Every few years I get on a Civil War/Southern Lit kick, and my addiction has just been renewed by The Widow of the South, by Robert Hicks. I am going to be spending a few days in middle Tennessee later this spring, and now I think I will have to make a side trip to Franklin to see the real McGavock Cemetery.

So does anyone have other good recommendations for this genre? Among my past favorites are The Killer Angels, Andersonville, Cold Mountain, and although it wasn't fiction, it fits, in a weird way--Confederates in the Attic.

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Jan 26, 2007, 12:29am.

I spent a day in Franklin last June and then discovered The Widow of the South after that. The book was vivid to me because of having walked the cemetary on the property and taken the house tour. I'll never forget the bloodstains on the floors of the upstairs rooms used as surgeries during and after the battle.

If you'll check my profile and go to my tags, I have one called "Civil War Fiction" that lists 17 books of that type that I have. I've rated many of them.

I enjoyed On the Occasion of my last Afternoon by Kay Gibbons...read it a few years ago and it is told from the perspective of the wife of a doctor in the civil war. I also enjoyed Mary by Janis Cooke Newman...since she was in the white house during the civil war...I would throw this on in as well.

#2 - Sam Houston

I just picked up Widow of the South, after skimming it a while back. It looks good, I must admit. I can't imagine going to the house itself though!

Woe to Live on by Daniel Woodrell is an excellent Civil War fiction piece. It was a particular favorite for me. Also worth a try is Howard Bahr, author of The Black Flower and The Judas Field, novels set in and around the Civil War.

There are several sites in and around Murfreesboro as well which is about half an hour from Franklin.

Traveller; a novel by Richard Adams, gives a unique look at the Civil War - told from the point of view of Robert E. Lee's horse Traveller.

I recently read The March by E.L. Doctorow about Sherman's March to the Sea. I enjoyed the characters in the story. I did wish I had a map alongside the book to better visualize the characters' journey.

I really liked Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles and March by Geraldine Brooks

I have to add Coal Black Horse to this group..it's rough and raw and the writing is good.

Well, gee, I can't believe that no one has mentioned Gone with the Wind!

Years ago, while visiting the Oak Alley antebellum plantation in Louisiana, I bought Sarah Morgan: The Civil War Diary Of A Southern Woman in the gift shop there and later found the book to be very engrossing - a vivid portrait of the Confederate home front under siege and the dissolution of a formerly privileged life. But it's a real diary, so I guess I'm posting on the wrong site.

I'll never forget Stephen Crane's The Red Badge Of Courage.

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Abr 29, 2007, 11:48am.

#12 if you liked Sarah Morgan then fine Brokenburn: the diary of Kate Stone it is a wonderful diary of a young woman in the Louisiana Delta duriing the civil war.

If you have read "Widow of the South", you have to read Howard Bahr's novels! The Black Flower is all about the battle of Franklin and I liked it better than WotS.

Has anyone read Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier? I saw the movie and loved it... so I'm assuming the book is even better than that was. Any opinions?

Cold Mountain was fabulous. They stuck to the main story as much as a movie can with a bit of license. The text is so densely written it's not a quick read, you have to savor every page.

Try Casca 26: Johnny Reb by Tony Roberts. Its about an immortal fighting for the South in Virginia. You can get it on amazon.com or www.casca.net

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Set 26, 2008, 5:16am.

I agree that the novel Cold Mountain was much better than the movie. While the movie did have the advantage of all that gorgeous Appalachian Mountain scenery, a novel brings me inside the character's thoughts and feelings, in all their complexity, in a way that a movie never can.

Another favorite of mine is Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All by Allan Gurganus. Though it's set after the Civil War, the war is the center of the novel, because none of the characters came through the war intact. The main character was born after the Civil War ended, and yet it haunted her life.

There are a bunch of Civil War novels listed in my Historical Novels website at www.HistoricalNovels.info. It's a huge genre, and it seems to me that the average run of these novels is higher in quality than the average novel set in other time periods.

It was unfortunately too expensive to film in those beautiful Appalachian Mountains, so they actually shot the film in Bulgaria or Romania.

Didn't think of that! It may also have been easier to find scenery without buildings or other modern intrusions, like utility wires. I know they shot the PBS "Brother Cadfael" series in Hungary.

I am listening to On Agate Hill this week and really like it.

