When a Fictional Cast Focuses on the Past

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Josephine Tey (credit: Sasha/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

One of the many reasons we read literature is to get a sense of the past. Some fictional characters are quite interested in the past as well.

I just finished Josephine Tey’s intriguing 1951 novel The Daughter of Time, which features a hospitalized 20th-century Scotland Yard inspector who’s ultra-bored as he recovers from a badly broken leg and other injuries. Alan Grant eventually gets immersed in the late 1400s — specifically in sleuthing (via old documents brought to him) whether or not King Richard III was a murderer. Fascinating to try to solve a mystery involving people dead for hundreds of years, and Tey also has lots to say about historical-writing bias that reflects the perspective of “the winners.”

There’s an even bigger time gap in Daphne du Maurier’s haunting 1969 novel The House on the Strand, in which 20th-century guy Dick Young takes a drug to repeatedly go back to the 1300s — becoming engrossed in the goings-on of that period (to the detriment of his life in modern times).

Visiting the past is also a thing in Octavia E. Butler’s powerful 1979 novel Kindred, in which 20th-century Black writer Dana Franklin is involuntarily thrust back in time to America’s slave-holding South. There the young Californian meets her ancestors, Black and white, and one of the plot points involves Dana trying to ensure that she’ll end up eventually being born and existing in her own time. Butler of course has plenty to say about racism, too.

One of the highlights of another time-travel work — Diana Gabaldon’s page-turning, still-ongoing Outlander series — involves 20th-century physician Claire Randall doing research as she considers a return to 18th-century Scotland. That’s where Claire met and married Jamie Fraser before she had to return to the 1900s, pregnant with their child. Claire, assisted by her now-grown daughter and future son-in-law, uses historical records to try to determine whether Jamie is still alive at a certain point of the 1700s and, if so, where in Scotland he might be.

A.S. Byatt’s 1990 novel Possession, which I recently discussed in another blog post, features two 20th-century academics studying two 19th-century poets (a woman and a man) and whether they had a romantic relationship. The academics don’t physically go back in time, but their minds are certainly focused there for much of the book.

The nameless narrator of Henry James’ absorbing 1888 novel The Aspern Papers is also interested in a dead 19th-century poet (Jeffrey Aspern) as he uses subterfuge to try to get access to Aspern’s old papers from the late poet’s now-aged lover.

Fiction you’ve liked in which the characters are very interested in the past?

My literary-trivia book is described and can be purchased here: Fascinating Facts About Famous Fiction Authors and the Greatest Novels of All Time.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — about a welcome reelection bid, a squandered hate-crime grant, a great high school concert, and more — is here.

84 thoughts on “When a Fictional Cast Focuses on the Past”

  2. Dave,
    I’ve mulled this, but can’t think of one.
    Now, it’s already Friday. (feels like Wednesday.. time slips)
    Anyway, I love the idea that someone solves a mystery without going back in time.
    That’s so cool.
    Of course that happens a lot today with advanced forensics, but in the 1950’s, not.
    Gee, with AI, 🤔 😬 maybe we can finally find out who Jack the Ripper was!?

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  3. “War and Peace”, “The Red Badge of Courage” and “The Charterhouse of Parma” all qualify for inclusion– in each case, the author was writing about the past, though in the latter instance, the author was alive but elsewhere during the period he covers.

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    • Thank you, jhNY! Three great mentions! I like your interesting distinction of some authors writing about a past from before they were born (often way before) and other authors writing about a less-distant past from their lifetime.

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  4. Never read the Cadfael series, though years ago I saw a few episodes of the British dramatization starring Derek Jacoby, and I confess I thought the premise was a bit beyond unlikely, but in any case,remote from the present as the medieval detective may be from our own times, he is hundreds of years the junior of Judge Dee, a semi-fictional and ficitionalized character who practiced his detection skills in 7th century Tang Dynasty China.

    A Dutch diplomat, author Robert Von Gulick (1910-1967) discovered an 18th century collection of tales that had grown up around an actual historical judge, translated it first into Japanese from Chinese, and then, to English. That translation became the point of departure for Van Gulick’s series of Judge Dee stories, many of them derived from his own imagination, and many from other Chinese tales which the author found useful.

