Excerpt from A Guide to Historical Fiction Tales, has written an able defence of the reading of this kind of romance, to which I have little to add except by the way of emphasis. Historical fiction is not history, but it is often better than history. A fine historical painting, a pageant, or a play, may easily teach more and carry a deeper impression than whole Chapters of description and analysis. Esmond and Tom fones are indispensable adjuncts to Lecky. Scott and Dumas will always have a larger history class than any two regular historians you could name. Even a second-rate historical novel may have ample excuse for existence. But a good one - good, that is, merely as a story - though chronology may be at fault and facts inaccurately stated, will probably succeed in making a period live in the imagination when text-books merely give us dry bones. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.