Rob Roy (Rob Roy - Sir Walter Scott)

Member Name: jillmurphy

Product:	Rob Roy - Sir Walter Scott
Date:	02/10/00 (155 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Adventure, romance but above all sheer entertainment.

Disadvantages: The dastardly villains of course.

So why is it that historical fiction has got such a bad name? Not bad perhaps, more lightweight, not serious enough, just that bit too ‘girlie’. Most historical novels are romances – and what’s wrong with romance say I! However there is more to historical fiction than Jean Plaidy and Georgette Heyer you know, they aren’t all full of brooding Regency cads with twisting sardonic lips! Why not try one of the originals?

Walter Scott’s ‘Rob Roy’ is set in a turbulent time in British history. It is the early eighteenth century and the north of England is in turmoil. Will there be a Catholic uprising in favour of the Catholic James? Is the crown secure? In truth in 1715 there WAS an abortive rebellion by the Catholic Jacobites.

Francis Osbaldistone is sent in disgrace to cool his youthful heels at his family’s country estates in Northumberland. He finds trouble in two ways – he is staunchly Protestant in the midst of seething Catholic resentment. If this is not problem enough he begins a romance with one Diana Vernon inspiring the jealousy of his Catholic cousin Rashleigh who is involved in the Jacobite plot. Francis must save both his love affair and his father’s business which is also at risk from the evil Rashleigh. His only hope is finding and enlisting the help of Rob Roy MacGregor - the infamous outlaw and hater of all things English.

This novel is not only a rollicking good read. It is a study, much like some of Scott’s other work, of a clash of cultures. In Ivanhoe most obviously we see the conflict between Saxon and Norman after the conquest. Here the friction lies between the new, English, merchant culture and a much older, clannish, Scottish one. Scott is writing for tolerance and an acceptance that social progress need not leave the old traditions behind.

Full of characters that stick in your mind, from his picture of the eponymous he
ro, through Scottish and English heroes and villains this book is a marvellously realised blend of historical event with romantic fiction and is an adventure that cannot fail to entertain. Walter Scott is a born storyteller. Read it and enjoy.

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