BVBook Verdict

If you liked

Books like The Cricket on the Hearth

Loved The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens? Here are 10 books with a similar appeal — drawn mostly from historical fiction, ranked by how confidently we'd recommend them next.

10 books · ranked

  1. 1

    Wolf Hall

    Hilary Mantel · 2009 · Historical Fiction

    Thomas Cromwell's rise in the court of Henry VIII; political intrigue rendered in extraordinary close-up prose.

  2. 2

    The Pillars of the Earth

    Ken Follett · 1989 · Historical Fiction

    The building of a cathedral across decades of medieval turmoil; a vast, addictive saga.

  3. 3

    The Book Thief

    Markus Zusak · 2005 · Historical Fiction

    A girl in Nazi Germany who steals books, narrated by Death itself; original, tender and devastating.

  4. 4

    All the Light We Cannot See

    Anthony Doerr · 2014 · Historical Fiction

    A blind French girl and a German boy whose paths cross in occupied France; luminous, intricate storytelling.

  5. 5

    The deerslayer

    James Fenimore Cooper · 1841 · Historical Fiction

    The Deerslayer is the last book in Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales pentalogy, but acts as a prequel to the other novels. It begins with the rapid civilizing of New York, in which surrounds the followin

  6. 6

    Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

    Harriet A. Jacobs · 1861 · Historical Fiction

    The true story of an individual's struggle for self-identity, self-preservation, and freedom, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl remains among the few extant slave narratives written by a woman. Th

  7. 7

    An Old-Fashioned Girl

    Louisa May Alcott · 1869 · Historical Fiction

    Polly visits her wealthy friend Fanny Shaw in the city and is overwhelmed by the fashionable and urban life they live--but also left out because of her "countrified" manners and outdated clothes.

  8. 8

    Cyrano de Bergerac

    Edmond Rostand · 1821 · Historical Fiction

    Cyrano de Bergerac, verse drama in five acts by Edmond Rostand, performed in 1897 and published the following year. It was based only nominally on the 17th-century nobleman of the same name, known for

  9. 9

    Rob Roy

    Sir Walter Scott · 1817 · Historical Fiction

    A historical novel first published in 1817, this was one of the first popular novels to attempt the use of regional dialect, in this case both Scottish highland and lowland dialects with a glossary of

  10. 10

    The Young Buglers

    G. A. Henty · 1880 · Historical Fiction

    Two boys from Eton venture off to combat in this narrative of the Peninsular War. Join them on the Douro River, on the lines of Torres Vedras, and in the siege of the Badajos as they dodge danger in t

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