Historical fiction has long produced many of our best-loved works, from War and Peace to Gone with the Wind, from A Tale of Two Cities to Lonesome Dove. The imaginative recreation of a period beyond living memory has a power to evoke the past better than any history textbook. Now, veteran anthologists Michael Cox and Jack Adrian have collected fifty years worth of historical short stories, offering entertainment and illumination for general readers and devoted fans.The Oxford Book of Historical Fiction ranges far and wide, bringing together the work of a diverse array of writers. Here Aldous Huxley rubs shoulders with Arthur Conan Doyle, Rafael Sabatini with William Faulkner, and Elizabeth Gaskell with John Buchan. There are tales of adventure, studied chronicles of lives of the past, tightly plotted stories, and well-informed illustrations of the experience of life in ages long gone. The settings range from Alexander the Great's empire to the American South during the Civil War, from Napoleonic France to Cromwell's England. Emperors and kings, poets and soldiers walk these pages, in tales of intrigue, quest, mystery, and romance.For serious short story readers or those with a taste for history, The Oxford Book of Historical Stories is a marvelous collection.