This list of historical fiction is designed to provide examples of notable works of historical fiction (in literature, film, comics, etc.) organized by time period.

For a more exhaustive list of historical novels by period, see Category:Historical novels by setting, which lists relevant Wikipedia categories; see also the larger List of historical novels, which is organized by country, as well as the more general Category:Historical novels and Category:Historical fiction.

Novels

Set in Prehistory (c. 30,000 BC – 3000 BC)

Set in Classical Antiquity (c. 3000 BC – 500 AD)

Set in the Middle Ages (c. AD 500 – 1500)

Set in the Early Modern Period (c. 1500 – 1760)

Set during the Industrial Revolution and Napoleonic era (c. 1760 – 1850)

Set during recent history (c. 1850 – 1950)

Theatre

Set 2000 BC – 600 AD

• Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Timon of Athens, Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare
• Britannicus by Jean Racine
• Caligula by Albert Camus
• Cato, a Tragedy by Joseph Addison
• The Death of Pompey by Pierre Corneille
• Socrates on Trial by Andrew David Irvine
• Caesar and Cleopatra by George Bernard Shaw
• The Siege of Numantia by Miguel de Cervantes
• Salome by Oscar Wilde

Set 600 AD – 1550

• St Joan by George Bernard Shaw
• William Shakespeare's English history plays
• Edward II, Tamburlaine, and The Massacre at Paris by Christopher Marlowe
• Henry IV by Luigi Pirandello
• In Extremis: The Story of Abelard & Heloise and Anne Boleyn by Howard Brenton
• The Jester's Supper by Sem Benelli
• Marie Tudor by Victor Hugo
• Götz von Berlichingen by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Murder in the Cathedral by T. S. Eliot

Set after 1550

• Egmont and Torquato Tasso by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Mary Stuart and Demetrius by Friedrich Schiller
• Cross and Sword by Paul Green
• Cromwell by Victor Hugo

Opera

Set 3000 BC – 600 AD

• Aida and Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi
• Akhnaten by Philip Glass
• Cléopâtre and Hérodiade by Jules Massenet
• Mosè in Egitto by Gioachino Rossini
• Giulio Cesare by George Frideric Handel
• Les Troyens by Hector Berlioz
• Sapho by Charles Gounod
• L'Olimpiade by Metastasio
• Germanicus by Georg Philipp Telemann

Set 600 AD – 1800

• Gustave III by Daniel Auber
• Henry VIII by Camille Saint-Saëns
• William Tell by Gioachino Rossini
• Les Huguenots and Le prophète by Giacomo Meyerbeer
• Fosca and Salvator Rosa by Antônio Carlos Gomes
• Fernand Cortez by Gaspare Spontini
• Thérèse by Jules Massenet
• Le roi l'a dit by Léo Delibes
• Tamerlano and Rodelinda by George Frideric Handel
• Les Abencérages by Luigi Cherubini
• Montezuma by Roger Sessions
• Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi

Films and television

Set in Prehistory (c. 30,000 BC – 3000 BC)

• 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968. First section.
• Iceman 2017

Poetry

• The Destruction of Sennacherib by Lord Byron: Assyrian siege of Jerusalem, 8th century BC
• The Light of Asia by Sir Edwin Arnold: life of Gautama Buddha, 6th or 5th century BC
• The Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: reign of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus in Rome, 6th century BC
• Horatius by Thomas Babington Macaulay: Horatius Cocles vs Lars Porsena, Rome, 6th century BC
• Roderick the Last of the Goths by Robert Southey: reign of Roderic, 8th century Hispania
• King Alfred by John Fitchett: reign of Alfred the Great, 9th century England
• The Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. Chesterton: reign of Alfred the Great, 9th century England
• The Saga of King Olaf by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: reign of Olaf Tryggvason, 10th century Norway
• Madoc by Robert Southey: legend of Madoc, 12th century Wales
• Isabella, or the Pot of Basil and The Eve of St. Agnes by John Keats: European Middle Ages
• Marmion by Sir Walter Scott: reign of Henry VIII of England & the Battle of Flodden, 1513
• The Revenge: A Ballad of the Fleet by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Battle of Flores, 1591
• Bonnie Dundee by Sir Walter Scott: Viscount Dundee and the Jacobite rising of 1689
• Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: the Expulsion of the Acadians (1755–1764)
• Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: American Revolutionary War (1775)
• Battle of Niagara by John Neal: War of 1812

Comics

Prehistoric

• Rahan by Roger Lecureux and Jean-François Lecureux
• Akim by Roberto Renzi

Ancient

• 300 by Frank Miller
• Age of Bronze by Eric Shanower

Wuxia manhua

• Three Kingdoms by Yū Terashima
• Fung Wan by Ma Wing-shing
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by Andy Seto
• The Ravages of Time by Chan Mou
• Threads of Time by Noh Mi-young
• Ying Xiong Wu Lei by Ma Wing Shing

Samurai manga

• Rurouni Kenshin by Nobuhiro Watsuki
• Azumi by Yū Koyama
• Path of the Assassin by Kazuo Koike