BVBook Verdict

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Books like The pioneers

Loved The pioneers by James Fenimore Cooper? 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

    Astoria

    Washington Irving · 1800 · Historical Fiction

    In 1811 a group of American traders built a fort at the mouth of the Columbia River, named Fort Astoria in honor of its financier, John Jacob Astor. Envisioned as the spur of a fur-trading empire, by

  6. 6

    Little Dorrit

    Charles Dickens · 1800 · Historical Fiction

    Upon its publication in 1857, Little Dorrit immediately outsold any of Dickens's previous books. The story of William Dorrit, imprisoned for debt in Marshalsea Prison, and his daughter and helpmate, A

  7. 7

    Our Mutual Friend

    Charles Dickens · 1800 · Historical Fiction

    Our Mutual Friend is a satiric masterpiece about money. The last novel Dickens completed, and perhaps his most angry, it sounds all the great themes of his later work: the innocence and venality of th

  8. 8

    Shirley

    Charlotte Brontë · 1800 · Historical Fiction

    Shirley, published in 1849, was Charlotte Brontë’s second novel after Jane Eyre. Published under her pseudonym of “Currer Bell,” it differs in several respects from that earlier work. It is written in

  9. 9

    The Dragon and the Raven

    G. A. Henty · 1800 · Historical Fiction

    For many years England was assailed by Danish hordes whose barbarians reduced the Saxons to pitiable legions of disconnected and ravished communities. In the later 800's A.D. a man named Alfred emerge

  10. 10

    The Woodlanders

    Thomas Hardy · 1800 · Historical Fiction

    When country-girl Grace Melbury returns home from her middle-class school she feels she has risen above her suitor, the simple woodsman Giles Winterborne. Though marriage had been discussed between he

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