Titles are approximately chronological within time periods.  Note: This list includes Historical Fantasy but not Historical Romance or YA. 

For Historical Romance novels, click here.
For Historical YA, click here.

Female Protagonists

Antiquity

• Alcestis by Katharine Beutner
• The Palace of Eros by Caro de Robertis
• Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane
• *Stolen Women by Alysandra Dutton
• The Aven Cycle by Cass Morris

Medieval/Middle Ages

• The Light of the World by Nicola Griffith (7th c. Britain)
• Spear by Nicola Griffith (Fantasy)
• All the Painted Stars by Emma Denny (14th c. Romance)

Pre-Columbian

• Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse (Fantasy)

16th Century

• A Rose By Any Other Name by Mary McMyne (1591, England)

17th Century

• The Disenchantment by Celia Bell (Paris)
• The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye by Briony Cameron (Caribbean)
• The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (1617, Norway)

18th Century

• Life Mask by Emma Donoghue (London)
• She Rises by Kate Worsley (1740)
• Mademoiselle Revolution by Zoe Sivak (1790s, Paris)

19th Century

• The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins (1812-25, Jamaica and London)
• Patience & Sarah by Isabel Miller (1816-17, NE US)
• Bittersweet by Nevada Barr (US)
• Devotion by Hannah Kent (1836, Prussia)
• The Companion by Kim Taylor Blakemore (1855, New Hampshire)
• The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr. (pre-Civil War, Deep US South)
• Spitting Gold by Carmella Lowkis (1866, Paris)
• The Red Sacrament by Sarah Hinkley (1869, Paris)
• Frog Music by Emma Donoghue (1876, San Francisco)
• Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens (1877, Midwest US)
• The Best Bad Things and Rough Trade by Katrina Carrasco (1887-8, Washington Territory)
• Clio Rising by Paula Martinac (1893, NYC)
• The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams (1899, London)

20th Century

• Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang (1906, San Francisco)
• All Of You Every Single One by Beatrice Hitchman (1910-1946, Vienna)
• The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue (1918, Ireland)
• The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher (1919-1935, Paris)
• Jazzed by Jill Dearman (1920s, NYC)
• The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng (1921, Penang)
• The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters (1922, London)
• A Slow and Secret Poison by Carmella Lowkis (1922, England)
• The Nightingale Mysteries by Katharine Schellman (1924, New York)
• Swearing Off Stars by Danielle Wong (1920s, Oxford)
• Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May (1920s, England, Fantasy)
• Dead Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia (1926, Harlem)
• The Last Nude by Ellis Avery (1927, Paris)
• White Houses by Amy Bloom (1930s, US)
• The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Labuskes (1930s, Montana)
• Undiscovered Country by Kelly O’Connor McNees (1930s, US)
• Little Wild by Laura Evans (1937, Suffolk)
• Taiwan Travelogue by Shuang-zi Yang (1938, Taiwan)
• The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey (1939, London)(Fantasy)
• The Night Watch by Sarah Waters (1940s/WWII)
• The Perfume Thief by Timothy Schaffert (WWII, Paris)
• The Songbird by Stacy Lynn Miller (WWII, Rio)
• Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen by Sarah James (1943, Hollywood)
• Meet Me in the Garden by Nina LaCour (1940s, New Orleans)
• Pentecost and Parker Mysteries by Stephen Spotswood (1940s, NYC)
• The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith (1950s)
• Belladonna by Anbara Salam (1950s, CT)
• The Unbecoming of Margaret Wolf by Isa Arsen (1956, NM)
• A Thin Bright Line by Lucy Jane Bledsoe (Cold War)
• The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott (Cold War)
• Dead Letters from Paradise by Ann McMan (1960, NC)
• Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta (1960s, Nigeria)
• After You Died by Dia Poirier (1968)
• Shoot the Moon by Isa Arsen (1969)
• Southland by Nina Revoyr (20th century LA)
• Who is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht (1960s, NYC and Buenos Aires)
• Seven-Sided Spy by Hannah Carmack (Cold War)
• Cantoras by Carolina de Robertis (1977, Uruguay)
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• Stray City by Chelsey Johnson (1990s, Portland)
• Girls Girls Girls by Shoshana von Blanckensee (1990s, San Francisco)

Male Protagonists

Antiquity

• Young Conquerors: A Novel of Hephaestion and Alexandros by Christopher Cosmos
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
• The Hymn to Dionysus by Natasha Pulley
• Fire From Heaven and The Persian Boy by Mary Renault

Medieval/Middle Ages

• Nicked by M.T. Anderson (1087, Bari)
• Scottish Boy by Alex De Campi (1333, England)
• The Ballot Boy by Larry Mellman (1368, Venice)

16th Century

• A Tip for the Hangman by Allison Epstein (1585, England)

17th Century

• The Devourers by Indra Das (India)
• As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann (1600s, England)

18th Century

• All the World Beside by Garrard Conley (Puritan New England)
• Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg (1724, London) – T

19th Century

• Let the Dead Bury the Dead by Allison Epstein (1812, St. Petersburg)
• The Whale by Mark Beauregard (1850s, New England)
• The Watchmaker of Filligree Street  (1883) and The Lost Future of Pepperharrow (1888) by Natasha Pulley (London, Japan, Fantasy)
• The New Life by Tom Crewe (1894, London)
• The Master by Colm Toibin (1895, England)
• What’s Left of the Night by Ersi Sotiropoulos (1897, Paris)

20th Century

• The Upside-Down Tree by Alden Reimonenq (1900-1908, Louisiana)
• History of a Pleasure Seeker by Richard Mason (1907, Amsterdam)
• A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske (1908, England, Fantasy)
• Maurice by E.M. Forster (pre-WWI England)
• Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut (1912)
• The Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst (1913, England)
• The World and All That it Holds by Aleksandar Hemon (1914, Sarajevo/Shanghai)
• Regeneration by Pat Barker (WWI)
• In Memoriam by Alice Winn (WWI)
• At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O’Neill (1916, Ireland)
• In the Absence of Men by Philippe Besson
• All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes (post-WWI, Antarctica) – T
• The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo (1920s Appalachia) – T
• The Book of Salt by Monique Truong (1929, Saigon/Paris)
• While England Sleeps by David Leavitt (1930s)
• The Charioteer by Mary Renault (WWII, England)
• The Torqued Man by Peter Mann (WWII, Berlin)
• The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne (1940s, Ireland)
• The Sparshot Affair by Alan Hollinghurst (1940s-Present)
• On Swift Horses by Shannon Pufahl (1950s, American West)
• Hall of Mirrors by John Copenhaver (1950s, Washington DC)
• Lavender House by Lev A.C. Rosen (1952)
• The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst (1983, London)
• Rent Boy by Gary Indiana (1981, NYC)
• Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski (1980s, Poland)
• My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson (1980s, NYC)
• No Other World by Rahul Mehta (80s-90s US, India)

Nonbinary Protagonists

Antiquity

• The Palace of Eros by Caro de Robertis
• Sistersong by Lucy Holland (Transmasc)

Medieval/Middle Ages

• She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan (1345, China, Fantasy)