Some of the best historical novels of all times, sorted by period depicted and by author:

Ancient Age (until 476 AD)

Bradshaw, Gillian (2003). Beacon at Alexandria. Soho Press. [A female doctor in the Roman Empire].

Broch, Hermann (1995). Death of Virgil. Vintage. [Historical novel and prose poem on the great Roman poet].

Caldwell, Taylor (2008). Dear and Glorious Physician. Ignatius Press. [Luke the Evangelist].

Iggulden, Conn (2019). The Falcon of Sparta. Pegasus Books. [Battle of Thermopylae].

Graves, Robert (2006). I, Claudius. Penguin Classics. [Roman emperor].

Guanzhong, Luo (2018). The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Penguin Classics. [Epic novel, China, Han dynasty].

Harris, Robert (2007). Imperium. Pocket. [Cicero, the Roman senator and politician].

Lagerkvist, Pär (1989). Barabbas. Vintage. [Israel, 1st century AD].

Mahfuz, Naguib (2005). Khufu’s Wisdom. Anchor. [Egyptian Pharaoh Cheops and the Great Pyramid of Giza].

Mahfuz, Naguib (2002). Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth. American University in Cairo Press. [Pharaoh of ancient Egypt].

Mann, Thomas (2005). Joseph and His Brothers (4 parts). Everyman’s Library. [The character from the Bible].

Manfredi, Valerio M. (2007). The Last Legion. Pan Books. [Fall of the Western Roman Empire].

Newman, John Henry (2007). Callista: A Sketch of the Third Century. Cosimo Classics. [Early Christianity in Carthage].

Renault, Mary (2001). The Last of the Wine. Vintage. [Two men during the end of Athens’s Golden Age].

Sienkiewicz, Henryk (2006). Quo Vadis. Norilana Books. [Early Christianity in Rome].

Sutcliff, Rosemary (2010). The Roman Britain Trilogy. Square Fish.

Wallace, Lewis (2005). Ben-Hur. Thomas Nelson. [A Jewish charioteer and Jesus of Nazareth].

Wilder, Thornton (2003). The Ides of March. Harper Perennial. [Death of Julius Caesar].

Williams, John (2014). Augustus. NYRB Classics. [The first Roman emperor].

Yourcenar, Marguerite (2005). Memoirs of Hadrian. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. [The Roman emperor who loved Greek culture].

Middle Ages (5th-15th centuries)

Guillou, Jan (2009-2011). The Crusades Trilogy. Harper. [A Swedish warrior in the Holy Land].

Haasse, Hella S. (2005). In a Dark Wood Wandering. Academy Chicago Publishers. [The Hundred Years’ War between France and England].

Hugo, Victor (2006). Notre-Dame of Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame). Oxford University Press. [Quasimodo, medieval France].

Kadaré, Ismail (2008). The Siege. Bond Street Books. [Assault on a Christian fortress in Albania by the Ottoman Army, 15th century].

Scott, Walter (2005). Ivanhoe. Barnes & Noble Classics. [Romantic medieval knights].

Stevenson, Robert Luis (2009). The Black Arrow. Serenity Publishers, LLC. [15th-century England, The War of the Roses].

Twain, Mark (2002). Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc. Dover Publications. [French medieval heroine].

Undset, Sigrid (2005). Kristin Lavransdatter. Penguin Classics. [A woman in 14th-century Norway].

Early Modern History (16th-18th centuries)

Bashevis Singer, Isaac (2012). The Slave. Penguin Classics. [A Jewish slave in 17th-century Poland].

Chevalier, Tracy (2005). Girl with a Pearl Earring. Plume. [Netherlands, 17th century].

Cooper, J. Feenimore (2008). The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757. BiblioLife. [American frontier life].

Dickens, Charles (2009). Barnaby Rudge. Oxford University Press. [London, anti-Catholic riots of 1780].

Dumas, Alexandre (2008). The Three Musketeers. Penguin. [France, 17th century].

