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    Rob Roy
    Rob Roy
    Rob Roy
    Ebook737 pages14 hours

    Rob Roy

    By Walter Scott

    3.5/5

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    In Rob Roy, a historical novel by Walter Scott, Frank Osbaldistone, travels to the North of England, and later to the Scottish Highlands, to collect a debt. During this time, he meets the legendary Scotsman, Rob Roy MacGregor. Set during the Jacobite Uprising of 1715, the novel realistically depicts the terrible social conditions in Scotland during that time. Hugely popular in its day for its gripping drama and vivid battle scenes, it was published anonymously in 1817. Robert Louis Stevenson called it the best of Sir Walter's, and Walter Scott himself, the best of novelists.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media
    Release dateMay 15, 2018
    ISBN9781974998470
    Author

    Walter Scott

    Sir Walter Scott was born in Scotland in 1771 and achieved international fame with his work. In 1813 he was offered the position of Poet Laureate, but turned it down. Scott mainly wrote poetry before trying his hand at novels. His first novel, Waverley, was published anonymously, as were many novels that he wrote later, despite the fact that his identity became widely known.

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    Reviews for Rob Roy

    3.5/5

    254 ratings14 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Sixth of the series of "Waverley novels" by Walter Scott. This one is set in 1715/16 around the Jacobite unrest of the period. The protagonist is a young Englishman who comes into chance contact with Rob Roy on a trip to family in the far north of England. After some complicated plot twists, the hero is offered support by Rob Roy, while the hero sorts out family matters and while Rob Roy becomes aware that the rising has been doomed to failure. The content is fairly standard Walter Scott - a well crafted tale set in a plausibly detailed historic background with a lot of Scottishness thrown in. The standout feature, for me, is the character of the lead female - Di Vernon, who is feisty, smart, assertive and strong. A very pleasing addition. I know Scott was an early fan of Jane Austen, and he may have been influenced by her strong female leads.
    • 3/5
      Rob Roy, a novel by Sir Walter Scott, written in 1817 is a romance of real life. In this historical fiction, told by Frank Osbaldistone, the son of a wealthy businessman, ends up in Northern Scotland, vanquished by his father when he refused to go into business. He joins up with the outlaw, Rob Roy McGregor. Frank falls in love with Diane but she is off limits to him as she has to marry one of the sons of .... or go into a convent. Through this story of Diane, there is romance, secrets, suspense and tension. I think that this novel was harder to enjoy than the author’s other 1001 list book. The story is interesting but the plot and structure make it difficult to engage. The audio was especially difficult because of some character brogue which was better read than listened to. I would definitely reread this, at a slower pace and read a book while I listen to it. I think the movie might be more interesting to most readers rather than the book and that is rare. Penguin Classics, states, That Sir Walter Scott invented the historical novel. That must be why it is included in 1001 Books. Here is their description of the novel; rousing tale of skulduggery and highway robbery, villainy and nobility, treasonous plots and dramatic escapes—and young love. From London to the North of England to the Scottish Highlands, it follows the unjustly banished young merchant’s son Francis as he strives to out-maneuver the unscrupulous adventurer plotting to destroy him—and allies himself with the cunning, dangerous, and dashing outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor in a heroic effort to regain his rightful place and win the hand of the girl he loves.
    • 3/5
      I will start by saying that I found the dialect that a lot of the conversation in the book really quite hard to get my head around. I'm still not entirely sure what some words were supposed to be indicating, but I think I got the gist of most of it. Having got that significant gripe out of the way, this is a strange book. Interesting, at times exciting, but framed as the reminiscences of an older man to a younger friend - and the framing occasionally interrupted the story. It is titled Rob Roy, proclaiming to be the story of Robert Macgregor, yet the story is told by Frank Osbaldistone and Rob Roy barely gets a look in over the last few chapters. Once you get over the slight self adsorption, it's a tale that's got it all - romance, mystery, disguised identity, trouble, danger, battles, redemption, a beautiful & spirited maiden, and irredeemable baddie, and an honest hero. It is always interesting to see how much of this creeps into cultural memory via other means, the tale felt slightly familiar, the shape of it at least, such is the times that it has been referenced in other works. The style of writing and particularly the dialect made this not an easy read, but it was a good read, and it did have me wanting to know how it would resolve itself. I have a fancy to read more Scott, having now read this and Ivanhoe, both of which have that air e=of excitement and derring do about them.
    • 5/5
