List of historical fiction by time period

Set in Prehistory (c. 30,000 BC – 3000 BC)

Earth's Children by Jean Auel

Ember of a New World by Tom Watson

Stonehenge by Bernard Cornwell

Pillar of the Sky by Cecelia Holland

Mammoth Trilogy by Stephen Baxter

The Gathering Night by Margaret Elphinstone

Song of the Axe and Song of the Earth by John R. Dann

Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver

First North Americans by W. Michael Gear & Kathleen O'Neal Gear

The Temporary Zare (На заре времен) series by Semyon Karatov et al.

The King Must Die and The Bull from the Sea by Mary Renault

Set in Classical Greece, Ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire, etc. (c. 2000 BC – 500 AD)

I, Claudius, King Jesus, Homer's Daughter and Count Belisarius by Robert Graves

Fire from Heaven, The Persian Boy, and Funeral Games by Mary Renault

Emperor series by Conn Iggulden

A Struggle for Rome by Felix Dahn

Men of Bronze and Memnon by Scott Oden

The Scourge of God by William Dietrich

Pharaoh by Bolesław Prus

Julian and Creation by Gore Vidal

The Sword of Attila (Мечът на Атила) by Petar Bobev

The Death of Attila by Cecelia Holland

Uard, Homo Sum, Die Schwester, Der Kaiser by Georg Ebers

Carthage Trilogy by Ross Leckie

Kleopatra Pharaoh by Karen Essex

Gaius Valerius Verrens series by Douglas Jackson

The Ramses Series and The Queen of Freedom Trilogy by Christian Jacq

The Empress of Silk (L'impératrice de la soie) and The Jade Disc (Le disque de jade) by José Frèches

The War at Troy and The Return from Troy by Lindsay Clarke

Marcus Corvinus series by David Wishart

Roma Sub Rosa by Steven Saylor

The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George

Hannibal Chronicles, Spartacus Chronicles and Forgotten Legion Chronicles by Ben Kane

Vespasian series by Robert Fabbri

Cicero Trilogy (Imperium/Lustrum/Dictator) and Pompeii by Robert Harris

The Egyptian and The Secret of the Kingdom by Mika Waltari

The Alexander Trilogy (Trilogia di Aléxandros) by Valerio Massimo Manfredi

Eagle Series and Gladiator Series by Simon Scarrow

Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero by Henryk Sienkiewicz

Lion of Sparta (Леонид. Спартанский лев) and Darius (Дарий) by Viktor Porotnikov

Troy Series by David Gemmel

The Walled Orchard, Olympiad, Song for Nero, Meadowland and Alexander: At World's End by Tom Holt

Judge Dee by Robert Van Gulik

Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong and retold by Eiji Yoshikawa

Gates of Fire, Last of the Amazons, The Virtues of War, The Afghan Campaign and Tides of War by Stephen Pressfield

Hay luz en casa de Publio Fama by Juan Miñana

Scipio trilogy and Trajan trilogy by Santiago Posteguillo

El lazo de púrpura by Alejandro Núñez Alonso

The Unconquered Sun by Ralph Dulin

Helena by Evelyn Waugh

Set in the Middle Ages (c. 500 AD – 1500)

Les Rois maudits (The Accursed Kings) by Maurice Druon

The Saxon Stories and The Grail Quest by Bernard Cornwell

Conqueror series by Conn Iggulden

Oathsworn Series by Robert Low

Matthew Bartholomew series by Susanna Gregory

Brethren Trilogy and The Insurrection Trilogy by Robyn Young

Camulod Chronicles by Jack Whyte

Kings of Albion and The Last English King by Julian Rathbone

Minstrel Dick. A Tale of the XIVth Century by Christabel R. Coleridge (set in the court of Edward, the Black Prince)

