Can't get enough historical fiction? Immerse yourself in this imaginative retelling of the events that led up to and followed the restoration of the British monarchy in the late seventeenth century. Thackeray's sweeping epic encompasses a huge cast of fascinating historical characters, but focuses on the perspective of Henry Esmond, a military officer serving in Queen Anne's personal militia.

The History of Henry Esmond is a historical novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, originally published in 1852. The book tells the story of the early life of Henry Esmond, a colonel in the service of Queen Anne of England. A typical example of Victorian historical novels, Thackeray's work of historical fiction tells its tale against the backdrop of late 17th- and early 18th-century England - specifically, major events surrounding the English Restoration - and utilises characters both real (but dramatised) and imagined.