Running Head: A REVIEW OF SELECTED GENRE
A Review of Selected Genre:
Genre 4, Historical Fiction – Annotation with Genre, Comment, Reviews, and Resources
Deborah Bluestein
Southern Connecticut State University
ILS 593 (S70) Readers’ Advisory Services
Elsie Okobi, Ph.D.
Department of Information and Library Science
March 14, 2014 (Genre 4)
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A Review of Selected Genre: Annotation – Genre 4, Historical Fiction
AUTHOR: Jennifer Chiaverini
DATE READ: March 1, 2014
TITLE: Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker
PUB DATE: 2013
GENRE: Historical Fiction
PAGES: 352
APPEAL CHARACTERISTICS:
PACING: Measured, sometimes slow.
CHARACTERIZATIONS: Detailed, recognizable, single point of view.
STORY LINE: Domestic, layered, character driven, issue oriented, resolved ending.
Geographical Settings: Washington, D.C.; New York City; Chicago; Xenia, OH.
Time Period: 1860-1901.
FRAME AND TONE: Bittersweet, evocative, historical background, details of
political events, philosophical.
PLOT SUMMARY: Elizabeth has already purchased freedom for herself and her son through
her skills a seamstress, and the reader meets Elizabeth soon after her arrival to Washington D.C.,
just before the Civil War. There, she creates and sews dresses for the Washington elite, but finds
that many of her customers, wives of Southern politicians, are moving their families down into
the Confederacy, and a new President is entering the White House. Elizabeth is called to be the
seamstress for the First Lady, and garners a first-hand look at the daily life of Lincoln and his
family during the war. As a servant and often confidant of Mary Lincoln, Elizabeth is witness to
the frenzied spending habits that scandalize the Capital, the tragic deaths of both a Lincoln son
and also her own, and eventually the overwhelming consequences of Lincoln’s assassination that
engulf the family when they leave Washington. In the confusion, Elizabeth attempts to help the
family out of their reduced circumstances by writing a sympathetic memoir, but she gains only
notoriety and forever loses Mary’s friendship. The author’s interpretation of Elizabeth’s long
life is a poignant and revealing look at the very personal relationships that evolved across racial
and class boundaries during the war and in the post-war years of the 19th Century.
SIMILAR AUTHORS:
Tracy Chevalier
Tara Conklin
Robert Hicks
Jean M. Humez
David Margolick
Molly Peacock
SUBJECT HEADINGS:
Keckley, Elizabeth, 1818-1907 — Fiction
Lincoln, Mary Todd, 1818-1882 — Fiction
Presidents' Spouses — Fiction
Women Dressmakers — Fiction
Female Friendship — Fiction
Historical Fiction
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Genre and Comment
The skill of combining history with an interesting story helps successful authors in this
genre bring the reader into the lives and motivations of people that may be otherwise unknown.
Maatta (2010) notes that the reader assumes the author is being reasonably accurate about how
people of the period and culture were likely to have lived, and has conducted thorough research
in preparation for writing the book. Thus, background detail and accurate depiction of characters
are major factors in historical fiction’s appeal, and helps to give substance to the drama that takes
place in the story (Kelly, 2005). Other appeal factors for this genre are a slow to moderate
pacing, but with writing that retains the reader’s interest and evokes an emotional response to the
people and periods portrayed (Kelly).
Readers of this type of fiction are often trying to understand their own roots, discover
historical facts, and learn about the people and events that shaped the world in which they live.
(Maatta, 2010). They may also be reading to escape into a different time and place, or to try and
experience what the author indicates was happening during events in the text (Kelly, 2005).
Storylines may be portrayed in any particular time before the mid-20th Century, and
placed in any geographic area. Historical fiction is often written in the form of sagas (covering
decades or centuries), epics (spanning centuries or millennia), and chronicles, and provides the
reader with a sense of how events may impact the characters over time (Maatta, 2010, and
Herald, 2005). It is also easily mixed with other genres such as women’s fiction, romance,
adventure, and mystery (Maatta). In addition to sagas, as listed in Herald, subgenres of historical
fiction are period-based and include prehistoric, ancient civilizations, middle ages, exploration
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and the Renaissance, exotic locations, the Americas (including subgenres of the Colonial period
and Civil War), and the 20th Century.
