findthatbook | Entries tagged with genre: historical fiction

Okay; this one has been causing me a nagging itch in the brain. I recall having seen—probably on some incarnation of Scans Daily on another platform—a U.S. romance comic from the 1940’s or 1950’s that had an anthology host—something more characteristic of horror comics. He was a Zorroesque Masked Lover who narrated love stories throughout history (and may have been an immortal or time-traveler who’d personally witnessed/taken part in them); the specific story featured a girl who was concealing her blindness—which she felt made her unfit to marry.

Even after specifying romance, the sheer number of masquerade balls, highway robbers, masked vigilantes, and tragic disfigurements in the genre has made this a royal pain in the kazoo to Google.

ETA: FOUND: Jon Juan #1, with the help of

superfangirl1 on

scans_daily, who directed me to https://comicbookplus.com/, an online archive of public domain comics; there I found Great Lover Romances #1 (Toby/Minoan, 1951)—an anthology including a story starring a character called Jon Juan: https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=41459

That, in turn, gave me the search term I needed to track down Jon Juan’s own comic (under One Shots rather than Romance):
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=1829

Shout-out as well to the helpful folks at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books: https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2023/08/habo-vintage-comic-search/#comments

Jon Juan was an immortal from Atlantis who went swashbuckling through history, dallying with history’s legendary beauties and rescuing damsels from Durance Vile, only to ride off into the sunset as wandering adventurers are wont to do; this didn’t stop him from archiving cherished memories of all his paramours (housed in his own Inner Sanctum, the Secret Archives of Love.)

The story I remembered was “Lady in the Dark”, pp. 27-35; the setting is (19th-century?) Spain, and Jon Juan is dressing and comporting himself very much as a capa y espada adventurer—but it’s the titular Lady who wears a mask/veil, to disguise her condition; the Reveal, coming abruptly from her duenna, has the air of an ableist punch line: sorry, Carmelita has a ding in her, and that’s that.

It’s easy to see what doomed Jon Juan to be a one-off experiment: Spicy Adventure is a genre that Siegel and Schomberg couldn’t do justice to under the restrictions of 1950’s US comics, and romance readers tend to want commitment as a payoff. It’s still an exercise in delightful cracktacular weirditude, much like The Continental or Korla Pandit's Adventures In Music.

And here’s the

scans_daily post, from 14 January 2011: https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/2691288.html#cutid1

Current Mood: agitated
Current Location: The Secret Archives of Love.
Current Music: ”Trance Dance”.

frs56

I'm looking for a book I read 10+ years ago. It was a large format book (not large print, just larger than the airport paperback.)
The main character was a woman who worked with fabric for the royals (I'm thinking purple, but it could have indigo)
I'm thinking she was either a Dyer or a weaver.
The book was set in ancient times and I'm thinking it was in Istanbul but it could have been Greece. I do remember it was a coastal city. The original purple comes from the phoenician city of Lye, so it could have been there.
Thanks in advance.

callunav

This was a novel somewhere on the line between intermediate and YA. It was very funny, probably mostly intended for girls, and vaguely historical - meaning it seemed to be set in some time pre-20th century (UK or Europe, I think), but I doubt it was adhering to any actual history very much.

I encountered it in 2016 as a hard-backed library book, in the hands of a kid who I would guess read at a 13-15-y.o. level. I had the impression that it was the first in a series, but wouldn't swear to it.

I unfortunately only got to read a few pages of it. It was a first-person narrative from the point of view of a girl who was, at least at the start of the book, a lady's maid. She was catastrophically bad at being a servant, mostly through wild, hyperbolic over-confidence. She spilled soup on nobility, all sorts of things like that, and when her employer exploded in rage at her incompetence, she assumed the woman was hysterical and slapped her. She sailed blithely through all the havoc she created, never considering that she might not be expert in everything. Many of her actions were preceded by statements like, "I have the decisiveness of a general - I quickly took command of the situation." There was a lot of "I have the ___ of a ____" in describing her own prowess.

I *thought* that the protagonist's name started with a P. Whatever it was, the title of the book was "Just [Name]."

I'm delighted to discover that this community exists, since I loved WhatWasThatBook on LJ. Any/all help appreciated.

ETA: Found in record time, despite several errors on my part. Thank you,

conuly!

kitewithfish

Hello, kind friends!