Budapest substituted for 1930's and 1940's Paris several years ago when they filmed the Maigret series that was shown on PBS. And as for the film of Cold Mountain, shooting in Romania also allowed them to hire extras that actually looked like Civil War Confederate soldiers instead of 21st Century Boomers wearing wool suits as they did in Gettysburg and Gods and Generals.

Robert A. Mosher

I'd recommend The Last Silk Dress by Ann Rinaldi. It's meant for young adult, but I still really enjoy reading now and again.

So far my favorite Civil War novel is Cold Mountain. The audiotape with Frazier reading is excellent--so many times authors really can't read their own works aloud in a satisfying way, but Frazier surely can.

i just posted the below in the general chat section, but thought i would re-post here in case it rings bells for anyone!

thanks. =)

i read a series when i was a teenager and have thought of it over the years. i would love to read it again, but have no memory of the author's name or book titles!

i found the series at my local library and i can actually still see in my mind the stack where i found it. the author is a woman and i believe her last name begins with a "B". it could start with a "C", but for some reason i think it's a "B". i found the series near jean m. auel's books so that's why i know her last name starts at the beginning of the alphabet.

the series is a trilogy and takes place in new orleans from the time of it being a french colony (late 1600s) through the civil war (mid 1800s). it focuses on at least 2 families, perhaps 3, all from the woman's point of view. at least one family is rich, plantation owners. another family is "poor white trash". i believe there might be a third family that is descendants of a white plantation owner and one of his slaves, but i can't recall for a certainty.

one memorable scene from the first book is one of the main characters giving birth to her first child in the new orleans area, at night, during a storm - her cabin is small and the rain is leaking in and ants are invading. there are so many ants they've crawled up the bedlegs and are biting her as she goes through birthing pains. her husband returns and she screams at him to get the ants off her - he lifts the legs of the bed and sets them in buckets of water. there is a slave woman helping as well.

another memory i have is the "poor white trash" character giving the rich plantation woman a baby blanket for her new born - this would have taken place just prior to or at the start of the civil war. the poor woman had made a special effort to keep the blanket clean and safe while she made it. the plantation woman's "mammy" took the blanket away to burn it, saying it would be filthy and that "poor white trash" are dirty people, or something along those lines. the plantation woman thought to herself that even the poor can be clean. later in the book the plantation woman was reduced in her means and after running her finger through the dust on her banister ironcally thought to herself that the even poor can be clean.

one other scene is the same "poor white trash" woman standing up in front of a crowd of "her own" and speaking out against the civil war, saying that the men were going off to fight for the rich man who would keep his slaves and keep the white man down.

SO, those are my memories. if only i could remember one title or the author's name! any help or suggestions will be GREATLY appreciated!! i always peruse libraries for any of the books, but i have never found anything similar. i read these books in the early 80s so i would imagine most libraries would have updated their collections several times over since then...

thanks in advance!

>#25

You're thinking of Gwen Bristow. The first one is Deep Summer; the second book, set around the time of the Civil War, is The Handsome Road; the third, set around the time of WWI, is This Side of Glory. I love this series, too.

webgeekstress you are an ANGEL!!! thank you so much for filling in the glaring blank in my memory! i cannot wait to find this trilogy and re-read it! i completely forgot that the last book so so far in the future from the first two! what fun this will be!

thank you again!!

How about Ghost Riders by Sharyn McCrumb?

Gwen Bristow's series made me a reader....loved it as a high school girl...am currently listening to On Agate Hill by Lee Smith and really enjoying the audio.

There's also The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers by Delia Falconer, which wasn't quite my taste but might be worth looking at. And also Paradise Alley by Kevin Baker, which I just loved.

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Jun 2, 2008, 8:26am.

Howard Bahr has written three excellent Civil War era novels, The Black Flower, The Year of Jubilo, and one I recently finished for the second time, The Judas Field.

Bahr's The Black Flower specifically deals with the battle of Franklin. The Judas Field also deals with that battle and references the woman who was The Widow of the South.

Thank you SeanLong, Severn and Cageym for the recommendations.
I have Black Flower, and The Year of Jublio and The Widow of the South. They are on my TBR pile that I hope to get to soon. :-)

I posted this on another thread but it is such a good book set during the civil was, The Gates of Trevalyan by Jacqueline Cook. Ms. Cook has done extensive research, a lot of it from her own family papers so she really makes the story come alive.
If you are interested it is reviewed on my blog.
www.kayespenguinposts.blogspot.com

Hey, what do you all think of the John Jakes North and South Civil War trilogy -- they were given to me as an unsolicited loan from a source that would be more apt to read things like Danielle Steele and the like. So, I am concerned maybe they are fluff? Has anyone read them? Worth a try?

