Honorable Mentions

Charles Dickens is rightly remembered for such beloved classics as Great Expectations and Oliver Twist -- but his most famous work remains A Christmas Carol. First published on December 17, 1843, the story tells the tale of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, and the three Christmas ghosts who appear throughout Christmas Eve night to warm his heart -- and save his soul. It's been adapted dozens of time for stage and screen, and has become an undeniable staple of the holiday season.

But did you know that A Christmas Carol wasn't Dickens's only ghost story?  Dickens actually wrote a variety of stories featuring ghosts -- some of which, like The Signal-Man, could be considered outright horror thrillers. (The title character of The Signal-Man works on the railway, and is haunted by a specter who appears before him every time a terrible event is to occur.)

Dickens is not the only author whose own wild success actually overshadowed some of his lesser-known efforts. Here are five more authors whose littler-known works are still undeniably worthwhile:



~ Louisa May Alcott's Thrillers

She's best remembered for writing titles that might now be considered part of the "young adult" genre -- classics like Little Women and Eight Cousins. But Louisa May Alcott wrote several stories for older audiences, usually under the pen name "A. M. Barnard" -- and many of those works were not only thrillers, but stories that dealt with radical issues of nineteenth-century sexism and the constraints of society and culture.

Her most critically-acclaimed work is, arguably, the thriller novella Behind a Mask. The story details the life of Jean Muir, a character with a shady past (she was formerly an actress, a considerably more scandalous profession in the nineteenth century) who has reached her thirtieth birthday still a spinster. And then she finds one last chance to fulfill society's expectations of her: she takes the job of governess in a house with two unmarried sons and one unmarried uncle. She means to adopt the mask of a "little woman" herself -- appearing the perfect example of a polite, respectable young lady (she wins her place as governess with a feigned fainting spell in front of the family) until she ensnares a husband. But Jean's motives are far more clever, and downright manipulative, than what you'd see from the March sisters -- though this may not stop you from rooting for her!

Request Behind a Mask from the Catalog



~ Edgar Allan Poe's Detective Stories

Sherlock Holmes is the name we remember, but C. Ausguste Dupin got there first. While Conan Doyle drew on several inspirations for his Sherlock Holmes character (including his med-school professor Dr. Joseph Bell), he was always quick to praise Edgar Allan Poe for his detective stories that paved the way for Sherlock Holmes. ("Where was the detective story," Conan Doyle once asked, "until Poe breathed the breath of life into it?")

Poe is remembered as the master of horror, but he actually wrote in a wide variety of genres, including science fiction and detective stories. In the latter category, he produced three short stories: Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget, and my personal favorite, The Purloined Letter. The stories star Dupin, an amateur detective (although the word "detective" had not yet been invented) who assisted the police in a trio of bizarre investigations. He's accompanied in his adventures by our unnamed narrator, who serves as Dupin's closest friend and our window into Dupin's world.

Request the Dupin stories from the Catalog



~ Conan Doyle's Historical Fiction

Most Sherlock Holmes fans already know about Arthur Conan Doyle's love-hate relationship with his most famous fictional creation. While Conan Doyle ultimately seemed to be fond enough of his consulting detective (and also loved writing about the adventures of Professor Challenger in such tales as The Lost World), he always considered his best and most important works to be his historical fiction.

Such historical works include extensively-researched novels like The White Company and Sir Nigel, both set during the Hundred Years' War between the royal houses of England and France. There was also Micah Clarke, a coming-of-age story set in seventeenth-century England that details the religious and political tension of the time; and a series of comical short stories about Brigadier Gerard, a soldier in the French Army during the Napoleonic Wars, who Conan Doyle used to comment on the stereotypes and prejudices that the British and French had for one another.

Request The White Company from the Catalog

Request Sir Nigel from the Catalog

Request Micah Clarke from the Catalog

Request the Brigadier Gerard stories from the Catalog



~ Agatha Christie's Love Stories

Agatha Christie remains the best-selling novelist of all time, beloved for her classic mysteries like And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express, as well as such characters as Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. But while she has come to be affectionately known as "the Queen of Crime" due to her incredible skills in the mystery genre, she also wrote half a dozen novels of a different sort entirely.

