I just picked up a book from the library called Sinners about a woman in 16th century Rome that hates her dad and wants to kill him.
But she’s a daughter in a rich family so she might as well be a Disney princess. There is also all the other tropes like this guy she can’t help being attracted to even though she doesn’t want to.
My biggest issue reading this book is I’m just like, “you’re rich, what’s your fucking problem. Boo hoo you hate your dad. You made it to adulthood in the 16th century in a comfortable existence.”
These stories are never about the peasants or people who work for these rich assholes. It’s always some wealthy woman that likes reading as if to be a stand in for the reader. It really goes to shoe what a bourgeois medium the novel is
Is all historical fiction like this or have I just picked up a generic example?
The Sharpe series definitely counts as slop (the amount of jerking off British redcoats is ridiculous) but the main character does start in the gutters and struggles to climb the military ranks, and most of his antagonists (barring the French) are upper crust British officers, but his greatest aspiration is to join the oppressors class.
His best friend/companion is an irishman (named Patrick of course) that joined the British army due to English colonial policies starving his family, but beyond snide remarks about English protestants he’s fine being a part of the imperial machine that oppresses his own land and people