Rob Roy (1817)

Nachdem der junge Francis Osbaldistone seinem Vater, einem angesehenen und reichem Kaufmann und Vorstand des Handelshauses "Osbaldistone & Tresham", eröffnet, nicht als Händler in dessen Fußstapfen treten zu wollen, schickt ihn dieser auf das Landgut der Familie in Northumberland, während sein Cousin Rashleigh auserwählt wird, um die Nachfolge anzutreten. Doch schon bald erweist sich dieser als schlechte Wahl: Um den jakobitischen Aufstand in Schottland anzufachen entwendet Rashleigh Papiere und treibt das Handelshaus "Osbaldistone & Tresham" in den Konkurs. Francis bricht nach Schottland auf, um Rashleigh zu stellen und die Familienehre wiederherzustellen. Dabei wird er von einem geheimnisvollen Outlaw unterstützt mit dem er in den Highlands zahlreiche Abenteuer zu bestehen hat.

Sir Walter Scotts historischer Roman, eingebttet in die Zeit der Jakobitenaufstände, überzeugt vor allem dort, wo er die Zustände im Schottland des frühen 18. Jahrhunderts beschreibt und so ein ein farbenprächtiges Sittenbild des aufstrebenden Glasgow und der ländlichen Highlands schafft. Die Geschichte selbst ist spannend und vorhersehbar zugleich: Der Romatiker Scott erfüllt die Erwartungen seiner Leser, bedient sich dabei aber manchmal zu konstruiert wirkender Wendungen.

Die titelgebende Hauptfigur, der "schottische Robin Hood" Rob Roy MacGregor, spielt in Scotts Roman bloß eine Nebenrolle und tritt erstmals nach zweihundert Seiten auf. Wer sich von Scotts Werk also eine Biographie des schottischen Nationalhelden erwartet, wird ebenso enttäuscht werden, wie Leser, die eine akkurate Behandlung des Jakobitenaufstands erwarten. ( )

I dislike the narrator so much, that I have decided to stop listening to this book. I don't say that I give up on this book altogether, but I think I'll try another version. Some day.

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. ( )

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. ( )

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. ( )