Tea at Trianon: Historical Fiction Can Help Us Learn History

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, November 12, 2021

Historical Fiction Can Help Us Learn History

From Medium:

Some of us may find history books boring. Learning dry facts can be tedious, especially for young people, and even more so if we try to read about faraway places we have no connection to. Learning history at school is often no more than a duty and we may also have difficulties retaining information from a textbook.

Historical fiction, when used as a complementary tool in studying history, can pique our curiosity and get us interested in learning more about historical events. Sarah K. Herz suggests that once we become immersed in a novel, we become interested and stimulated by its story. We begin to absorb the historical details without realizing that we are being instructed. Learning becomes a pleasure. (Read more.)