King Raven Trilogy by Stephen Lawhead

The Knights of the Cross by Henryk Sienkiewicz

New Tale of the Heike by Eiji Yoshikawa

King Arthur Trilogy, Merlin, Twilight of the Celts by M. K. Hume

The Viking Series and Saxon by Tim Severin

Nama miko monogatari (A Tale of False Fortunes) by Fumiko Enchi

The Plantagenet Series, The Welsh Princes Series, The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman

The Cadfael Chronicles and A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury by Edith Pargeter

The Corban Loosestrife series and Great Maria by Cecelia Holland

El Doncel de don Enrique el Doliente by Mariano José de Larra

Sancho Saldaña o el castellano de Cuellar by José de Espronceda

Svetoslav Terter, Two against hell and Black Rider by Tsoncho Rodev

Il cavaliere invisibile by Valerio Massimo Manfredi

Telling of Khan Asparoukh, knyaz Slav and votari Terez, Telling of the time of Samuil, Odd knight of Holy book by Anton Donchev

Los bandos de Castilla by Ramón López Soler

Los malos años and Corazón oscuro by León Arsenal

El camino mozarabe by Jesús Sánchez Adalid

Pre-Aztec Series, The Rise of the Aztecs Series, The Peacemaker Series, The People of the Longhouse Series by Zoe Saadia

Set in the Early Modern Period (c. 1500 – 1760)

Sano Ichiro by Laura Joh Rowland

Lymond Chronicles and The House of Niccolò by Dorothy Dunnett

The Secrets of the Tudor Court and Face Down Mysteries by Kate Emerson

Captain Alatriste by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Peter I by Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy

The White Devil (Белият Дявол) by Hristo Kalchev

The Waverley Novels by Walter Scott

The Cem Case (Случаят Джем) by Vera Mutafchieva

My Name is Red and The White Castle by Orhan Pamuk

Mathias Tannhauser trilogy by Tim Willocks

d'Artagnan Romances and Valois Romances by Alexandre Dumas

Leonardo's Swans by Karen Essex

Miyamoto Musashi and Taiko ki by Eiji Yoshikawa

Imprimatur Secretum Veritas Mysterium... by Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti

Leo Africanus, Samarkand, Balthasar's Odyssey by Amin Maalouf

Shōgun by James Clavell

Adventures of Captain Alatriste series by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

The Heretic: A Novel of the Inquisition by Miguel Delibes

Ladrones de tinta by Alfonso Mateo-Sagasta

El reino de los hombres sin amor by Alfonso Mateo-Sagasta

The Heart of Jade (El Corazón de piedra verde) by Salvador de Madariaga

La aventura equinocial de Lope de Aguirre by Ramón José Sender Garcés

Tlaloc Weeps for Mexico (Esőisten siratja Mexikót) by László Passuth

Centauros by Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa (Alonso de Ojeda)

The Last Crusader by Louis de Wohl

Aztec by Gary Jennings

Romola by George Eliot

Set during the Industrial Revolution and Napoleonic Era (c. 1760 – 1840)

Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell

The Competition by Caroline Miley

Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian

Hornblower series by C.S. Forester

Lord Ramage by Dudley Pope

Saint Hermine Series by Alexandre Dumas

The Trilogy by Henryk Sienkiewicz

Ethan Cage by William Dietrich

The Mutiny by Julian Rathbone

Stealing Athena by Karen Essex

The Revolution Quartet by Simon Scarrow

Beltrán Ochoa, capitán de Dragones series by Octavio Sánchez-Machuca (Carlos III reign)

El día que España derrotó a Inglaterra. De cómo Blas de Lezo, tuerto, manco y cojo, venció en Cartagena de Indias a la otra «Armada Invencible» by Pablo Victoria

National Episodes by Benito Pérez Galdós)

La Regenta by Leopoldo Alas (Clarín)

Fortunata y Jacinta by Benito Pérez Galdós

Un día de cólera, El húsar, The Siege (El asedio) and La sombra del águila by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Una saga marinera española by Luis Delgado Bañón

