Biographical fiction Books

The Story of the Woman Who Fooled the Yankees and Rebels Alike. As a child, Sarah Emma Edmonds dreamed of faraway places and adventure, often picturing herself as a man. When her abusive father traded her hand in marriage for a few head of livestock, she...

An American student in 1970s Kyoto rambles among the city's beauties and traditions, learning as he goes. Don Ascher is a young American living in Kyoto in the 1970s.He is a studentof Japanese. He also teaches English, works at...

BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER"Brings Isabella Stewart Gardner fully, intimately alive-irrepressible and avid for life. In this richly compelling novel, Emily Franklin beautifully conjures this extraordinary woman and her world."-Claire Messud, author of The...

"[Genoa] invites us to pass our minds down a new but ancient track, to become, ourselves, both fact and fiction, and to discover something true about the geography of time."-William Gass, The New York Times"Genoa is a spectacular confrontation with...

Blood and Sand (1908) is a novel by Vicente Blasco Ibez. Published at the height of his career as a popular Spanish author, Blood and Sand was adapted into a 1916 silent film by the author himself and was remade three times, in 1922, 1941, and 1989...

We of the Never Never (1908) is an autobiographical novel by Jeannie Gunn. Based on her experience accompanying her husband Aeneas to the remote cattle station of Elsey, Gunn's novel is a fascinating masterpiece of Australian literature that explores the...

For the Term of His Natural Life (1874) is a novel by Marcus Clarke. Inspired by a journey taken by the author to the penal colony of Port Arthur, Tasmania, the novel was originally serialized in The Australian Journal between 1870 and 1872. For its...

The Moon and Sixpence (1919) is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. Inspired by the life of French painter Paul Gauguin, Maugham set out to capture the disconnect between an artist's desire to create and their obligations to their loved ones and society...

Of Human Bondage (1915) is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. Inspired by his experiences as an orphan and young student, Maugham composed his masterpiece. Adapted several times for film, Of Human Bondage is a story of tragedy, perseverance, and the eternal...

The Death of the Gods (1895) is a novel by Dmitriy Merezhkovsky. Having turned from his work in poetry to a new, spiritually charged interest in fiction, Merezhkovsky sought to develop his theory of the Third Testament, an apocalyptic vision of...

Resurrection of the Gods (1900) is a novel by Dmitriy Merezhkovsky. Having turned from his work in poetry to a new, spiritually charged interest in fiction, Merezhkovsky sought to develop his theory of the Third Testament, an apocalyptic vision of...

The Life and Exploits of Three-Finger'd Jack (1801) is a book by William Burdett. Inspired by tales of legendary slave-turned-rebel Jack Mansong, as well as by a popular pantomime based on Jack's life, Burdett published his book to popular acclaim in...

Peter and Alexis (1904) is a novel by Dmitriy Merezhkovsky. Having turned from his work in poetry to a new, spiritually charged interest in fiction, Merezhkovsky sought to develop his theory of the Third Testament, an apocalyptic vision of Christianity's...

A young man is captivated by a popular Parisian courtesan and attempts to build a life with her despite his family and society's growing disapproval. An against-all-odds tale that forces one lover to make a drastic decision for the betterment of the...

For the Pleasure of His Company: An Affair of the Misty City (1903) is a novel by Charles Warren Stoddard. Published toward the end of Stoddard's career as a poet and travel writer whose friends included Mark Twain and Ambrose Bierce, For the Pleasure of...

Born into a large family of Asian ethnicity in Canada, Marion Ascough always felt like an outsider, not just because of her heritage, but also because of her aspiration to be an artist. At home, her siblings often take notice in the ways she defies...

Born into a family of sixteen children, Nora Ascouth is used to fighting to be heard. From a young age, Nora becomes determined to have a writing career, and travels around the world looking for the best place to work. From Canada, she moves to Jamaica,...

Marching Men (1917) is a novel by Sherwood Anderson. Both fictional and autobiographical, Anderson's second novel is a coming of age story that explores the individual and collective identities shaping American life. Although he is known today for his...

Memoirs of Emma Courtney (1796) is a novel by English writer and feminist Mary Hays. Inspired by events from her own life, as well as by her acquaintance with radical political philosophers William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, Hays's novel received...

Paul Kelver, a fictional character, recounts an eventful life loosely based on author Jerome K. Jerome's personal and professional exploits prior to becoming a writer. It's an intriguing look at an unconventional path that led to a promising literary...

The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft (1903) is a semi-autobiographical work by George Gissing. Published in the last year of his life, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft is presented as a diary of a friend discovered after the man's premature death...

Typee (1846) is a work of travel literature by American writer Herman Melville. Its publication was an instant success in both London and New York, earning Melville a reputation as one of America's most promising young authors. Although he claimed to...

Wrestling with the disease of alcoholism for most of his life, Jack London tells all in his autobiography John Barleycorn. Beginning with a discussion of the prohibition movement and its effects, London explores the ways that alcohol affects daily life...

The Martian (1898) is a novel by George du Maurier. Published posthumously, du Maurier's final novel is a semi-autobiographical account of his struggle with vision loss incorporating elements of fantasy and fairy tale fiction. Originally serialized in...

Peter Whiffle (1922) is a novel by Carl Van Vechten. Framing himself as his character's literary executor, Van Vechten provides a satirical self portrait of his unusual life in the arts through the lens of a man whose sole gift is to identify and move...

Finalist, Writers Trust Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging WritersI have just heard for the first time the expression "to make soup": it means to mix the bottom-of-the-pocket drugs of everyone huddled in the club toilet stall, opened MD, ketamine,...

In The Road to Walden North, New England author Sheila Post offers timely insights for a new age still grappling with issues raised by Thoreau over 150 years ago. An elegiac Walden revisited, this resplendent novel invites readers to accompany the...

Planning for Escape is the haunting, darkly comical, story of a young woman's quest for personal and artistic fulfillment-a goal she is brilliant at sabotaging. Narrated through an intense, witty, yet poetically lyrical interior monologue, Catherine...