In a recent discussion on Goodreads, we lauded
the few authors who go out of their way to make certain their historical
details are accurate, but slammed the ones who didn’t bother. In today’s mass-media
world, research is too easy and you shouldn’t slip up on whether your female character
in the mid eighteenth century wore drawers or nothing at all. It turns out,
that depends on the country she lived in. French women wore drawers, but in
England, apparently, the women did not wear any underpants.
Others in the
discussion lamented over all the knowledgeable virgins in novels set in medieval
times. Girls from good families would have been cloistered from the seamier
side of life and would have gone to the marriage bed with very little
information. They would not behave like randy vixens as soon as they hopped in between
the sheets.
I once reviewed a novel
set on an eighteenth century sailing ship where everyone was cooking in their
cabins as if they had hot plates. On wooden ships, fire was a huge threat.
Cooking was done in the galley, not in separate cabins. This was an easily researched
fact.
One person in my
discussion was annoyed over a novel set near The Second Boer War (1899-1902) in
which someone used a latex condom. Latex wasn’t invented until 1920. She said,
“Please. It's a simple peek into Wikipedia for
something that simple.”
My current pet peeve is
a popular author whose recent novel is about Marie Louise of Austria, and then France.
The author shows her as a strong, independent woman,
mistreated by, and never in love with, her husband Napoleon. She’s portrayed as
having had a lover before she even meets her future husband. All this is
untrue, but the author bragged about her extensive research of the period. If you’re playing with the facts, put this in
an Author’s Note. People I spoke with had taken this “faction” as fact after
reading the book. I’ve spent years at the Library of Congress researching this
era, reading memoires from servants, valets, and members of Napoleon’s staff. The
author’s depiction is far from the truth. Sadly, many will believe otherwise.
I reiterate, it’s so
much easier today to do research; these gaffes shouldn’t be tolerated—or admit
to your readers that you’re writing fantasy or alternate fiction or have
changed the facts to suit your purpose.
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