Historical fiction · ~1789–1837

Regency & Napoleonic historical fiction

Regency / Napoleonic historical fiction (~1789–1837): Balls, war, empire, Austen-adjacent and beyond. Regency and Napoleonic historical fiction is more than ballrooms—war, empire, and social change sit beside romance and wit. Filter by story type when you open a journey.

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Curated on HisFic (7)

Hand-picked titles from HisFic's catalog tagged for this era.

The Frozen River
Ariel Lawhon
In the winter of 1789, Maine midwife Martha Ballard is called to a body trapped in the frozen Kennebec River, then drawn into a rape accusation the town’s powerful men want buried. Drawn from Ballard’s real diary, it is historical mystery with a working woman’s eye for birth, ice, and justice.
Regency / Napoleonic · Mystery · Biographical
The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas
In 1815, sailor Edmond Dantès is framed for Bonapartist treason and locked in the Château d’If; he escapes, claims a hidden fortune, and returns to Restoration France as the Count of Monte Cristo to ruin the men who stole his life. Dumas’s novel is Napoleonic-aftermath historical adventure—prisons, treasure, and a revenge plotted across Marseille, Rome, and Paris.
Regency / Napoleonic · Adventure & epic · Literary
War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy
Five Russian families move through court, love, and the Napoleonic invasion as 1805 becomes Borodino and Moscow burns. Tolstoy’s epic is Napoleonic historical fiction on a national scale—ballrooms and battlefields, Pierre and Natasha, and the question of who makes history.
Regency / Napoleonic · Family saga · Literary
Les Misérables
Victor Hugo
In 1815, convict Jean Valjean is released from the galleys and tries to live honestly under a stolen name, while Inspector Javert hunts him through Restoration and July-Monarchy France. Hugo’s novel follows Fantine, Cosette, Marius, and the 1832 Paris barricades—crime, mercy, and a social epic that still defines French historical fiction after Waterloo.
Regency / Napoleonic · Family saga · Literary
The Long Song
Andrea Levy
A Jamaican woman narrates slavery’s last years and emancipation with wit and steel (Walter Scott Prize 2011).
Regency / Napoleonic · Victorian / Gilded Age · Literary · Family saga
Master and Commander
Patrick O'Brian
In 1800, luck and patronage put Jack Aubrey in command of the brig Sophie, with ship’s surgeon Stephen Maturin as friend, naturalist, and intelligence officer. The first Aubrey–Maturin novel is Napoleonic naval historical fiction: prize-taking, seamanship, and a friendship that carries a twenty-book series.
Regency / Napoleonic · Adventure & epic · Military & war
The Duke and I
Julia Quinn
In the 1813 London season, Daphne Bridgerton and Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings, fake a courtship to solve their marriage-market problems—then the performance becomes real. The first Bridgerton novel is Regency historical romance: ballrooms, gossip sheets, and a marriage of convenience that refuses to stay convenient.
Regency / Napoleonic · Romance