Using the pen name "Mary Westmacott," Christie wrote a series of romance and family stories, referring to them as "bitter-sweet stories about love." The books enjoyed modest success -- much to Christie's delight, as the novels succeeded under their own merits and not due to her name being on the cover (her identity as Westmacott would remain hidden for nearly two decades). She wrote the Westmacott books throughout her life, telling stories that focused not only on romance, but on family relationships between parents and children or between siblings. The results were among the works she was most proud of.

Read an essay about "Mary Westmacott" written by Rosalind Hicks, Christie's daughter

Request Westmacott books from the Catalog



~ Michael Crichton's Medical Thrillers

Before he was a best-selling author of such novels as The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton was a med student. But while he was earning his MD from Harvard Medical School, Crichton had his first publishing success, writing under the pen names "Jeffery Hudson" and "John Lange."

He published ten mystery thrillers that sold well enough to help pay his way through med school -- no mean feat, as any pressed-for-time med student could tell you. While Crichton viewed them mostly as pulpy entertainment ("I write them fast and the reader reads them fast and I get things off my back," he explained in a 1969 interview), they showcased his skill at engaging characters and tightly-plotted storylines, not to mention a love of research and accuracy. Though Crichton successfully graduated with his MD, it's not surprising to know he turned to writing full-time -- always incorporating his love of science into his stories.

Read more about Michael Crichton's "med school" thrillers

Request A Case of Need from the Catalog



-- Post by Ms. B 

Reader's Advisory: Historical Fiction

Do you like your fiction with a dash (or even a lot) of historical accuracy? If so, you've come to the right place. I recently read The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory and it got me to thinking if there were other authors who have as much historical accuracy in their novels as she does. And the answer is, yes.

What exactly is historical fiction? As defined by Joyce G. Saricks in The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction,  it is "a novel set in the past, before the author's lifetime or experience." This can apply to many different types of fiction, including mystery, thriller or adventure. Usually, though, fans of those types of novels don't read them for the historical accuracy.

An historical novel usually examines the life of a real person or a real event. There may not be a lot of information about this person or time, so the author tries to fill in the gaps using their research and their imagination. Fans of this type of fiction are usually interested in history, but don't want to sit down and read a history text book.

So, if you are interested in trying a new genre or are looking for a few new options, take a look at these authors.


-- Margaret George

Margaret George's books have told the lives of many different historical figures, often through the lens of an "autobiography." Her lengthy, yet accessible stories, cover many areas of history. She has written about Henry VIII, Mary Magdalene, Cleopatra and Helen of Troy. Be ready to be totally immersed in the subject's life and their times.

Suggested start: The Autobiography of Henry VIII (1986)



-- Philippa Gregory

The author of over 20 novels, Phillipa Gregory made her mark with The Other Boleyn Girl in 2001. This was the first in a series of books about the Tudor dynasty. It took a look at Mary Boleyn, Anne's sister. While history has recorded much about Anne, there wasn't a lot of information about Mary. Gregory solved that by doing meticulous research into the time period and the Boleyn family and creating an interesting and fascinating life for the "other" Boleyn sister. She continued this success with a series of books about the Plantagenets, an earlier English royal family.

Suggested start: The Other Boleyn Girl (2001)

-- John Jakes

For sweeping sagas about the early years of the United States, you're not going to find a better author than John Jakes. His two most famous series are the Kent Family Chronicles and the North and South Trilogy. The Kent Family Chronicles is an eight book series that follows the lives of the Kent family from before the start of the American Revolution through to the late 19th century. The North and South Trilogy focuses on two families tied by a long friendship that is torn apart because of the Civil War. 

Suggested start: The Bastard (1974).

-- Jeff Shaara

The son of famous Civil War author, Michael Shaara, Jeff Shaara has continued his father's dedication to telling engaging and richly detailed stories of American history. His first book, Gods and Generals, is a prequel to his father's The Killer Angels. Shaara also wrote a sequel to it, The Last Full Measure. This prolific writer has branched out to include series about the American Revolution and World Wars I and II. 

Suggested start: Rise to Rebellion (2001)

-- Irving Stone

Another author who mastered the biographical novel is Irving Stone. These long and leisurely paced novels cover the well known and the not so well known. Stone focused on historical figures he felt had been given an unfair reputation. In these stories he tries to redeem them. His subjects include Vincent Van Gogh, Sigmund Freud, John and Abigail Adams and Charles Darwin. 

