The Cloister And The Hearth

Considered by scholars to be a fine example of historical fiction, The Cloister And The Hearth is a story of the Middle Ages.

The story is a little complicated, and it involves several “touchy” subjects such as marriage and the priesthood of the Catholic church.  For these reasons, it should probably be left for older students to study.

For an overview of the story plot, Wikipedia has a nice article. The characters depicted in the book are actually the parents of famous Catholic scholar and Humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam. So it is worth a read simply for the historical tie-in to the Middle Ages and the Protestant Reformation.

You can download The Cloister And The Hearth from gutenberg.org.