Bookshelf
Historical Novels
5,441 free books on the Historical Novels bookshelf, free to read online. Chapter 1 of any book is free, no account needed.
ReadTwenty years after
Dumas, Alexandre; Maquet, Auguste
The work is a sprawling historical novel set in the turbulent years of Louis XIV’s early reign, where the…
ReadA Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens
The novel is a historical fiction set against the turbulence of the French Revolution and its echo in…
ReadWar and Peace
Leo Tolstoy
The novel opens in a July evening of 1805, inside the drawing‑room of Anna Pávlovna Schérer, a well‑connected…
The Lady of the Lake
Walter Scott
The work is an Arthurian romance by Sir Walter Scott, presented as the fifth canto of a larger poem.
ReadLes Misérables
Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo’s opening places the reader squarely in the early nineteenth‑century world of post‑revolutionary…
Four Arthurian Romances
Chrétien, de Troyes, active 12th century
Four Arthurian Romances gathers the chivalric tales of Chrétien de Troyes, the 12th‑century poet who shaped…
ReadThe Prince and the Pauper
Mark Twain
Mark Twain’s tale is a sprawling historical fiction set in sixteenth‑century London, where the lives of a…
Under the Red Dragon: A Novel
James Grant
The novel is a Victorian‑era romance set against the backdrop of the Crimean War, though the opening places…
ReadHenrietta Temple: A Love Story
Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield
Henrietta Temple is a self‑styled autobiographical romance by Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, that…
ReadOne of the Six Hundred: A Novel
James Grant
One of the Six Hundred is a Victorian‑era novel set against the backdrop of the Crimean War, though its…
ReadCameron of Lochiel
Philippe Aubert de Gaspé
Cameron of Lochiel is a historical romance set against the backdrop of early French‑Canadian life, written by…
ReadThe Pirate Andrew Lang Edition
Walter Scott
The work is a sprawling historical romance set amid the storm‑tossed islands of Orkney and Zetland in the…
Forest Days: A Romance of Old Times
G. P. R. James
Forest Days: A Romance of Old Times is a historical adventure set in the shadow of Sherwood Forest during the…
The Yeoman Adventurer
George W. Gough
The Yeoman Adventurer is a swash‑swashing tale set against the backdrop of the 1745–1746 Jacobite Rebellion,…
ReadThe Boy with Wings
Berta Ruck
The novel is a wartime romance set against the flamboyant backdrop of an English artists’ ball in the early…
The Treasure of Pearls: A Romance of Adventures in California
Gustave Aimard
The Treasure of Pearls is a Western romance that plunges the reader straight into the law‑less frontier of…
ReadThe Hero of the People: A Historical Romance of Love, Liberty and Loyalty
Alexandre Dumas
The Hero of the People is an historical romance set amid the tumult of the French Revolution, where the drama…
Le comte de Monte-Cristo, Tome I
Dumas, Alexandre; Maquet, Auguste
Ce premier tome du Comte de Monte‑Cristo se présente comme une fresque d’aventures et de drames maritimes,…
Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1
Sir Thomas Malory
Le Morte d’Arthur is Thomas Malory’s monumental compilation of Arthurian romances, presented in twenty‑one…
ReadLorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor
R. D. Blackmore
The novel is a historical romance set against the rugged backdrop of Exmoor in the late seventeenth century,…
ReadHypnerotomachia: The Strife of Loue in a Dreame
Francesco Colonna
Francesco Colonna’s Hypnerotomachia is a fifteenth‑century Italian romance rendered into English, presenting…
ReadThe Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
Howard Pyle
Howard Pyle’s The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood is a retelling of the English folklore surrounding the…
ReadLes trois mousquetaires
Dumas, Alexandre; Maquet, Auguste
Ce roman d’aventure historique se situe au cœur de la France du début du XVIIᵉ siècle, sous le règne de Louis…
The Romance of Tristan and Iseult
Joseph Bédier
The Romance of Tristan and Iseult, rendered by Joseph Bédier, is an adaptation of the medieval Arthurian…