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Caleb Carr & The Alienist Books | 17th Street 17th Street Search for: News & Blog Caleb Carr The Alienist Books Other Books Site Welcome to 17th Street Welcome to 17th Street , a website dedicated to Caleb Carr and the Alienist books. It features the latest Caleb Carr news, a full author biography and interview list, book summaries and timelines for The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness along with synopses Caleb Carr's other work, analyses of the characters from the Alienist books, and information on the real history behind the Alienist books. Navigation for this site is at the top, showing the different sections of the site. Relevant links within the section (if applicable) will show up in the left column. Latest News Artistic License in Historical Fiction Filed under: Alienist Books History , Other Books , Other Books History , Book Blogs , Book Recommendations , History Blogs — Kim on January 29, 2019 at 04:37h Late last year, Heather Morris’ 2018 historical fiction bestseller, The Tattooist of Auschwitz , found itself in the midst of controversy. The novel tells the story of a real person, Lale Sokolov, who was given the responsibility of tattooing identification numbers on his fellow prisoners at Auschwitz. The book was marketed as historical fiction “based on a true story,” with the claim that whilst its central story was factually accurate, other elements of the novel such as specific scenes or events, lesser characters, and conversations were fictitious. The novel was first released in early 2018 to considerable acclaim, with many readers deeply moved by the harrowing events and central love story described within its pages. However, in late 2018, the Auschwitz Memorial Research Centre released a 12-page article in their magazine, Memoria , that disputed the accuracy of many key elements of the story, ultimately concluding with the following damning judgment: “The preliminary research, if at all conducted, was not reliable, and the documentation preserved at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum was not taken into consideration at all. The author did not conduct factographic verification based on publicly available academic literature. The author is not a researcher, and her lack of substantive and technical competence to work on personal sources, as well as the lack of general knowledge on the realities of the camp, is apparent in the book … Given the number of factual errors, therefore, this book cannot be recommended as a valuable title for persons who want to explore and understand the history of KL Auschwitz.” Discussing this controversy with The Guardian , Pawel Sawicki of Memoria questioned whether it is reasonable to tell a particular historical story “without paying attention to the reality of the story.” He said, “The number of different errors in the book – not only in simple basic facts but also in the depiction of the reality of Auschwitz – can sometimes create more confusion than understanding. It turns a real story into an interpretation – very moving and emotional – that however blurs the authenticity of this true experience. We believe that the survivor’s story deserved better.” Although I have not read The Tattooist of Auschwitz , its case raises interesting questions about what it means to write accurate historical fiction. How much artistic license is acceptable in this genre, and does this differ depending on the subject matter (e.g., a fictionalised memoir vs. an account of a broader historical event)? Recently, these questions have been at the forefront of my mind as I have slowly made my way through Franz Werfel’s classic novel, The Forty Days of Musa Dagh . This novel is of immense historical and literary importance. Published in 1933, it was the first piece of historical fiction published worldwide to document one of the key events of the Armenian genocide – that is, the resistance of Armenians from the villages at the base of Musa Dagh, and their eventual rescue. Werfel, who was not Armenian himself, was careful to create a protagonist to whom he could give an authentic voice; the novel follows the story of Gabriel Bagradian, a man of Armenian descent who spent most of his life in France but became caught up in the events of 1915 as a result of his brother’s death. It is clear that Werfel put an immense amount of research into the book, and it is understandable how it has become such a highly respected classic. Nonetheless, some of the artistic license Werfel took raised questions for me during the reading experience. For example, even though the novel is based on true events, Werfel made Bagradian – his fictitious creation – the defence leader in the novel, and failed to include the real defence leader, Moses Der Kalousdian . An interesting contrast to this is my favourite piece of historical fiction, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy . In War and Peace , Tolstoy generally tried to place his fictitious creations in positions where they could witness or take part in historical events, but not materially change the events. This means that all of the key historical figures in the battles Tolstoy described, such as Field Marshal Kutuzov, were all still present in the novel. This Tolstoyan approach to historical fiction is one that readers of the Alienist books may recognise, with Caleb Carr having stated in interviews that he utilises aspects of this in his own work. For example, in a 1997 interview with Salon , he stated, “I try to make those characters [historical figures], as much as possible, speak with their own words – with actual statements that they made at some points in their lives. I’m trying to represent them faithfully, not make them pawns to prove a point that I want to prove.” Carr’s fictional creations do not influence historical events in the Alienist novels either. Instead, Carr finds historical ‘blank spots’ where he can work a fictitious event into a historical figure’s life (such as the murder investigation of The Alienist ) in a way that will not otherwise disrupt that figure’s real historical timeline. While I don’t have answers to the question of how much artistic license should be acceptable in historical fiction, one way that readers can gain a better understanding of the time period or event being documented in historical fiction is to complement their reading with works that were written by those who actually lived through those time periods or events. In the case of the Armenian genocide, one of Armenia’s literary treasures is a 19 th century author known as ‘ Raffi ,’ whose works include those that depict the events that led up to the genocide; for example, in his novella Jalaleddin , he documents the Armenian massacres that took place during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 . I have recently been fortunate enough to work on translations of these Armenian classics as part of Sophene Armeniaca , and I am pleased that readers will now have easy access such important works in English, allowing them to be read alongside later publications like The Forty Days of Musa Dagh . In the case of the Alienist books, I highly recommend that readers familiarise themselves with classics, both fiction and non-fiction, from the late 19 th century that describe life in New York for both the rich and poor. In the case of the rich, authors such as Henry James and Edith Wharton are a good starting point. In the case of the poor, you can’t go past Stephen Crane’s Maggie, A Girl of the Streets or Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives . Indeed, I would go so far as to suggest that either of those works will bring the world of The Alienist to life more vividly than any contemporary historical fiction on the market today. For reviews of such works, along with many others that may be of interest, I suggest looking through the “ book blog” archives here at 17 th Street for recommendations. Although the writers of historical fiction have a responsibility to tell their stories authentically, it is ultimately the re...