The Two Kinds Of Historical Novels That Activate Every Pleasure Center In My Historical-Novel-Reading Brain

There are two kinds of books in the world, Dragonwyck by Anne Seton and The Long Ships by Frans Bengtsson. There aren’t any others, I checked.

TYPE THE FIRST

1. A red-headed girl neglects her chores to read a book, leaning against one of the following: the stone wall at the far end of the orchard, the gnarled old oak tree at the far end of the pasture, a fr…