@Valerie_Lillis@kbg@musingoddity@bookstodon I'd rather people just read the actual first-hand accounts. 17th-21st century literature thrives on melodrama and the unlikely. Remember the original meaning of the word "novel".
I love Daniel Defoe, and he was lauded for his verisimilitude during his lifetime, but his characters don't exactly live lives typical of their era. Same with Dickens and the Brontës.