    I have read three of his stories and enjoyed each one– especially as I am somewhat familiar with the period thanks to my affection for Tang poetry; there are more than a dozen Dee publications listed in Van Gulick’s wikipedia bibliography.

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    • Thank you, jhNY! I judge your Judge Dee mention very interesting. 🙂 Inspiration for a story or series of stories can come from all kinds of places, including an 18th-century collection of tales. Nice to hear about a diplomat who could write well and with imagination — not always the case.

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  5. I consider your this week’s proposal to read books, in which we may travel in time particularly interesting, Dave, so we may also see the advantages or disadvantages of our time. I don’t want to mention again the novel from last week, but the page-turner “The Weight of Ink” by Rachel Kadish,
    which tells the story of two outstanding women separated by centuries. The first one is Esther an immigrant from Amsterdam, who writes for a blind rabbi and the other a historian in London, who wants to preserve Ester’s voice! I think it goes very well together with Possesson.

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  6. Hi Dave, my mum is a bit Outlanders fan but I have not read the books or watched the show. I suppose most dual timeline books vacillate between the past and the present with the present day MC trying to investigate something from the past. I did that myself in A Ghost and His Gold. Michelle from the present, investigates the ghosts from the past. Stephen King used this technique for 11/22/63 and a bit less for The Green Mile.

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  7. Hi Dave,

    I’ve just finished Daphne du Maurier’s “The Loving Spirit”. Published in 1931, it opens in 1830 with young Janet about to meet her future husband. It then spans four generations of the Coombe family and their link to the local shipyard. I know that none of what I’ve said here sounds very exciting, but du Maurier’s writing made this unputdownable for me. Such passion and intensity, even though not very much happens.

    Sue

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    • Thank you, Sue! “The Loving Spirit” sounds excellent in its way! I enjoyed your description of it. I’ve never read anything by Daphne du Maurier that I didn’t like or love; she was an excellent writer.

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      • I’ve got a hardback of “Trilby”, written by Daphne’s father George, which my father gave his mother for Christmas in 1934. It’s a little worn by now, and leans a little to one side, but still readable.

        I mention it today after seeing a du Maurier being discussed, but mostly because the book shows where I got my love for old books– my father, who, at age 8, was already combing the stalls for reading material– this copy of Trilby was published in 1894.

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        • I’ve heard about “Trilby”! And its Svengali character, whose name would enter the common language. Also, wonderful that your family has a multi-generational love of books and reading. 🙂

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  8. Ooooh what an interesting theme for the week Dave! Can I count myself in it? Hahahaha! Because I am without a doubt obsessed with the past. I really tried to get into the Outlander series – and I know a lot of people are always surprised when I tell them I didn’t really like it. I guess it’s just not for everybody. I’m having trouble thinking of a particular novel that fits into the theme for this week – but you’ve listed some good-sounding ones that I’d like to read!

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    • Thank you, M.B.! Great that you’re very interested in the past! (I can tell by many of your excellent blog posts. 🙂 ) I share that interest. 🙂

      As much as I love the “Outlander” series, I totally understand that those Diana Gabaldon novels — or any novels by any authors — are not necessarily loved by everyone.

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  9. Also, I should have paid more attention to the headline of this post. I am already steeped in the past, because of my own life, old books and biography, and other historical novels. Sometimes, it’s hard to remember what today is.

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  10. I’m surprised this list contains no mention of H. G. Wells’ “The Time Machine”. I picked that novella up again last night and will re-read his eerie view of a dystopian, distant future.

    Otherwise your concept is good. It has introduced me to multiple reading ideas. Good post.

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  11. Intriguing, Dave. Josephine Tey’s book (and The Sunne in Splendour) certainly gave another perspective on Richard3 and made many people rethink what they thought was true.
    As a Black woman, I’ve never wished to return to earlier centuries, though!

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    • Thank you, Anonymous! Yes, a very different perspective on Richard III — one I hadn’t heard before.

