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One of the most outstanding historical fiction books of all time is Tolstoy's War and Peace. The novel that is consistently chosen by scholars around the world as the best ever written, and is in fact the first modern novel ever written, is Cervantes' Don Quixote. (If you can't read Spanish, try Edith Grossman's translation if you don't mind paying for it.)
If you want a more modern author writing about historical times, I would echo Follett's Pillars of the Earth. Don't waste your time with his sequel, World Without End; it's not nearly in the same league - more of a "let's milk this franchise for all it's worth" sort of follow-up.
Another excellent (and very long) read is The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. It's an outstanding detailed view into political, social, economic, and scientific developments of the late 1600s, set mostly in Europe. It's also written in a quite humorous style. 3 volumes (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World), each book around 800 to 1000 pages in the original hardback, so it'll definitely take you a while. Well worth it, though.
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