A Highly Recommended Read for lovers of English Historical Romances - Fictional Love Stories)
Review of much loved childhood owned novel.
Reviewed by Francine:
Lorna Doone, is for me, a step back in time to my home county, a place I love and a place I often feature within my own novels. Although Richard D. Blackmore has written this novel in first-person narrative, thus depicting the defined sentiments of the gentle giant John Ridd, he manages to convey others' perspectives via dialogue. Great sense of time and place is derived from his descriptions, and the rich local dialect, which is very much on a par with Thomas Hardy novels. Set during the time of the Rye House Plot, Charles II's death, and the Monmouth Rebellion, Blackmore sets the scene for a period in history that was indeed peppered with rogues and vagabonds in the cities and that of highwaymen and livestock rustlers in the rural districts, Hence the Doone's are the baddies, and Doone country is safe for no man. Add a love tryst betwixt John Ridd and Lorna Doone, and the complication of a jealous suitor (Carver Doone), thus love, loss and revenge is the key to suspense and intrigue. Blackmore delivers on all counts through John Ridd's latter day verbal journal of events; as they unfolded in earlier times.
Lorna Doone is a masterful stroke of fictional genius allied with local legend and factual events. Having read this novel at a young age, sadly, somewhere along life's path I lost the book. For years I kept promising myself I would purchase another copy of Lorna Doone, but I couldn't find an early illustrated edition so I downloaded an e-book version at Amazon. I have since acquired an early illustrated copy which I shall now treasure.
Reviewer asides: There are many people who struggle with works of great literary merit, not least, convoluted sentence structure the like of Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy et al. I don't mean the former as slight, but when readers are familiar with modern mass market fiction text, and are suddenly confronted with recommended reads in original text format, such can be quite a shock and often referred to as boring and long-winded passages. But there are revised modern editions available for readers who prefer a more modern approach. This version is the original.
