The purpose of this research, divided in three parts, is to show how History, as cognitive field, can reveal deep truths of contemporary life and thought through the art of novel. More precisely, in the first part, after briefly drawing the portrait of classic historical novel, we present seven modern novels that have as common ground important historical facts. We explain which time each novel deals with and which places it presents as sites of action of its story. We comment, as well, on the considerable historical meaning of the chosen times and places. Afterwards, we focus on the fictional characters of our corpus so as to discover how their belonging to a precise historical time influences their existence and how, consequently, the need to fathom out their world is provoked. Furthermore, we are interested in the proven relation between the power of memory that haunts the characters who are fighting so as to be reconciled with it and the construction of narrative identity, equally individual and collective. Finally, in the last part, we try to show the connection between the time of each novel and the narrative structure that each writer has chosen for it by suggesting the importance of its role in the process of the literary reception. The latter will subsequently make us wonder about the parameters that determine the way the writer and the reader receive effectively these literary works.
