A cornucopia of historical fiction reads for fall 2024, all set before the 19th century

For those seeking to spend the next few months immersed in earlier corners of the past, here are fourteen new and upcoming reads, from publishers large and small.

Alice Kyteler, a businesswoman in 13th-century Ireland with an eye-opening marital history, attracts attention of the wrong sort and is eventually accused of witchcraft. But this novel is primarily a portrait of her earlier life as an ambitious woman in a patriarchal world. Viking, Aug. 2024.

The author of Tsarina and The Tsarina's Daughter returns with the story of Gytha Godwinson, daughter of England's Harold II, whose life takes dramatic turns after her family's loss during the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Independently published, Nov. 2024. 

Berman adds to the popular theme of art-focused historical fiction with a biographical novel about Angelica Kauffman, Neoclassical artist in 18th-century Italy and London. She Writes, Oct. 2024.

Costanza Piccolomini, a young wife in 1630s Rome, becomes entranced with celebrity sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, which leads to undesired fame and a terrible act.  Renegade Books, Aug. 2024.

Jeanette of Kent, English royal cousin, enters into a clandestine marriage with the knight she loves during the Hundred Years' War, but political and family pressures conspire against them. Sphere, Sept. 2024.

The orphaned Anna Maria della Pietà, the most gifted pupil of Antonio Vivaldi, stops at nothing to achieve her career goals in 18th-century Venice. Simon & Schuster US/Bloomsbury UK, Sept. 2024.

   

A gifted young healer strives to balance her competing desires after the Black Death lands in Avignon, in 14th-century Provence. Dutton, Oct 2024.

In this dual-period narrative, the author's debut, a modern college student discovers the long-lost history of a rhino named Clara who traveled Europe with her keeper in the 18th century, attracting fascinated crowds as well as danger. History Through Fiction, Oct. 2024.

Ordinary Devotion is also a multi-period novel. The story of a twelve-year-old girl walled up with an anchoress in an English abbey intertwines with a modern academic researcher, revealing themes of  faith, freedom, and women's agency over their own bodies. Monkfish, Nov. 2024.

The third in Justice's Theodosian Women series follows a young woman called Athenais, a pagan of Greek heritage, who in an unexpected twist of circumstances comes to marry Theodosius II, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. I enjoyed the author's Dawn Empress and look forward to this one. Raggedy Moon, Aug. 2024.

The final days of Christopher Marlowe are depicted as a thriller, as the celebrated Elizabethan-era playwright, an ex-spy with many secrets and enemies, runs up against blackmail and sinister individuals seeking to eliminate him. Pegasus, Oct. 2024.

Like Eleanore of Avignon above, Rasche's debut is set during the time of the Black Death, but in Florence, Italy, as a young woman with uncanny healing talents is called to help the populace. Park Row, Oct. 2024.

Author Tracey writes her second historical novel about one of her ancestors from colonial Massachusetts. Silence Marsh, a woman in mourning who's forced into silence for blasphemy in her Puritan community, is then asked to testify in a witchcraft trial. Sibylline, Oct. 2024.

A skilled seamstress in 16th-century Bologna who dreams of being a tailor, a trade forbidden to women, runs into numerous roadblocks. The author won the Jenny Brown Associates Debut Writers Over 50 Award in 2023. I would love to read the shortlisted entries too!  Allison & Busby, Nov. 2024.