In Mrs. Lincoln’s Seamstress, the Civil War is the driving force in the lives of all the
characters. The protagonist, Elizabeth, like most of the other main characters, was a factual
person, and she personifies the freed former slave of the period. Her relationships with the
women she serves demonstrate the differences of race and class that made life difficult at the
time; and also shows how people reached around those boundaries in order to meet their wants
and needs. The author describes many examples of the constant fear that people of color
endured in maintaining their free status, in taking care with the places where they walked that
might pose physical danger, how they conducted themselves to the white ruling class, and even
how they interacted with one another. Although the author does not take the reader directly into
such emotions, the underlying terror of the age is understood by the reader.
Reviews
Much emphasis in the reviews was placed on the historical persona of the main
character, Elizabeth.
“Mrs. Keckley’s rise from slave to independent businesswoman for the
elite would be fascinating had she landed in the White House next to Chester
Arthur. That she was privy to the halls of power during the most fateful moments
in the Union’s history makes her that much more compelling.” John Williams in
The New York Times
“Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker vividly imagines how the Civil War touched
daily life in Washington.” John Wilwol in Washingtonian
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“…an interesting perspective for viewing the cultural and social turmoil of
the times.” Kirkus Reviews
Resources
For additional information about this author, genre, or other Crime titles, the following
resources provide interesting insight (see references for publisher information).
Defining the Genre: What are the rules for historical fiction? by Sarah
Johnson (2002). A discussion of what makes a novel historical, and some of the
differences in how publishers view categorizing the historical novels they publish.
Popular Genre Historical Fiction Books. From Goodreads, this site lists
reviews, ratings, booklists, and recommendations for historical fiction.
URL: http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/genre-historical-fiction
Historical Novel Review. This web blog carries book reviews, book lists,
and author interviews, with breakouts by period, country, and topic.
URL: http://historicalnovelreview.blogspot.ca/p/about-us.html
Historical Fiction: A Guide to the Genre, by Sarah Johnson. Part of the
Genreflecting guide series, this is a comprehensive look at each subgenre,
including some classifications that are broken out in ways other than by time
period, such as Christian historical fiction and adventure historical novels.
* Note: The annotation format on page 2 is adapted as assigned from J. Saricks, (2005),
Readers Advisory Service in the Public Library, (p. 110), Figure 5.3 Book Notes Format.
The format beginning on page 3 contains additional information of genre description and
reviews required in addition to the annotation.
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References
Chiaverini, J. (2013). Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker. New York, NY: Penguin Group.
Goodreads, Inc. (2014). Popular genre historical fiction books. Retrieved from Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/genre-historical-fiction
Herald, D. T. (2005). Genreflecting: A guide to popular reading interests (6th ed.). (W. A.
Wiegand, Ed.) Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
Historical fiction book reviews. (2014). Retrieved from Historical Novel Review:
http://historicalnovelreview.blogspot.ca/
Johnson, S. (2002). Defining the genre: What are the rules for historical fiction? Retrieved from
Historical Novel Society: http://historicalnovelsociety.org/guides/defining-thegenre/defining-the-genre-what-are-the-rules-for-historical-fiction/
Johnson, S. L. (2005). Historical fiction : a guide to the genre. Westport: Libraries Unlimited.
Kelly, G. (2005). Historical fiction. In Herald, & W. A. Wiegand (Ed.), Genreflecting: A guide to
popular reading interests (6th ed.). Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
Kirkus Media. (2012, October 30). Kirkus review: Mrs. Lincoln's dressmaker. Kirkus. Retrieved
from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jennifer-chiaverini/mrs-lincolnsdressmaker-chiaverini/
Maatta, S. L. (2010). A few good books. New York, NY : Neal-Schuman.
Williams, J. (9, January 2013). A strong thread in a torn union. The New York Times. Retrieved
from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/books/its-elizabeth-keckleys-year-in-civilwar-history.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
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Wilwol, J. (2013, January 28). Book Review: “Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker”. Washingtonian.
Retrieved from http://www.washingtonian.com/bookreviews/biographyhistory/bookreview-mrs-lincolns-dressmaker-by-jennifer-chiaverini.php
.
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