      As for your concluding line, I hear you. Even as racism and sexism remain rampant today, things were worse in many ways in past centuries.

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  13. Read The Daughter of Time at 13, House on the Strand only a little older. Perhaps I learned the Miss Marple rule from Tey – never believe what you’ve been told, History teachers insisted on the evil serial killer Richard, never budged. ( school was in Lancashire)
    We ‘ve inherited various children’s books – including an intriguing time travel short series from the 1950’s by M – for Margot Pardoe – Celtic, Argle’s Mist mediaeval- Argle’s Causeway, and ancient Greece.
    Angle’s Oracle

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    • Thank you, Esther! You read “The Daughter of Time” and “The House on the Strand” at impressively young ages!

      “Never believe what you’ve been told” is often excellent advice to go by, whether it involves history or something else.

      Sounds like a nice children’s book inheritance you have!

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  15. In Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby, his character Gatsby looks back on the 20s. Miss Foley, one of Bradbury’s characters in Something Wicked This Way Comes, longs for the past, that is, she wished to be young again. Concerning authors who are interested in the past, Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall bio of Thomas Cromwell is an excellent example. For now this is about all I can think of re characters and/or authors who fit the theme. And in closing, just an observation from writer Charles Portis’s character Rooster Cogburn: “Looking back is a bad habit.” Ha. Thanks Dave. Susi.

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    • Thank you, Susi! Several great examples! Your mention of Ray Bradbury reminded me of his short story “A Sound of Thunder,” in which visiting the past has grave consequences. But, despite that instance, Rooster Cogburn would be often wrong with the quote of his you cited — as your comic “ha” might indicate. 🙂

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  16. These all sound like interesting books, Dave, especially “The Daughter of Time.” since that’s been mentioned in the comments. I will stick with two of my favorite authors. “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” by Mark Twain and “Mother Night” by Kurt Vonnegut. The former, I’m sure you’re familiar with. “Mother Night” is the story of a man awaiting a trial for war crimes during WWII. He’s writing his memoirs while in prison. It’s a fascinating book with an unexpected ending.

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    • Thank you, Dan! “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” is a great mention! Certainly one of the earlier time travel novels, along with works such as Edward Bellamy’s “Looking Backward” (also from the 1880s).

      I haven’t read “Mother Night,” but it sounds VERY compelling.

      Twain and Vonnegut are two excellent favorite authors to have!

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  18. Fey’s novel sounds like an interesting read. Yet another to add to my list. Stories with added intrigues and mysteries of the past often serve to illuminate the present. This is the case with the 2019 psychological thriller “The Lost Village” by Camilla Sten that explores our perceptions and treatment of women suffering from mental illness. I’m not sure if Sten’s novel qualifies here as the old mining town of the 1950s, dubbed “The Lost Village,” is fictitious. The storyline moves between “Now” and “Then”, of events leading up to the 1959 disappearance without a trace of its residents.

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    • Thank you, Rosaliene! “The Daughter of Time” is not among the most riveting mysteries I’ve ever read, but it feels very original and is exceptionally written.

      “Stories with added intrigues and mysteries of the past often serve to illuminate the present” — that is SO true. Glad you mentioned that insightful point.

      “The Lost Village” sounds fascinating!

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  20. Those one-sided “Holinshed’s Chronicles”! What is sometimes forgotten in reading Shakespeare is how carefully he and his fellow thespians had to trod their boards under the punitive eye of Elizabeth I– the historical plays were written to conform with the political expectations of the contemporary Crown, and Holisnhed was Tudor gospel, according to Tey, but not necessarily true.

    Read the “The Daughter of Time”, and enjoyed its unconventional reading of then-accepted history. I do think that a recent dig (2012) in a Leicester parking lot has undercut what I recall of her notion as to the straightness of Richard’s back. It wasn’t– though he wasn’t a hunchback either– curvature a-plenty, even scoliosis, but no hunchback.

    In one small way, the conceit of the story– solving a crime from a hospital bed– reminded me of fictional detective Nero Wolfe, who never left his sumptuous abode, but uncovered the guilty from a remove.