Well yeah, they are fluff. I read the whole trilogy when I was about twenty. As I recall, I thought it started out okay (or I wouldn't have continued) but by book three (Heaven and Hell) the plot was so melodramatic and over the top that it was a wonder I didn't pitch the book across the room. I have a feeling that I would be even less tolerant of the trilogy now; there are too many better books to read. Of course this is all just my recollections across the mists of time.

The first one is okay, maybe give it a try and see if his style appeals to you.

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Nov 28, 2008, 11:12pm.

#37 - thanks - that is what I thought - I can't stand fluff and there are too many excellent Civil War novels out there I haven't read. I think I'll pass.

I would like to Unto this Hour, A short of Gone with the Wind themed novel from the early 90's.

I also like Jeff Shaara's Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure, I have always thought that he is just as good of writer as his father. Maybe even better in some respects.

Finished Widow of the South some time ago, but just wanted to say 'thanks' to everyone who recommended it. Excellent book, however Enemy Women still tops my list.
Any other good 'love' stories for this time period? Sorry guys- I like a little 'fluff' in my stories! ;)

Gone with the Wind is incredible ... I just finished it and really cannot believe I did not read it sooner. If you like Civil War era and romance (although it seemed much of the romance will ill-fated!), you must check it out.

Sweetsmoke is also excellent and does have a love story in it.

Crescent City by Belva Plain. The book is based on the diary of a Jewish girl who lived in New Orleans during the Civil War. There is some romance. Ms. Plain does not write novels without some romance.

>>41 It seems that a lot of people avoid Gone with the Wind, as though it is nothing more than a cliche. That's always sad to me because I think it remains a fine novel and holds up well with repeat readings.

What is Sweetsmoke about, not a whole lot of info on the page about it. Looks promising however.

I would have to say that #36, jhowell has hit on something with North and South, Love and War, and Heaven and Hell. John Jakes does a fine job on historicals. California Gold and Homeland are some of my favorites, though those two are not American Civil War. The books are certainly a better representation then the tv miniseries, but reading them, as with historicals, gives you a feel for the times.

Jakes is very good at this and even though it might be over the top by the end, we all know what will eventually happen. The North will win and the South will need to rise again. Not to many other ways to make that ending change when you cover the entirety of the conflict.

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Dez 29, 2008, 8:23pm.

>41
I think that Gone With the Wind gets overlooked sometimes simply because it *is* so ubiquitous. And it must be said that, by current standards, it is seriously non-PC in its treatment of slaves. Let's not even discuss its romantic portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan - those valiant defender of (white) female virtue! Actually, I think these may have much to do with its currently undervalued state.

However, as a depiction of life as it would have been perceived at the time by the main characters (specifically non-combatants in the South), I think it is unexcelled.

I'm reading Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen (about 2/3rds of the way through, just beginning Book III) and while I wouldn't call it "centrally" a Civil War book, it does deal, in great part, with the early aftermath of the war on the South. There are issues regarding race, family life and survival during Reconstruction and how that lead the way for "modern" settling of the Everglades area.

It is by no means an easy read, although this final book, I can tell, will be the best (finally told from Watson's perspective) ... it is worth the effort (so far, anyway).

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Jan 9, 2009, 11:47am.

In alternative science fiction like Civil War fiction, are the series by William R. Forstchen, the Lost Regiment.

A civil war regiment gets transported to a world that aliens import humans too to provide them with food. They eat humans. So our civil war heros stop that.

Rally Cry
The Union Forever
Terrible Swift Sword
Fateful Lightning
Battle Hymn
Never Sound Retreat
A Band of Brothers
The Men of War
Down to the sea

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Jan 9, 2009, 12:07pm.

Have you tried any of Bernard Cornwell's Starbuck Chronicles? The first book in the series is Rebel.

Steven
http://steventill.com

I don't think I've heard this mentioned -- A Distant Flame by Phillip Lee Williams is lovely. I was very impressed. My other favorites have been mentioned numerous times, so I continue to search for new material. I live very near to Franklin; anyone visiting Carnton should stop near the Carter house as well. Another haunting story, place. . .