Eliot, George (1997). Romola. Penguin Classics. [Renaissance Florence].

Ford Madox Ford (1999). The Fifth Queen. Penguin Classics. [Life of Catalina Howard, wife of Henry VIII].

Hawthorne, Nathaniel (2009). The Scarlet Letter. Harvard University Press. [New England Puritans of the 17th century].

Manzoni, Alessandro (2008). The Betrothed. BiblioBazaar. [Love of two peasants, Italy, 17th century].

Perez-Reverte, Arturo (2005). Captain Alatriste. Plume. [Spanish Empire, 17th century].

Perutz, Leo (1989). Leonardo’s Judas. Little, Brown and Company. [Leonardo da Vinci].

Sciascia, Leonardo (1988). The Council of Egypt. Carcanet. [Palermo, 18th century].

Steinbeck, John (1995). Cup of Gold. Penguin Classics. [Sir Henry Morgan].

Suskind, Patrick (2001). Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. Vintage. [A murderer in 18th-century France].

Tremain, Rose (2001). Music & Silence. Washington Square Press. [Court of the Danish King Christian IV, and the magic of music].

Wilder, Thornton (2004). The Bridge of San Luis Rey. HarperCollins. [Peru, 18th century].

Yoshikawa, Eiji (2012). Musashi: An Epic Novel of Samurai Era. Kodansha International. [Japan, 17th century].

19th Century (from 1789)

Calvino, Italo (1977). The Baron in the Trees. Harvest Books. [A young 18th-century Italian nobleman].

Cather, Willa (2008). O Pioneers! Oxford University Press. [An immigrant family’s struggle to save their Nebraska farm].

Crane, Stephen (2004). The Red Badge of Courage. Prestwick House Inc. [American Civil War].

Dickens, Charles (2003). A Tale of Two Cities. Penguin Classics. [London and Paris during the French Revolution].

Doctorow, E. L. (2006). The March. Random House. [American Civil War].

Farrell, J. G. (2004). The Siege of Krishnapur. NYRB Classics. [The Sepoy Mutiny in India in 1857].

Faulkner, William (1991). The Unvanquished. Vintage. [American Civil War and post-war period].

García Márquez, Gabriel (2004). The General in His Labyrinth. Everyman’s Library. [The last days of Simon Bolivar].

Giono, Jean (1982). The Horseman on the Roof. North Point Press. [Europe, 19th century].

Guedj, Denis (2001). The Measure of the World: A Novel. University of Chicago Press. [Science and Politics during the French Revolution].

Harris, Robert (2014). An Officer and a Spy. Vintage. [1890s Paris].

Hugo, Victor (2003). Les Miserables. Sterling Publishing. [France, 1848 Revolution].

Kantor, MacKinlay (2016). Andersonville. Plume. [American Civil War].

Lampedusa, G. Tomasi di (2007). The Leopard. Pantheon. [Italian unification or Risorgimento].

Maalouf, Amin (1995). The Rock of Tanios. Abacus. [Lebanon and the Ottoman Empire, 19th century].

McCarthy, Cormac (2001). Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West. Modern Library. [Texas-Mexico borderlands in the 19th century].

Mitchell, Margaret (1996). Gone with the Wind. Scribner. [Love during the American Civil War].

O’Brian, Patrick (2007). Master and Commander. HarperPerennial. [The control of the sea during the Napoleonic Wars].

Pérez Galdós, Benito (2008). Trafalgar: A Tale. Kessinger Publishing. [The naval Battle of Trafalgar, 1805].

Rambaud, Patrick (2001). The Battle. Grove Press. [The Napoleonic defeat in the Battle of Essling, 1809].

Shaara, Michael (2007). The Killer Angels. Ballantine Books. [American Civil War].

Tolstoy, Leo (2008). War and Peace. Vintage. [Napoleon’s invasion of Russia].

