historical novel
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of historical novel
First recorded in 1820–30
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Chase the Wind, the first of the Retallick saga, was voted the best historical novel of 1977, with Thompson going on to write about 40 historical novels, most of them set in Cornwall.
From BBC • Feb. 14, 2026
Romney recounts that, for example, when someone recommended she write a historical novel, she responded, “No, I must keep to my own style and go in my own way.”
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 30, 2025
Morgan Jerkins has given us something magnificent in her second novel, “Zeal“: a sweeping historical novel that plants itself firmly in the present tense of American reckoning.
From Salon • Jun. 28, 2025
It’s a historical novel, but it’s incredibly well told.
From New York Times • Mar. 16, 2024
It was like a page torn from a book, a historical novel, perhaps, dealing with the captivity in Babylon or the Spanish Inquisition.
From "Night" by Elie Wiesel
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