Suggested start: The Agony and The Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo (1961)

-- Alison Weir

In a similar vein to Philippa Gregory, Weir focuses on historical royal figures. Her biographical novels are very character driven with a simple, direct style. Her subjects have included Lady Jane Grey, Queen Elizabeth I and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Before writing historical novels, Weir was known for her historical biographies. She has said that she found it very freeing to not have to stick to just the facts while writing fiction. Weir continues to write both types of books.

Suggested start: Innocent Traitor (2006)

-- Post by Tracy

All For One

I love The Three Musketeers.

That is to say, I love the classic novel The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas. And, if you've read or seen any version of the story, you'll know that the book is actually about four Musketeers. There's the experienced trio of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. But there's also the headstrong, determined, quixotic D'Artagnan, who has just left home and family and is on a quest to join the Musketeers.

D'Artagnan first meets his future friends when he makes it to Paris and promptly manages to insult three different people in the space of a few minutes. Each man challenges D'Artagnan to a duel, and D'Artagnan, never one to back down from a challenge (his father told him not to!), schedules the duels back-to-back-to-back. When he arrives at the meeting place for Duel #1, he quickly realizes that the three men he's fighting in turn are all friends -- and that, moreso, they are all Musketeers.

The duels never take place; the four of them become too busy fighting off the Guards of Cardinal Richelieu (who have arrived to arrest them for illegal dueling). D'Artagnan may be young and rash, but he proves his bravery and honor when he assists the three Musketeers in overpowering the Guards. The trio decides to take D'Artagnan under their wings, and what follows is a high-rollicking adventure tale packed with action, intrigue, and broad, sweeping romance.

Dumas would go on to write two sequels to The Three Musketeers: Twenty Years After and Ten Years Later. (The third novel, Ten Years Later, is so lengthy that it's often published as three separate volumes: The Vicomte de Bragelonne, Louise de la Valliere, and The Man in the Iron Mask.) The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask remain the most-read works from Dumas's complete "D'Artagnan Romances" cycle, and have inspired numerous stage and film adaptations.

While the D'Artagnan Romances are, of course, historical fiction, it's interesting to note that they were historical fiction even at the time of their publication. The Musketeers' tales are all set in the seventeenth century, but Dumas himself was writing them in the nineteenth, with The Three Musketeers first appearing in serialized installments in 1843. That first novel was written by Alexandre Dumas and a collaborator, Auguste Maquet, a history teacher and fellow author (if one of less acclaim, by far, than Dumas, who was already a celebrated playright when he wrote Musketeers).

Dumas and Maquet did some homework for their tale, and the D'Artagnan Romances are based on a real-life figure. Charles de Baatz d'Artagnan, born in 1623, became the capitaine lieutenant of one of King Louis XIV's two Musketeer companies. He was a lifelong soldier who would go on to be appointed governor of Lille, and he died in battle in Hollan in 1673.

The Memoirs of Charles D'Artagnan were written by another real-life Musketeer (though not, unfortunately, by Charles D'Artagnan himself), and it was these memoirs that served as much of the inspiration for Dumas's novels. The other three Musketeers -- Athos, Porthos, and Aramis -- were also all real-life figures, who receive mention in the D'Artagnan memoirs. How much of these "memoirs" are factual is a matter of some debate, but what's certain is that both D'Artagnan and the Musketeers were figures who really existed.

The Musketeers themselves were formed by King Louis XIII of France, a combination of soldier and personal royal bodyguard. Louis armed his personal guards with a newly developed flintlock, muzzle-loading riffle -- the musket (hence the company's name). The Musketeers of history were variously disbanded and reassembled throughout the next two hundred years by various members of French royalty, before finally being permanently dissolved in the time of Napoleon.

A monument to the Four Musketeers in Southern France

Of course, in the end, the lasting appeal of D'Artagnan and the three Musketeers lies not in their factual history, but rather in what they've come to represent.

From the beginning, the Musketeers have had a glamorous appeal. King Louis XIII was something of a romantic, and he had a fondness for the by-gone days of chivalry. (It's what made him so reluctant to actually enforce any of those anti-dueling laws he kept enacting -- seeing as dueling itself was, in theory at least, a method of "defending one's honor.") The Musketeers themselves were career soldiers who did not include noble blood as an entry requirement to their ranks; you became a Musketeer through your own actions and merits, not by merit of your birth.

Dumas himself seemed entranced by the romantic chivalry of the Musketeers, writing about them two hundred years after their real-life creation. Audiences since then have responded to his books in kind, taking the stories to heart for their action, adventure, and chivalry.

