Fiction Books Inspired by Historical Cause Célèbre

A "cause célèbre" is an incident arousing widespread controversy. The French term became popular in the English language during the Alfred Dreyfus Affair, a legal and political case that caused widespread public debate.

While the people who caused these hoaxes, conspiracies, and public debates pass away, the controversies live on in the public memory through fiction books, plays, and other adaptions. I had never heard of Mary Toft's hoax of giving birth to rabbits until literary fiction books based on the case became popular, spawning news coverage again. It's fascinating to see a viral hoax from the 1700s go viral again in the 2020s.

There is sub-genre of literary fiction to revive an old cause célèbre for a modern audience to re-debate the case.

Below is a list of fiction books inspired by historical cause célèbre, however this list is non-exhaustive. At its broadest definition, a cause célèbre is anything that spawns widespread debate, from famous criminal acts, legal trials, political issues, or hoaxes, so could be anything in the news.

Not every historical event that inspires literary fiction was controversial or well-known at the time. For instance, much of our literary fiction on the Salem Witch Trials comes from the era of McCarthyism (see The Crucible by Arthur Miller) and fiction on Boudica comes from Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II coming to the the throne. Writers are looking for historical events to explore current events. The same is probably true for the events listed below. The string of 2020s fiction books on Mary Toft is probably a product of our time of people faking things online and political anxiety over reproductive healthcare.

What fascinates me about this sub-genre is how writers keep certain debates in the public conscience. Jorge Luis Borges discussed the Tichborne hoax in the 1930s and Zadie Smith revived it for the 2020s. I had never heard of this case and I'm doubtful I would have ever read Borges' book. The popularity of Smith's book in turn helps keep Borges' book from being lost media by encouraging interest in older media. While the Dreyfus Affair is historically important in how it affected global politics, the Tichborne case would likely never be taught in a history class, so it is literature class that preserves the memory.

These fiction works can drastically change a cause célèbre's legacy. I feel confident in stating that if Shakespeare had never written Richard III, the Princes in the Tower would be as well known. They also can help us put in context modern issues. For instance, learning Albert Camus was bullied over his political comments on Algeria helped me put into context modern authors/reporters getting bullied over Israel / Palestine opinions on Twitter. I enjoy reading historical fiction to show how much we are the same as previous generations, and how much we've improved, and it can educational to learn this through gossip or hoaxes than larger historical events.

Princes in the Tower - 1483 murder of Edward V and Prince Richard by Richard III

1. Richard III by William Shakespeare (1595)

2. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (1951)

3. The Murders of Richard III by Elizabeth Peters (1974)

4. A Rose for the Crown by Anne Easter Smith (2008)

5. The White Queen by Philippa Gregory (2009)

6. A Secret Alchemy by Emma Darwin (2009)

Lucrezia Borgia's Marriages - 1497 possible femme fatale

1. Lucrèce Borgia by Victor Hugo (1833)

2. Prince of Foxes by Samuel Shellabarger (1947) (made into a movie with Orson Welles)

3. Madonna of the Seven Hills by Jean Plaidy (1958)

4. City of God: A Novel of the Borgias by Cecelia Holland (1979)

5. The Family by Mario Puzo (2001)

6. Lucrezia Borgia and the Mother of Poisons by Roberta Gellis (2003)

7. The Borgia Bride by Jeanne Kalogridis (2005)

8. The Pope's Saughter by Dario Fo (2015)

9. The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell (2022)

Affair of the Diamond Necklace - 1784 false accusation against Marie Antoinette that she attempted to defraud the Crown's jewelers

1. The Great Cophta by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1791)

2. Diamond Necklace by Thomas Carlyle (1837)

3. The Queen's Necklace by Alexandre Dumas (1848)

4. The Queen of Diamonds by Jean Plaidy (1958)

5. The Rose of Versailles by Riyoko Ikeda (1972)

Mary Toft - 1726 hoax in England where woman claimed to give birth to rabbits

1. Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen by Dexter Palmer (2019)

2. The Imposteress Rabbit Breeder by Karen Harvey (2020)

3. Mary and the Rabbit Dream by Noémi Kiss-Deáki (2024)

Tichborne Claimant - 1873 hoax of an Australian man trying to collect the inheritance of British Baronet

1. The Implausible Imposter Tom Castro by Jorge Luis Borges (1935)

2. The Fraud: A Novel by Zadie Smith (2023)

Lizzie Borden Trial - 1892 possible wrongful acquittal for axe murders

1. Lizzie by Evan Hunter (1984)

2. Maplecroft by Cherie Priest (2014)

3. See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt (2017)

4. The Murderer's Maid by Erika Mailman (2017)

Alfred Dreyfus Affair - 1894 erroneous and antisemitic conviction for espionage

1. Truth by Emile Zola (1902)

2. The Island of Penguins by Anatole France( 1907)

3. In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka (1919)

4. An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris (2013)

Oscar Wilde Trial - 1895 conviction of famed author for homosexuality

1. The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde by Peter Ackroyd (1983)

2. Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess by Merlin Holland (2003)

3. The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts by Louis Bayard (2024)

Sacco and Vanzetti Trial - 1921 possible wrongful conviction of anarchists for murder

1. Boston by Upton Sinclair (1928)

2. Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island by H.G. Wells (1928)

3. Six of One by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1932)

4. The Big Money by John Dos Passos (1936)

5. The Male Animal by James Thurber (1940) (made into a movie with Henry Fonda)

6. Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegut (1979)

7. Grand Days by Frank Moorhouse (1993)

8. Legal Midnight Hour by Carl Sandburg (1996)

9. The Lives of Sacco & Vanzetti by Rick Geary (2011)

10. The Anarchist's Wife by Margo Laurie (2022)

11. Rosina by Miriam Polli (2025)

Ern Malley Literary Hoax - 1943 Australian writers faked a dead poet's works to prank a poetry magazine

1. My Life as a Fake by Peter Carey (2003)

2. Seven Types of Ambiguity by Elliot Perlman (2003)

3. Sincerely, Ethel Malley by Stephen Orr (2021)

Another literary hoax is I, Libertine by Frederick R. Ewing (1956) which created for a radio prank by Jean Shepherd.

Honorable Mentions

1. Juana Maria was the sole survivor on San Nicolas Island and was removed in 1853; basis for Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell.

   
   

2. Taylor Jenkins' books including Daisy Jones & The Six (loosely based on Fleetwood Mac) and Seven Marriages of Evelyn Hugo (loosely based on Rita Hayworth).

   
   

3. Grace Marks' conviction for murder was controversial, adapted in a true crime novel of the time and then later as Margaret Atwood's historical fiction novel Alias Grace.

   
   

4. Martin Guerre impersonation case from 1560 inspired The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davis (1983).

   
   

5. Bernard Boursicot's Affair in 1986 which inspired M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang which is also used Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly based on Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti (1887) about his relationship with a Japanese woman.

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Do you have a favorite fiction book on a cause célèbre?