      894 Rob Roy, by Sir Walter Scott (read 3 Mar 1967) (Possible SPOILER) This is the fourth Scott novel I have read. It has a frightfully undeveloped ending, but much of it is power-laden and intriguing. Frank Osbaldistone is sent from his father's home to his uncle in North England. There he meets Die Vernon--and Rashleigh Osbaldistone, his cousin. Rashleigh brings Frank's father to the edge of ruin, and Frank rides to Glasgow, meets Bailie Jarvie, goes into the Highlands, has much adventure, meets with Rob Roy at crucial times--etc. Time: 1715, just before the Old Pretender's rising. I was struck by Scott's imagery, e.g.:"The moon, which was now high, and twinkled with all the vivacity of a frosty atmosphere, silvered the windings of the river and the peaks and precipices which the mist left visible, while her beams seemed as it were absorbed by the fleecy whiteness of the mist, where it lay thick and condensed, and gave to the more light and vapoury specks, which were elsewhere visible, a sort of filmy transparencey resembling the lightest veil of silver gauze." So he begins and up comes Diana Vernon and a gentlemen (her husband, Frank supposes, tho we learn much later tis her father). A very worthwhile book.
    • 4/5
      I was strucj by the fact that when I saw the film of this name, it stuck much more closely to the historical facts about Rob Roy (as given in an appendix here) than the novel does, inwhic Roby Roy appears only as a friend of the hero
    • 3/5
      There were a few set pieces in this that I liked, and the description of the library was a delight, but overall I found this worked best as an insomnia cure. I will try Scott again, though.
    • 4/5
      Walter Scott's best book, in my opinion. Greatly entertaining, whilst teaching you a thing or two about Scottish history.
    • 3/5
      Too obfuscatory for a rating of 3 (even for 19th century literature), even if Scott's explorations are poignant and resounding.
    • 4/5
      I read Rob Roy directly after Waverley, which doesn't make much sense historically (Waverley is set in 1745 and Rob Roy in 1715), but does provide an interesting contrast. At one level, they are both about young Englishmen who make friends with bare-kneed Scotsmen, get mixed up in Jacobite rebellions, and chase round the Scottish countryside feeling alternately Romantic and faintly foolish. Rob Roy is clearly a maturer novel than Waverley, more tightly structured and with a rather smaller cast, but Scott's use of a first-person narrator writing in an early-19th century version of mid-18th century English makes it feel somewhat heavier, even plodding in the early chapters, although this evens out later on as we (or Scott) get used to Frank Osbaldistone's voice.Rob Roy himself is presented as a sort of Scottish Michael Kohlhaas (Kleist's novella appeared in 1810) -- a cattle trader who sets out to take revenge after being ruined by an act of arbitrary aristocratic power. He comes and goes on the margins of Osbaldistone's story, extricating him from various difficulties. But Scott makes sure we remember that, good-hearted though Rob Roy is, he lives in a world of violence and disorder. The gruesome description of Helen MacGregor ordering the summary execution of Morris should be enough to jerk most readers out of the Scotch mist and back to the real world.As Antimuzak has said, the real underlying theme of Rob Roy is commerce as an organising, civilising force. Bailie Nicol Jarvie, middle-aged Glasgow businessman and magistrate, is the real hero of the story, a precursor of John Buchan's Dickson McCann. His sword has been rusted solid in its scabbard for years, but he represents the force of reason and stability that will ultimately come out on top. An unexpected bit of treasure is Diana Vernon. She can hunt, ride and shoot as well as any man, is intelligent, has been at least as well educated as Frank, and speaks her mind on all occasions, livening up what might otherwise be the rather dull opening part of the book considerably. Scott seems to have been a bit scared of her, from the way he gives her only a rather passive and transient role in the second half of the book. Interesting to remember that Rob Roy was published the year Jane Austen died.
    • 3/5
      Book review will be on accidentallymars.com in a comparative to another novel from that time period.
    • 4/5
      Having just been through Scotland the description of the highlands was enjoyably evocative for me. The setting during the Jacobite rising definitely piqued my interest in the relationship between Scotland and England.
    • 4/5
      This is the third Scott novel I have read, after Ivanhoe and Kenilworth, and, as before, I greatly enjoyed the author's beautiful use of the English language to convey his story, though in this case a lot of the dialogue is in Highland or Lowland Scots, which is harder for me to read; while I could usually get the gist of what a character speaking thus was saying, on occasion it was too opaque to be intelligible. The title character does not appear by name until the last third of the novel, and his role as supposedly the Scottish Robin Hood is exaggerated in Scott's usual overly romantic fashion, though there is a very long introduction, taking some one sixth of the total length of the book, covering the real Rob Roy and the battles of his MacGregor clan against other Scots clans and against the Scottish Crown after Queen Mary proscribed the MacGregors and basically called for their mass slaughter in 1563. Dramatic events, though these do not form the main plot of the novel, which centres around Englishman Francis Osbaldistone trying to restore his father's and his own fortunes after they are falsely accused of various crimes, necessitating his travelling to the north of England and Scotland, in the run up to the 1715 Jacobite rebellion. Absorbing, and to be enjoyed on its own merits and bearing in mind the faults it contains as a historical account.
    • 2/5
