Which text is valuable for gaining context about historical events but is unrelaiable as evidence

"A historic novel" is valuable for gaining context about historical events but is unreliable as evidence.

A novel that has as its background in a time of history and that endeavors to pass on the soul, conduct, and social states of a past age with reasonable detail and fidelity, which in a few example is just apparent fidelity, to authentic truth. The work may discuss real authentic individuals.