Toson, Shimazaki (1988). Before the Dawn. University of Hawaii Press. [The fall of the Tokugawa shogunate in 19th-century Japan].

Uslar Pietri, Arturo (1963). The red lances. Knopf. [The Venezuelan War of Independence].

Vidal, Gore (2000). Lincoln: A Novel. Vintage. [The last years of Lincoln].

Von Le Fort, Gertrud (2001). The Song at the Scaffold. Sophia Institute Press. [Death of Catholic Carmelites during French Revolution].

Werfel, Franz (2006). The Song of Bernadette. Ignatius Press. [The visions of Bernardette at Lourdes, France, 1858].

20th Century

Amis, Martin (2003). Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million. Vintage. [Stalin and his legacy].

Aramburu, Fernando (2019). Homeland. Pantheon. [Basque terrorism, second half of the 20th century].

Bábel, Isaac (2003). Red Cavalry. W.W. Norton & Co. Ltd. [Russia, 1920].

Barry, Sebastian (2005). A Long Long Way. Penguin Book. [World War I].

Cercas, Javier (2004). Soldiers of Salamis. Bloomsbury. [Spanish Civil War].

Chang, Jung (2003). Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. Touchstone. [Three generations of women in China during the 20th century].

Coetzee, J. M. (1998). Age of Iron. Penguin. [South Africa, Apartheid].

Corti, Eugenio (2002). The Red Horse. Ignatius Press. [Italy, 20th century].

DeLillo, Don (2007). Underworld. Scribner. [20th-century American history and culture].

Dinesen, Isak (1992). Out of Africa. Modern Library. [British East Africa before World War II].

Doderer, Heimito von (1993). Demons. Sun & Moon Press. [Vienna before and after World War II].

Doerr, Anthony (2014). All the Light We Cannot See. Scribner. [Intermingling lives of two teenagers in Nazi Europe].

Dos Passos, John (1996). U.S.A. (3 novels). Library of America. [America, from 1890 until the Great Depression].

Dueñas, María (2011). The Time In Between. Atria Books. [Spanish, Morocco, and Portugal during Spanish Civil War and the post-war period].

Fallada, Hans (2010). Alone in Berlin. Penguin Books. [Berlin, 1940].

Forester, C. S. (2017). The African Queen. Macmillan Collector’s Library. [African Great Lakes during World War I].

Forster, E. M. (2005). A Passage to India. Penguin Classics. [Indian society within the grip of imperialism].

Ginzburg, Natalia (1989). Family Sayings. Arcade Publishing. [Turin, 1930].

Gironella, José Maria (2005). The Cypresses Believe in God. Ignatius Press. [Spanish Civil War].

Grass, Günter (2004). Crabwalk. Mariner Books. [Sunk of the German refugee ship Wilhelm Gustoff in 1945].

Grossman, Vasili (2006). Life and Fate. NYRB Classics. [Russia, World War II].

Hannah, Kristin (2017). The Nightingale. St. Martin’s Griffin. [French women during World War II].

Hemingway, Ernest (1996). For Whom the Bell Tolls. Scribner. [Spanish Civil War].

Hosseini, Khaled (2008). A Thousand Splendid Suns. Riverhead Trade. [Afghanistan, second half of the 20th century].

lbuse, Masuji (2012). Black Rain. Kodansha International. [Radioactive “black rain” in Hiroshima, caused by the atom bomb].

Jünger, Ernst (2016). Storm of Steel. Penguin Classics. [World War I].

Khoury, Elias (2016). Gate of the Sun. Archipelago. [Palestine and Lebanon, second half of the 20th century].

Koestler, Arthur (2019). Darkness at Noon. Scribner. [Show trials of a Stalinist Moscow].

Lee, Harper (2002). To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Perennial. [Racism and honor in America’s deep South].

Lewis, Cecil (2014). Sagittarius Rising. Penguin Classics. [Air battles of World War I].