Even in medieval times (where we think of the concept originating), chivalry was generally far more of a theory than a practice. There wasn't much more of it in the seventeenth century. So rather than harkening back to a better, nobler past, D'Artagnan and his friends represent a world of bravery, courtesy, and honor that's never really existed outside the pages of a book.

Or, at least, one that has not existed yet. It's true that the fun and adventure of Dumas's Musketeer tales is undoubtably a primary reason for the stories' staying power. And yet, the ability of story to inspire should never be overlooked. People would not keep reading these books if they did not see some appeal in the ideals of courage, honor, and friendship that Dumas wove throughout his stories. Hopefully, that appeal will prove inspirational to Dumas's readers. The honorable world of the Musketeers may not be in our past -- but perhaps it may be in our future.

Alexandre Dumas, born on July 24, 1802

From the Catalog:

-- The Three Musketeers
-- Twenty Years After
-- Ten Years Later
* The Vicomte de Bragelonne
* Louise de la Valliere
* The Man in the Iron Mask

-- All books by Alexandre Dumas
-- Film adaptations of The Three Musketeers
-- Film adaptations of The Man in the Iron Mask


(non-fiction)

-- D'Artagnan, The Ultimate Musketeer: A Biography by Geoffrey F. Hall and Joan Sanders.
-- Éminence: Cardinal Richelieu and the Rise of France by Jean-Vincent Blanchard.
-- Books on King Louis XIII
-- Books on King Louis XIV



-- Post by Ms. B

Staff Recommendation #5: The Works of Connie Willis

I like science fiction stories and always have. But, I’m finding that what I really like is time travel and alternative histories. It has become my latest obsession! Feeding this obsession has been my discovery of the author Connie Willis. Last year I read her marvelous story, Doomsday Book (1992). That book tells the story of a young woman, Kirvan, from the year 2054 who travels back to 14th century England and finds herself in the middle of the plague and unable to return to her own time. Meanwhile, in 21st century Oxford, they are also dealing with a plague epidemic. Her mentor and advisor, Mr. Dunworthy, is desperately trying to find Kirvan and bring her home.

Almost 20 years later, Connie Willis has written a two part sequel (of sorts). It’s actually two books – Blackout (2010) and All Clear (2010). The year is now 2060 and it seems that they have worked out the kinks that were a problem in Doomsday Book. Or have they? In Blackout three young historians are sent to study World War II. They are all in different parts of England, taking on different roles, but soon come to learn that they are unable to return to Oxford. Eileen is working as a maid in a country manor studying the effects of sending children from their London homes during the Blitz. Polly is working as a shop girl in London studying how people survived in the shelters. And Mike is posing as an American journalist covering the evacuation of Dunkirk.

Polly and Mike soon learn that they have not arrived at their destinations on the correct day. Their arrivals are way off. They aren't sure why this happens but they continue on with their plans to observe. Meanwhile, Eileen has been unable to get back to her drop (how they arrive and return to their own time) due to an outbreak of measles among the children. When she can make it there it won't open. Polly and Mike soon have the same problem.

After much difficulty the three historians manage to find each other in London. Now they have to figure out how to get back to their proper time period.

In All Clear the action picks up right where Blackout left off. The three young people are still searching for a way to return home. Polly is still working as a shop girl and Eileen has also found work at the same shop. Mike, meanwhile, is using is cover story as a journalist to get jobs where he can move around and try to find other historians and hopefully leave messages for any retrieval teams that are looking for them. In All Clear the reader finally gets a glimpse of what is going on in 2060 to retrieve our historians.

For me, these two books combined the best of science fiction and historical fiction that I have ever read.  Connie Willis creates such a believable world that, as the reader, you feel like you are stuck in this time along with Eileen, Polly and Mike. Willis also has a remarkable way of capturing dialogue that seems to fit the time. There is a lot of conversation in these books, but it never drags the story down. It drives the story. All of the talking shows the strong relationship that the three protagonists have with each other. There is deep feeling and caring about each other that never comes across as sappy. And it would have been very easy for Willis to create a romantic triangle but she chose not to go down that path, which I really appreciated.

If you are looking for a page-turning summer read, I highly recommend 2011 Hugo Award winner for Best Novel, Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis. And when you finish those, consider going on another time travel trip with Doomsday Book. You won't be disappointed!

-- Post by Tracy