      Sir Walter Scott's 1817 novel Rob Roy is about the turbulent Scottish Highlands circa 1715 — only, most of the action happens elsewhere, the main character is not the Scottish outlaw of the title, and half the dialogue is unintelligible, due to being spelt to imitate a Scottish accent. I really wanted to like this. I know Scott can write fabulous historical fiction (see Ivanhoe), and what could be a more exciting subject than the world of the Scottish clans and a Highland version of Robin Hood? But as the story unfolded I found myself wondering when it was going to get good — and I'm not sure it ever did.Part of my problem could be Scott's foreword, which is dreadfully long (even he admits, some 70 or so pages in, that it is "prolix"). In it he gives the historical basis for his story and also traces the histories of Rob Roy's sons. Parts were interesting, but on the whole I found it dry reading. I read this on my Nook, which prevented me from flipping ahead to find out when the real story was going to begin. So I doggedly persevered through it, hoping the story would reward my patience.When the real story finally started, it was not what I was expecting (partly my fault for mixing it up with Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped). It is narrated by Francis Osbaldistone, the son of a rich merchant, who refuses to follow his father's business and is sent to the family's ancestral home in Scotland. There he falls in love, is falsely accused of highway robbery, and travels into the wilds to regain his father's fortunes stolen by his devious cousin Rashleigh. Oh, there are some enjoyable things about the story — the humor of Francis dealing with Andrew Fairservice and the speeches of the goodhearted Baillie. But that's about it. It was beyond frustrating to wade through the Scots dialogue and only understand two words out of ten, and while I could occasionally appreciate a particularly colorful phrase, the overall effect was very off-putting. Robert Louis Stevenson apparently loved this novel and considered it Scott's best. Perhaps if my expectations had been different and if I had read a print version (which would allow me to skip the foreword and use the glossary in the back when confronted with Scottish words), I would have enjoyed this more. As it is, I found it dull work.
    • 4/5
      I was a little surprised in reading this novel at the perspectives reflected in the narrator’s story. Scott, writing in the early 18th century, takes the voice of an English businessman writing a reminiscing letter to a friend about his adventures as a youth early in the 17th century. Occasionally, the narrator reflects on his romanticism as a youth and his current settled life, so we are reminded that the perspective is that of a mature, successful and cultivated English gentleman. As the narrator, he portrays the Scots as foolish and bumbling thieves, canny but crass business men, or wild violent savages. The only exception is the title character, Rob Roy, or Red Rob, or Robert Campbell MacGregor, a wise but just outlaw, a Scottish Robin Hood, beloved by the country people, scourge of the wealthy city dwellers and especially of the English, fearless fighter and brilliant campaigner. For a Scots nationalist, this seems a peculiar way to portray the people he wants to inspire. While MacGregor is a heroic and mythic figure, the rest of the Scots come off as crude, backward and vicious, although good fighters as described by his English narrator. (And for balance, the English in relation to the Scots seem to come across as arbitrary oppressors and often not a lot brighter than the Scottish Highlanders.) Is Scott suggesting that Scots need to move ahead from their heroic but backward past and join the modern, if grubby, world of business?Perhaps so, but the life of business is not very appealing either. The businessmen here may be wealthy, but they seem to have a very limited perspective, whether Scottish or English. The narrator initially rebels against his father’s insistence on joining his business. But Scott, a successful businessman himself (until his publishing business went bankrupt later in his life), makes it clear that the narrator’s romantic youth is a diversion and that his later success came from the family business. So is Scott here telling us that Scots (and we readers) need to put aside romantic notions and do the hard work of creating wealth, after which we can perhaps enjoy a quiet, cultured life? Or, since the narrator does in the end get the woman he loved in his romantic youth, perhaps we can take some of that romance with us in to our more business-like life.Also interesting is the detached position of the narrator. Although the narrator tells the story in the first person, he is only an observer. But for the first 200 pages, Rob Roy has only a brief appearance using a pseudonym, and thereafter appears only in short passages (although always to save the day). The narrator’s only active role, to recover his father’s papers, ends when they are presented to him without a struggle. Someone else always intervenes before he has to act himself. In between are scenes that could pass for social satire and comic relief, often given in broad dialect. Is this Scott’s message – that the English are lucky to be saved always by someone else while they acquire wealth and power? Perhaps it’s not fair to put these post-modern questions in relation to an author who was creating the genre of the historical novel 200 years ago. Scott apparently wrote at great length with little editing, so maybe this is just where the story took him, and he didn’t concern himself with how the story might reflect on his nationalistic ideals. Perhaps he thought he was just writing a realistic description of the past. His descriptive language, for example, suggests that. He does not romanticize the bleakness of the lowland moors or the primitive Scottish inn where his narrator stays, but he does describe the beauty of the Scottish lakes and mountains. His descriptions of rural life and the role of women (highly prescribed, if not entirely passive) also reflect a realist point of view. So the points of view and the narrative style are peculiar to a modern reader, although in the end they make an interesting and picturesque read. The mix of social observation and tame adventure explain why Scott was such a popular writer in his time.

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    Rob Roy - Walter Scott

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