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    • Thank you, jhNY! Yes, the theory/theories about Richard III espoused in “The Daughter of Time” — interesting and convincing, but not absolute gospel. And that discovery of Richard III’s body (more than 60 years after Tey’s book) was something!

      You’re right that solving a crime from a remove is not unique to Tey. One of these days I need to try Nero Wolfe!

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  21. Hi Dave! I’m so glad you enjoyed Josephine Tey’s “The Daughter of Time.” I urge you to try “Brat Farrar,” too (my favorite!) I thought of two books to mention that have characters very interested in the past. One, an old one (but a good one), is Michael Crichton’s “Timeline,” a terrific time travel book in which a group of young men and women travel back to the Hundred Years War in France and find themselves in the middle of a battle between the French and English in the 1300s. Another book I recommend is “The Weight of Ink,” which goes back and forth between the present, where two historians in England are trying to understand some 17th-century documents they have found, and the life of the extraordinary young Jewish woman responsible for them, who lived in London during the plague. It’s fascinating and very moving. And if you want to laugh, there is Jodi Taylor’s series about historians going back in time to do research. The first book is “Just One Damned Thing After Another.”

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    • Thank you again, Kim, for recommending Josephine Tey, and I appreciate the other interesting mentions! I do love time-travel novels — whether they’re terrific (as the ones you cited sound) or even so-so. 🙂 Love the title of that Jodi Taylor book!

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  22. The Tey book is really interesting. She also wrote as Gordon Daviot. You’ve also mentioned Possession which I liked and the Du Maurier. There’s an Anya Seton book called Green Darkness, one of her last and it is about a woman who has lived before and has to go back and relive her past on order to survive her present. But I think prob for me my fav ‘ time travel’ was a series called Lost in Austen where the present day, stuck with a lousy boyfriend, lead, swaps places with Elizabeth Bennett.

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  23. Sounds like a very interesting novel. Part of your post reminded me of the truism “History is written by the winners” (attributed to both Napoleon and Winston Churchill). There are many good quotes about history, but unfortunately, none of them are mine — even though I am ancient enough.

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    • Thank you, mistermuse, for the comment — including the humor at the end. 🙂 That quote by Napoleon and/or Churchill is definitely/unfortunately accurate; I admire those historians who have tried not to conform to that perspective.

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    • Churchill might also have written: “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.” Sources differ.

      But what is undisputed: he wrote it, persuasively and well, though in ways that did not diminish the writer.

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      • Thank you, jhNY! Churchill was an extraordinary writer — of books and “one-liners.” A politician who didn’t need others to come up with speeches, though I assume he had staffers to help in that department. Speaking of great writers (comments realm), among them is…jhNY!

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        • On the interwebs, nobody can see you blush…or,in this case,me.

          I may have reported this unlikelihood in comments past, but it may amuse newer Astor Enthusiasts: there were two Winston Churchills around at the turn of the 20th century, and it cost me a buck to find out. Picked up a novel by Winston Churchill in the Salvation Army, but back home when I had a closer look, it hardly seemed the stuff of the celebrated Churchill’s interests.

          And that’s why, at least in the early years of his public life, he wrote as Winston S. Churchill– so as to distinguish himself from the other guy, an American(1871-1947), and more famous then, by far.

          The wikpedia tells me

          “(his second novel) “Richard Carvel” (1899) — was a phenomenal success. The novel was the third best-selling work of American fiction in 1899 and eighth-best in 1900, according to Alice Hackett’s 70 Years of Best Sellers. It sold some two million copies in a nation of only 76 million people, and made Churchill rich.”

          “In 1898, Churchill commissioned Charles Platt to design a mansion in Cornish, New Hampshire. Churchill moved there the following year and named it Harlakenden House. From 1913 to 1915, he leased it to Woodrow Wilson, who used it as a summer house.”(!)

          All well and good, but really, what were the chances there would be two Winston Churchills, both writers, near-contemporaries, yet otherwise unrelated??? I figure about a zillion to one, but my odds making abilities are what keeps me out of Vegas.

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