Lonesome Dove
Larry McMurtry
Aging Texas Rangers drive cattle north in an epic, funny, heartbreaking Western.
Victorian / Gilded Age · Adventure & epic · Family saga
Victorian / Gilded Age · Adventure & epic · ~1837–1901
Victorian / Gilded Age adventure & epic historical fiction books
Looking for historical fiction in the adventure & epic lane set during the Victorian / Gilded Age (~1837–1901)? Victorian / Gilded Age adventure & epic historical fiction books collects historical novels that match both filters—Industry, empire, class, American boom (broader 19th c.). Sweeping quests, voyages, and large-canvas history HisFic is a free historical fiction discovery app: open a full reading journey with the same era and story-type filters, then add region, themes, or audience. Shelves mix curated historical fiction picks with Open Library titles so even thin combinations still have books to explore.
Shelf · 17 titles
Curated HisFic picks first, plus Open Library fills for this era + story type.
The Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead
An enslaved woman’s escape reimagines the Underground Railroad as a literal train—and faces America’s brutal history.
Civil War · Victorian / Gilded Age · Literary · Adventure & epic
The Far Pavilions
M. M. Kaye
Orphaned in the Himalayan foothills and raised as a Hindu, Ashton Pelham-Martyn is later claimed by British India as an officer—then falls in love with an Indian princess promised to another man, as the Raj and the Second Anglo-Afghan War tear his loyalties in two. M. M. Kaye’s novel is Victorian historical romance of nineteenth-century India: identity, empire, and a love story on the scale of the old panoramic sagas.
Victorian / Gilded Age · Romance · Adventure & epic
True Grit
Charles Portis
In the winter of 1878, fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross leaves Yell County for Fort Smith after Tom Chaney shoots her father, Frank, and rides off into Indian Territory with his horse and his money. Charles Portis’s 1968 novel is Victorian adventure historical fiction of the hunt she will not delegate—one-eyed deputy marshal Rooster Cogburn, Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, and Ned Pepper’s gang in the Winding Stair Mountains.
Victorian / Gilded Age · Adventure & epic · Literary
Shaman
Noah Gordon
A doctor’s life on the American frontier (SAH / Cooper Prize 1993).
Victorian / Gilded Age · Literary · Adventure & epic
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Arthur Conan Doyle
In 1889 Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead by the yew alley at Baskerville Hall, and the prints nearby are said to be a gigantic hound’s, from a curse on his house. Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1902 novel is Victorian mystery historical fiction of the case Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson take for the new heir, Sir Henry—Dartmoor, the Grimpen Mire, and a legend that does not account for every light on the moor.
Victorian / Gilded Age · Mystery · Adventure & epic
The Four Feathers
A. E. W. Mason
In 1882, before his regiment sails with Lord Wolseley’s expedition, Harry Feversham resigns his commission and is given three white feathers by his brother officers; at a dance in Ramelton, Ethne Eustace breaks a fourth from her fan. A. E. W. Mason’s 1902 novel is Victorian adventure historical fiction of the years he then spends disguised in Egypt and the Sudan, trying to win the feathers back in the Mahdist war.
Victorian / Gilded Age · Adventure & epic · Military & war
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Mark Twain
Hartford mechanic Hank Morgan is knocked cold in 1879 and wakes in King Arthur’s Britain, where nineteenth-century know-how—and a timely eclipse—raise him from condemned outsider to the Boss of Camelot, until knights, the Church, and a war of the future tear the miracle apart. Mark Twain’s novel is medieval time-slip historical adventure: a Yankee’s satire of chivalry, progress, and the damage a modern mind can do in a legendary past.
Medieval · Victorian / Gilded Age · Time-slip · Adventure & epic
The mostly true adventures of Homer P. Figg
W. R. Philbrick
Brothers · Adventure and adventurers · Orphans · Fiction
Civil War · Victorian / Gilded Age · Military & war · Adventure & epic · Open Library
Airman
Eoin Colfer
Flying-machines · Adventure and adventurers · Juvenile fiction · Fiction
Victorian / Gilded Age · Adventure & epic · Open Library
Big River's Daughter
Bobbi Miller
River boats · Pirates · Buried treasure · Adventure and adventurers
Victorian / Gilded Age · Adventure & epic · Open Library
Fire storm
Andrew Lane
Mystery and detective stories · Missing persons · Juvenile fiction · History
Victorian / Gilded Age · Mystery · Adventure & epic · Open Library
Powder Monkey
Theresa Dowswell
Juvenile fiction · Fiction · Sea stories · Naval History
Regency / Napoleonic · Victorian / Gilded Age · Military & war · Adventure & epic · Open Library
Secrets in the Hills
Kathleen Ernst
Mexican Americans · Fiction · History · Buried treasure
Victorian / Gilded Age · Mystery · Biographical · Open Library
Under a painted sky
Stacey Lee
Adventure and adventurers · Chinese Americans · Juvenile fiction · Slavery
Victorian / Gilded Age · Adventure & epic · Open Library
Wanderville
Wendy McClure
Orphans · Fiction · Homeless persons · Adventure and adventurers
Victorian / Gilded Age · Late 20th century · Adventure & epic · Open Library
Danny Blackgoat
Tim Tingle
Conduct of life · Indians of North America · Adventure and adventurers · Navajo Indians
Victorian / Gilded Age · Adventure & epic · Open Library
Other story types in Victorian / Gilded Age
Looking for a broader list? See Victorian / Gilded Age historical fiction or adventure & epic historical fiction.