we "witness" the French Revolution from a Catholic perspective. We see how much the revolutionaries hated God and religion, how Catholics were treated by them and how Catholics reacted to the revolution itself.
Additional Thoughts:
1. History and Literature are the same in some ways -- they both are the study of man. The study of history can increase our wisdom and insight about human nature. By reading about the successes and failures of people in different circumstances, one can learn how to act and how not to act.
2. The study of history allows us to see beyond the circumstances of our own age, and distinguish what is eternal from what is ephemereal. The importance of this is hardly to be over-estimated. As G.K. Chesterton says, the main purpose of education is that we realize that our conventional wisdom is not real wisdom.
3. As to historical fiction as opposed to textbooks -- textbooks have their place, but they are a skeleton version of real history, and should not be mistaken for the living body. Fiction allows history to come alive. I'm also thinking that in past ages history was taught and passed on more in literary works than in textbooks. Think of the Odyssey, the Aeneid, many of Shakespeare's plays, indeed the Bible -- they are all to a greater or lesser extent at least purportedly historical, yet they are unmistakably literature. In my opinion, since history and literature are so closely intertwined in themes and meaning, they are a natural combination. I'd even say that history as the study of human nature can't reach its full potential except by literary means.
4. When I was a child, I read all kinds of fiction, and what I loved most about these stories was that they allowed me to step into others' shoes -- an Indian boy, a pioneer girl, a medieval knight -- and to reflect on choices and dilemmas I would thankfully never have to face in real life. All kinds of fiction serves this purpose, but particularly historical fiction, because the lives portrayed in historical fiction are further outside one's scope. They allow one to "practice" outside the boundaries of one's normal, safe, habitual life. For this reason I think that well-chosen, high-quality historical fiction can be a benefit to a child's character.
Contributed by Willa Ryan
"I have always loved historical fiction and devoured it as a little girl. My favorite times in history are Tudor/Stuart England and Civil War America. I think historical fiction is valuable in the fact that the authors explore the why of a person's motivation in the particular mileau. The history books tell the facts, dates, people, names, places. But why did Henry the VIII go through so many wives? Why did Mary Tudor feel so strongly about her Catholic faith? If we take a minor fictitious character and see the major characters through their fictitious eyes, we can explore these facets of history in an analytic sense. Children in works of historical fictional can help our children relate to the characters in the book and help them to understand why history happened the way it did and ask themselves what would they do in a particular situation. How would they have treated a slave on their daddy's plantation? How would they have reacted to their brother's going off to war? What was the motivation for an important historical figure's actions?"
"Another advantage I have found is that my children, who like historical fiction (gee, really?) are then also interested in re-enactments, antique shops, and historical villages. They see in real life what they read about in books. Most of the time, I would think that a woman taking six children into an antique shop would be nuts, but my children are amazed by the treasures and love to go. Last weekend we found an old cobbler's shoe kit that we bought and are going to learn how they made shoes. My oldest is going to dress up from one of the characters in the Mother Seton book and do the demonstration for homeschool groups and schools. "
Contributed by Joan Stromberg (author of The Orphans Find a Home: A Mother Cabrini Story)