The historical novel and Classical historiography

Abstract

The study of the characteristics of these two literary genres reveals in itself obvious resemblances between them. The historical novel theorists often forget that, for ages and ages, history was written not in scientific language, but through literature. Furthermore, there are plenty of evidence of the great influence old historians had on some modern novelists. If we consider the historical didactism as a distinctive and structural feature of historical novel, perhaps we may define the genre better, and establish a more coherent typology than the ones existing nowadays.