I am looking for a book that I read in hardcopy in my childhood (aka, the early 1990's) which was probably written 1990's or earlier. I have no recollections of the cover or the age of the book at the time.

Setting: American revolutionary war and preceding years, I think in New England.

Genre: historical fiction - probably aimed at older children, I think, but it might have just been from an older style of polite writing that did not mention sex or upsetting things in literature. (I read a lot of things as a child that I was probably not supposed to have read. :)

Main character: a young man who we follow from a poor childhood to adulthood. He's educated in a public (I think) single room schoolhouse with a single teacher. He's a mathematics and accounting genius from an early age, and at one point I believe there's a conflict with his schoolmaster who does not believe a student as dumb as him could be working out complicated mathematical problems without being instructed in how to do it. (He's not particularly un-intelligent, but he's Very Gifted in math and not much interested in other elements of education, and the character might be read as autistic to modern readers.)

Detailed scenes:
- conflict with his school master over math, but the boy's mathematical talents are later recognized and he's trained (apprenticed?) to someone in trade involving sailing ships or a port. The school room uses slate and, I think, lead pencils to write on them rather than chalk?

-at one point, a mentor he admires gives him a book to study on mathematics (Maaaybe Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica, not sure) and the boy is embarrassed bc he cannot read Latin, but when he confesses the mentor arranges for him to have lessons.

-scene on a ship in a battle where he has to hide in the gunpowder room and calmly reads a book until the battle is over, causing people to exclaim that, of course, he'd be reading completely calmly in the powder room of a ship under fire, of course. The ship might be smuggling goods, not sure.

-There's a scene when he's an adult where, at a dinner party, his host asks him to solve a complicated mathematical question regarding compound interest over time bc the host would like to make sure that he has not been cheated by a bank or business partner. The host lays the details out, but says, Don't worry about solving it now, enjoy your tea, I'll give you some time with it later. But the main character thinks about it and comes back with a detailed answer without using any writing materials in a very short amount of time.

-This was a book I read on my own, from my school or classroom library, not something that was assigned

sarusaihiryu

Hi, I'm looking for a short story or extract from a novel set in England a few years after Richard I's crusade. The main character is a high-strung teenage boy named Stephen, who is raised by his guardian to believe that he is the son of a soldier who died heroically on the walls of acre. Stephen is given a mission which terrifies him but which he manages to accomplish. His guardian's friend is amazed by his guardian's pronounced relief, and it is then revealed that Stephen's father was hanged on the walls of acre for cowardice. I can't remember the name of the author or the title or anything. If anyone knows which book I mean, please tell me. Thanks!

rachelwantstoread

So I read this book last year or the year before and I can't remember the name, author or name of hero. I do remember that the heroines name was either Claire or catherine. The book is a historical romance book and its about this girl that is into some type of botonical cures and the guy is scarred and he has eczema. They meet and she makes him a few bags of oats to help his condition, and some coconut oil as well, and she helps him put it on his neck. I think the girl is supposed to be finding a husband or something like that. He starts to fall in love with her and she likes him too. And he lewaves for America, or at le eat he's going to because he doesn't think she likes him and he doesn't want to get between her and her quest to find a husband. But she goes and stops him before he leaves. I can't remember much else but ifd anyone knows the title or author I would really appreciate it!!

snowfleet

Hello! I have been searching for the title of a novel I read for a book report during Sixth Grade (circa. 1998-99). Of course, the book could have easily been written much earlier than this time period.

My memory is hazy in terms of what the novel was actually about, but I remember one scene quite clearly. There is a young girl (red-headed, I believe), and she is sent into town to fetch supplies for the old woman who is taking care of her. During this time the young girl experiences her first menstrual cycle, and the older woman admonishes her for going out in public while this is happening.

I think this novel was truly just about a young girl who was trying to find herself/purpose in life. I come back to it from time to time, wishing I could re-read it to possibly gain a better perspective now that I'm older.

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Find That Book

Find That Book

Entries tagged with genre: historical fiction

Golden/early Silver Age romance comic with a masked host? (FOUND: Jon Juan #1.)

Novel about a woman weaver/dyer in the ancient Mediterranean

Intermediate or YA novel about overconfident servant girl

Children's historical fiction - American Revolutionary war, mathematics, savant

Stephen, medieval England, short story or extract

Historical romance

Historical Coming-of-Age YA(?) Novel

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