Lobo Antunes, Antonio (2004). The Inquisitor’s Manual. Grove Press. [Portugal, Salazar’s regime from 1932 to 1968].

Maalouf, Amin (2001). Ports of Call. Random House UK. [Lebanon, second half of the 20th century].

Malraux, André (1990). Man’s Fate. Vintage. [Shanghai, early days of the Chinese Revolution].

Marlantes, Karl (2011). Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War. Grove Press.

Modiano, Patrick (2016). Dora Bruder. University of California Press. [Paris under the Nazi Occupation].

Mourad, Kenize (1993). Regards from the Dead Princess. Random House. [Turkey after World War I].

Nemirovsky, Irene (2007). Suite Française. Vintage. [France under Nazi occupation].

O’Flaherty, Liam (2008). The Informer. Wolfhound Pr. [The aftermath of the Irish Civil War].

Ooka, Shohei (2001). Fires on the Plain. Tuttle Publishing. [Japan, World War II].

Pasternak, Boris (1997). Doctor Zhivago. Pantheon. [Russian Revolution].

Penn Warren, Robert (2002). All the King’s Men. Mariner Books. [Inspired by Huey Long, the populist governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932].

Remarque, Erich Maria (2018). All Quiet on the Western Front. Everyman’s Library. [World War I].

Rosenstone, Robert (2007). King of Odessa: A Novel of Isaac Babel. Northwestern University Press. [Babel’s last visit to Odessa in 1936].

Roth, Joseph (2002). The Radetzky March. Overlook TP. [Decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire].

Rushdie, Salman (1998). The Moor’s Last Sigh. Vintage. [Chronicle of 20th-century India].

Sales, Joan (2002). Uncertain Glory. American Institute for Catalan Studies. [Spanish Civil War].

Scott, Paul (2007). The Raj Quartet (4 novels). Everyman’s Library. [British India in its final years].

Sebald, W. G. (2002). Austerlitz. Modern Library. [A man faced with the void at the heart of 20th-century Europe].

Sijie, Dai (2001). Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Knopf. [The Maoist Cultural Revolution and the power of literature].

Solmssen, Arthur (1982). A Princess in Berlin. Penguin Books. [Berlin, 1922].

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander (2009). One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Berkley. [Soviet Gulag].

Szczypiorski, Andrze (1997). The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman. Grove Press. [Warsaw under Nazi occupation, 1943].

Tabucchi, Antonio (1997). Declares Pereira. New Directions Publishing Corporation. [Lisbon, Salazar’s regime, 1938].

Thiong’o, Ngugi wa (2012). A Grain of Wheat. Penguin Classics. [Independence of Kenya].

Vargas Llosa, Mario (2002). The Feast of the Goat. Picador. [Rafael Trujillo, the dictator whom Dominicans called the Goat].

Waugh, Evelyn (2012). Sword of Honor (3 novels). Little, Brown and Company. [World War II].

Werfel, Franz (1983). Forty Days of Musa Dagh. Amereon Limited. [Armenian genocide].

Transversal

Andric, Ivo (2007). The Bridge on the Drina. Dereta. [Bosnia, 17th-20th centuries].

Gyasi, Yaa (2017). Homegoing. Vintage. [From the Gold Coast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to Jazz Age Harlem].

Haasse, Hella (1997). The Gentlemen of the Tea. Walvaboek. [Dutchmen settlers in Java, 17th-19th centuries].

Lapierre, Dominique (2009). A Rainbow in the Night: The Tumultuous Birth of South Africa. Da Capo Press. [South Africa’s history, from 17th century].

Magris, Claudio (2017). Microcosms. Vintage Classics. [Travel literature along the tiny borderlands of Istria and Italy].

Naipaul, V. S. (2003). The Loss of El Dorado: A Colonial History. Vintage. [History of the island of Trinidad].

Nievo, Ippolito (1988). Confessioni d’un Italiano. Garzanti. [Italy, 18th and 19th centuries].