Six historical novels that perfectly capture the 18th century

Laura Shepherd-Robinson is the award-winning, Sunday Times and USA Today bestselling author of four historical novels including the newly released The Art of a Lie.

At CrimeReads Shepherd-Robinson tagged six "works of fiction [that] explore the vast contradictions and extreme hypocrisies of our so-called Age of Enlightenment." (She also included one title from 1782, Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos.) One title on the list:

A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel

A depiction of Revolutionary France by one of the greatest writers of historical fiction, the novel follows the lives of three key revolutionary figures: Danton, Desmoulins and Robespierre. It glides from the grand political stage to the intimacies of the salon with effortless ease. A tale of faction and feminism, belief and betrayal, it explores how this idealistic enterprise descended into political violence, and ultimately devoured its children. I read it around the same time as I read Simon Schama’s ‘Citizens’ and they make wonderful companions. 900 pages long, but an incredibly fast-paced read, the book plunges you into the tinderbox that is revolutionary Paris. It took me three days to recover from the emotional intensity of it all.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

A Place of Greater Safety is among the Barnes & Noble Review's top books on uprisings in pursuit of freedom around the world.

--Marshal Zeringue