Historical romances by Eleanor Hibbert

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Set during recent history (c. 1850 – 1950)

The Starbuck Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez

Enigma by Robert Harris

Cézanne’s Quarry by Barbara Corrado Pope

The Blood of Lorraine by Barbara Corrado Pope

The Missing Italian Girl by Barbara Corrado Pope

Set 2000 BC – 600 AD

Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Timon of Athens, Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare

Britannicus by Jean Racine

Caligula by Albert Camus

The Death of Pompey by Pierre Corneille

Socrates on Trial by Andrew David Irvine

Caesar and Cleopatra by George Bernard Shaw

The Siege of Numantia by Miguel de Cervantes

Salome by Oscar Wilde

Set 600 AD – 1550

St Joan by George Bernard Shaw

William Shakespeare's English history plays

Edward II, Tamburlaine, and The Massacre at Paris by Christopher Marlowe

Henry IV by Luigi Pirandello

In Extremis: The Story of Abelard & Heloise and Anne Boleyn by Howard Brenton

The Jester's Supper by Sem Benelli

Marie Tudor by Victor Hugo

Götz von Berlichingen by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Murder in the Cathedral by T. S. Eliot

Set after 1550

Egmont and Torquato Tasso by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Mary Stuart and Demetrius by Friedrich Schiller

Cross and Sword by Paul Green

Set 3000 BC – 600 AD

Aida and Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi

Akhnaten by Philip Glass

Cléopâtre and Hérodiade by Jules Massenet

Mosè in Egitto by Gioachino Rossini

Giulio Cesare by George Frideric Handel

Les Troyens by Hector Berlioz

Sapho by Charles Gounod

L'Olimpiade by Metastasio

Germanicus by Georg Philipp Telemann

Set 600 AD – 1800

Gustave III by Daniel Auber

Henry VIII by Camille Saint-Saëns

William Tell by Gioachino Rossini

Les Huguenots and Le prophète by Giacomo Meyerbeer

Fosca and Salvator Rosa by Antônio Carlos Gomes

Fernand Cortez by Gaspare Spontini

Thérèse by Jules Massenet

Le roi l'a dit by Léo Delibes

Tamerlano and Rodelinda by George Frideric Handel

Les Abencérages by Luigi Cherubini

Montezuma by Roger Sessions

Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi

Poetry

The Light of Asia by Sir Edwin Arnold: life of Gautama Buddha, 6th or 5th century BC

The Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: reign of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus in Rome, 6th century BC

Horatius by Thomas Babington Macaulay: Horatius Cocles vs Lars Porsena, Rome, 6th century BC

Roderick the Last of the Goths by Robert Southey: reign of Roderic, 8th century Hispania

King Alfred by John Fitchett: reign of Alfred the Great, 9th century England

The Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. Chesterton: reign of Alfred the Great, 9th century England

The Saga of King Olaf by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: reign of Olaf Tryggvason, 10th century Norway

Madoc by Robert Southey: legend of Madoc, 12th century Wales

Isabella, or the Pot of Basil and The Eve of St. Agnes by John Keats: European Middle Ages

Marmion by Sir Walter Scott: reign of Henry VIII of England & the Battle of Flodden, 1513

The Revenge: A Ballad of the Fleet by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Battle of Flores, 1591

Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: the Expulsion of the Acadians (1755–1764)

Prehistoric

Rahan by Roger Lecureux and Jean-François Lecureux

Akim by Roberto Renzi

Ancient

300 by Frank Miller

Age of Bronze by Eric Shanower

Wuxia manhua

Three Kingdoms by Yū Terashima

Fung Wan by Ma Wing-shing

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by Andy Seto

The Ravages of Time by Chan Mou

Threads of Time by Noh Mi-young

Ying Xiong Wu Lei by Ma Wing Shing

Samurai manga

Rurouni Kenshin by Nobuhiro Watsuki

Azumi by Yū Koyama

Path of the Assassin by Kazuo Koike