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Lorna Doone Paperback | Pages: 750 pages
Rating: 3.73 | 14509 Users | 631 Reviews

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Original Title: Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor
ISBN: 0143039326 (ISBN13: 9780143039327)
Edition Language: English
Characters: John Ridd, Lorna Doone, Carver Doone
Setting: Exmoor,1685(United Kingdom)

Explanation In Pursuance Of Books Lorna Doone

This enduring 19th century classic (never out of print since it was first published) has been on my radar ever since I saw an old black-and-white film version of it as a kid; but my interest was really piqued by the 2000 BBC/A&E miniseries adaptation. (As it turns out, I would rate the fidelity of the latter to the book at only about 65%; but that's another discussion!) Recently, I nominated it as a common read in the classics group I belong to here on Goodreads, and it won the poll.

Author Blackmore was a native of the Exmoor region where this novel is set, and well versed in its history and lore. Interestingly, his plot here isn't wholly invented; the exiled nobles-turned-outlaws, the Doones, were remembered in the area as having really lived, back in the days of Monmouth's rebellion (1685), as were Lorna Doone and John Ridd. With some liberties, the locations and buildings described in the book are real as well. The edition I read, the 1944 one from Dodd Mead's Great Illustrated Classics series, actually has black-and-white photographs of several of these, as well as of a contemporary portrait of Lorna herself (which shows her to be a genuinely beautiful young woman). Of course, by 1869, oral tradition recorded only the barest outlines of the events of those days; it provided the germ of the idea here, but all of the substance of the story is Blackmore's own.

In style and substance, this tale is very much in the Romantic manner, with an appeal to the emotions, a setting that includes a lot of pure wild nature (with both its beauty and its danger --the bogs can be lethal), adventure, and passionate but pure love at its heart. Modern readers might question whether John and Lorna fall for each other too readily and quickly, since they haven't actually had much interaction by the time they fall in love (that's not a spoiler, since we know from the Goodreads description that they do!). In the historical context, however, I would say that this isn't unrealistic. Young people in that era didn't date (and didn't expect to); they took for granted that they had to size each other up seriously in what limited interaction they had, and didn't require as much time to make up their minds. (They also were socialized to be psychologically open to the idea of marriage and commitment as a natural and positive thing, not a horrible fate to be evaded and staved off as long as possible.) John's first-person narration has, at times, a strain of dry, often unconscious humor; and John is himself an interesting character: honest to the core, a cross between naivete and peasant shrewdness, slow to anger but really formidable when he's roused (he's well over six feet tall, and strong in proportion), magnanimous to a fault, much smarter than he lets people think, with plenty of virtues to admire and a few foibles that make you occasionally want to swat him. The other characters are wonderfully drawn and brought to vivid life, too, and the family relationships and other personal interactions are as real as life (and, like life, sometimes entail some painful lessons). Blackmore's well aware that even good people aren't perfect. He manages to give the reader a feel for the rhythms and routines of 17th-century farm and community life, for the role of simple Christian faith in the character's lives, and the folkways of a vanished rural culture. And he's to be commended, IMO, for daring to depict a love that crosses two of the most yawning chasms that divided 17th --and 19th-- century English society (poor commoner vs. wealthy nobility, and Protestant vs. Catholic --though he doesn't develop the latter theme as much as the former).