I'm listening to The Killer Angels and loving it! What a gripping story, and told so well. Thanks for all who recommended it.

The Killer Angels is a great book and is what first got me interested in the Civil War. I am from Gettysburg, but fell in love with some of the great stories of Confederate valor that took place in northern Va. (which is where my book is set).

Michael Shaara's son, Jeff, finished the Trilogy - one of them is Gods and Generals, which I would recommed if you like The Killer Angels.

http://jessicajamesbooks.com

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Jan 27, 2009, 11:18am.

Just ordered Ghost Riders based on another recommendation. Looking forward to reading it!

Just started reading Letters from an Age of Reason by Nora Hague and it is a Civil War novel predominantly a love story between the daughter of a wealthy/prominant New York family and a "high yellow" slave (who often passes for white). So far, it's excellent, but I just started. It's easy to read and very enjoyable, witty too.

I just finished On Agate Hill and am wondering if any one else has questions. Molly goes through so much and realizes some things that I believe many women can identify with,she actually helped me put a lable on some thoughts. However, I still am looking to clear up a few questions about Molly.

I actually did just read On Agate Hill, a few books ago however. I wouldn't highly recommend it, but it did draw me in. Unusual lot of characters.

Fighting Men by John Zubritsky, African-American men who fought and died in the Civil War

Killer Angels by Michael Shaara and Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure by his son Jeff, and The Red Badge of Courage would top my list.

There are a couple of mystery series set during the Civil War. I believe that the authors are Hambly and Monfredo.

#1 is Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

#2 is The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

#3 is Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

#4 is Shiloh by Shelby Foote

#6 is Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

#7 is The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks

#8 is Glorieta Pass/The Guns of Valverde by P.G. Nagle

#9 is Gods and Generals/The Last Full Measure by Jeff Shaara

#10 is The Landsman by Peter Charles Melman

Interesting that I've heard people say there are many great Civil War novels, but I was hard pressed to make this list. I hope others join this thread to give me some more to read. So far, "Shades of Gray," "A Distant Flame," and "Ghost Rider" look tempting.

Agree w others on Killer Angels and Cold Mountain. I am surprised no one mentioned Reasoner's Civil War series, even if to warn others away from it. I am on book two of the series which starts with Mananas, book 2 is Shiloh, 3 is Antietam and it ends with Appomattox. I am currently reading Shiloh, and so far the historical record is overshadowed by the development of the characters and the story plot. Not recommending yet, but interested in others opinions.

Yankee Stranger by Elswyth Thane. It's one of her Williamsburg novels and is absolutely terrific Civil War fiction and a great book in general. If you like fiction about American history and haven't tried the Williamsburg novels, please do. The first three, especially, Dawn's Early Light, Yankee Stranger, and Ever After, are unbeatable.

The best book I have read about the civil war in a long time has to be Seen the Glory by John Hough Jr. It's about two brothers and the battle of Gettysburg. Awesome Awesome read.

I recommend God's Thunderbolt: The Vigilantes of Montana by Carol Buchanan, set in 1863-64 in the Montana goldfields and based on real events. It won the Spur Award for Best First Novel from the Western Writers of America, but can only be bought from Amazon.com since it was produced by BookSurge. I've read it twice.

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Set 13, 2009, 3:25pm.

This may seem a little strange but Gettysburg by Newt Gingrich was great. It is an alternate history -- what if Lee had listened to Longstreet? There are two more in the series, but I have not read them. Read Killer Angels first then Gettysburg to get the feel of what really happened and what might have happened.

In my opinion The Killer Angels and Confederates by Thomas Keneally are the best Civil War novels. I'm surprised that Confederates hasn't been mentioned in this long thread, but Keneally, an Australian, does a remarkable job with Southern dialogue and the life of the Confederate soldiers he describes.

Looking back over this very intersting thread, I've found a couple of new leads; really, it does seem difficult to find really good Civil war novels. I've thought of another worth mentioning I believe -- White Doves at Morning by James Lee Burke. It's been a few years since I read it, but I would recommend it.
I just finished Robert Hick's new novel, A Separate Country, which concerns itself with Gen. John Bell Hood after the war, his relationship with his wife and their life in New Orleans. I personally found it to be wanting after his Widow of the South. Others may not. I prefer more focus on the war itself, in real time or recollection.