The Secret History: The Power of Imagined Figures in Historical Fiction

Abstract

On a recent wintry night in Washington, DC, where I live, I found myself at a dinner party at the French Ambassador’s residence, discussing historical fiction with the Under Under Secretary of Something Very Important. To clarify, I don’t often find myself at a dinner party at the French Ambassador’s residence, nor do I often have the opportunity to discuss historical fiction with Under Under Secretaries. In fact, both have happened exactly once. But on this particular wintry night, on the eve of the Obama administration, I was there as the plus one guest of my boyfriend who, as a result of his job as a thinker in a think tank does occasionally find himself at these sorts of dinner parties. And so, after some light cocktail banter about decreasing troop levels in Iraq and increasing troop levels in Afghanistan; after we located our names on place cards—boy, girl, boy, girl, for fancy French gender clarity—after my boyfriend and I took our assigned seats on opposite sides of the table, I turned to the man on my left.