As a rule, 19th-century diction in a novel doesn't bother me. Here, though, the author's style is SO digressive and orotund that it can at times be irritating. He's also consciously writing (because of the first-person narration) in a style that's meant to seem Jacobean, and so archaic even in Victorian times; and he reproduces West Country dialect, especially in the speech of the less-educated characters, very meticulously, and that style of speech can be quite difficult to understand in places. His narrative pace is also somewhat slow, in a plot that spans the years from November 1673 to 1685 and after (the opening chapters are, or seem, particularly slow-paced, since the reader isn't, at that point, already drawn in and used to the style); given that this is a 646-page novel, that makes it a slow read. There are places where the plotting, IMO, could benefit from being tauter. Given these considerations, a judicious editor could probably have cut the length by 100 pages, and improved the book. Concealed identity is a common plot trope in Romantic fiction from this era, but Blackmore doesn't handle it very well here. (view spoiler)[Lorna supposedly has no memory of being kidnapped at seven or eight years old, which is implausible, especially when she can still recognize her former nurse! (hide spoiler)]. John's narration is interlarded with irksome sexist comments; and while Lorna's no milksop, RDB does portray her very much in passive, damsel-in-distress mode, and he has a penchant for making her and other females faint or be prostrated by emotional stress, since their "weak" feminine nervous system can't handle such things and needs to be more sheltered. Aaaargh! (The miniseries was much more enlightened in its handling of female characters than the actual book is.) Altogether, these flaws cost the book a fifth star; but I still really enjoyed it overall, and felt that it earned its four!

Declare Out Of Books Lorna Doone

Title:Lorna Doone
Author:R.D. Blackmore
Book Format:Paperback
Book Edition:Deluxe Edition
Pages:Pages: 750 pages
Published:September 28th 2006 by Penguin Classics (first published 1869)
Categories:Classics. Fiction. Historical. Historical Fiction. Romance

Rating Out Of Books Lorna Doone
Ratings: 3.73 From 14509 Users | 631 Reviews

Column Out Of Books Lorna Doone
I was excited to read this *romance not historical* classic, but sadly (very sadly given there were 750 pages of it) it just wasn't really my cup of tea.Ironically, it was the historical parts of the novel I liked a lot more than the 'romance'. I liked the setting, I liked the way the story was set up with those evil Doones, and I liked all the descriptions of the natural environment and the farmin' life.What I didn't like, and what made those 750 pages drag, were the characters. We have our

While I thought the beginning was a wonderful one, this book as I reached the middle tended to drag for me. I enjoyed the pictures the author painted of the countryside and the characters certainly were presented in a clear and wonderful manner. I liked the characters of John and Lorna and one could not fault their love and the romantic elements that carried throughout the novel. It had all the elements of a great novel incorporating the relevant historical pieces, but the sometimes authentic

Back in March I tried to read Lorna Doone but realized too late that my copy was a horribly abridged edition. The book was barely recognizable as the original R. D. Blackmore romance. By July I had found a second, older and complete version and added it to my list for the Classics Challenge. In the meantime, other obligations got in the way and I was forced to leave Lorna Doone to the wire.Lorna Doone is framed around the Monmouth rebellion but the book isn't a historical fiction. The Doone

141219: i read this because it is a formative romance of my fathers youth. so i read it in two ways, as text, as his interpretation. this is a long book. seems longer because of extensive descriptions, details, action not the least propulsive but qualified with outcome and, usually, protests against doing of or later talking of necessary violence. after the love-at-first-youthful-sight, there must be a hundred pages or more describing political/criminal domination of the those blackguard

I read this in high school because I found a copy my mom had when she was in high school. I loved it so much, I started reading more English literature which carried me into college and ultimately my introduction to Jane Austen and the Brontes. Lorna Doone sent me into a world of great literature in which I will always be grateful. The story of Lorna and John is timeless and gets pushed into the shadows by other great works of art like Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde and Elizabeth and

I read this in high school because I found a copy my mom had when she was in high school. I loved it so much, I started reading more English literature which carried me into college and ultimately my introduction to Jane Austen and the Brontes. Lorna Doone sent me into a world of great literature in which I will always be grateful. The story of Lorna and John is timeless and gets pushed into the shadows by other great works of art like Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde and Elizabeth and

I really loved this book. I have a love for the 18th century, and stories about rural life, and of history. This novel appeals to all of those perfectly. The start is like the novel Cider with Rosie and about growing up in a rural and rough 'agricola' world, the middle involves the political turmoils in the 1700s, and the end is sort of gothically like Jane Eyre, just with guns and firefights with outlaws. Never read this book? READ IT! READ IT NOW!