Secure Your Copy Lorna Doone Put Together By R.D. Blackmore Accessible As Paper Copy

at Gutenberg Project:

sitelink gutenberg. org/catalog/worl

Not so good as expected, This enduringth century classic never out of print since it was first published has been on my radar ever since I saw an old blackandwhite film version of it as a kid but my interest was really piqued by theBBC/AampE miniseries adaptation.
As it turns out, I would rate the fidelity of the latter to the book at only aboutbut 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 noblesturnedoutlaws, the Doones, were remembered in the area as having really lived, back in the days of Monmouth's rebellion, 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, theone from Dodd Mead's Great Illustrated Classics series, actually has blackandwhite 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, 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 firstperson 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 ofthcentury 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 dividedth andth 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,thcentury 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 firstperson 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 lesseducated 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 Novembertoand after the opening chapters are, or seem, particularly slowpaced, since the reader isn't, at that point, already drawn in and used to the style given that this is apage 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 bypages, 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.
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!.
John's narration is interlarded with irksome sexist comments and while Lorna's no milksop, RDB does portray her very much in passive, damselindistress 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! It is must read for every fan of historical fiction especially of seventeenthcentury England.
I think, not all fans will love the style of writing but still, they should try to read it at least.


It was really good historical fiction, It portrayed superbly everyday life and the impact of big events on common people,

we of the moderate party, hearing all this and ten times as much and having no love for this sour James, such as we had for the lively Charles, were ready to wait for what might happen, rather than care about stopping it

the price of horses' shoes was gone up again, though already twopencefarthing each and that Betty had broken her lover's head with the stocking full of money

There were also fascinating descriptions of important events and historical issues.

Flying men, flung back from dreams of victory and honour, only glad to have the luck of life and limbs to fly with, mudbedraggled, foul with slime, reeking both with sweat and blood, which they could not stop to wipe, cursing, with their pumpedout lungs, every stick that hindered them, or gory puddle that slipped the step, scarcely able to leap over the corses that had dragged to die

There was the wisdom too, so precious, especially in historical fiction, that teaches us or at least is trying to teach us.

Too late we know the good from bad the knowledge is no pleasure then being memory's medicine rather than the wine of hope

Hope, of course, is nothing more than desire with a telescope, magnifying distant matters, overlooking near ones opening one eye on the objects, closing the other to all objections.
And if hope be the future tense of desire, the future of fear is religionat least with too many of us.

Now this may seem very strange to us who live in a better and purer ageor say at least that we do soand yet who are we to condemn our fathers for teaching us better manners, and at their own expense

But, as I wrote, the style of writing was a bit specific.
There were moments I felt tired of reading, There was something in too long sentences and the order in them, that made reading a bit wearisome.


Also, some parts of love story the talks between lovers were a tiny bit too.
. . sweet and fairytale as to me I mean, I like it in other books, but in here it didn't feel perfect.

"You sweet love," I said at this, being slave to her soft obedience "do you suppose I should be content to leave you until Elysium" "How on earth can I tell, dear John, what you will be content with" "You, and only you," said I "the whole of it lies in a syllable.
Now you know my entire want and want must be my comfort

etc, etc.

Nonetheless, these flaws were nothing comparing to the other aspects and advantages of the novel.
I was surprised at how much I struggled with this book, I love my nineteenth century literature, and I absolutely love the last TV adaptation although it seems they took the best parts of the book and eradicated all the filler but there were times I was almost ready to give up on this.
It just so happened that then a scene would come along to distract me and hold my attention and then be followed by fifty pages of sheer boredom.


Not to mention that the characters are all unlikable, John Ridd is a bully who thinks too much of himself, whips the man who works for him with the slightest whim, hates the sister who challenges his manly authority and stalks pretty Lorna Doone until she can do nothing but accept his strange version of love.
Lorna herself is insipid and can hardly even manage the simple act of walking while talking without needing to rest because it makes her feel faint.
The gender roles are appalling, The mother and the 'good' sister fawn all over John and cater to his every wish and command, while the 'bad' sister is disliked because she has a brain and wants to use it.


I'm telling you, when you actually feel more for the characters who are rapists, murderers and thieves, you're in a lot of trouble.


I'm going to stick to the TV version, thanks, And I think this is the only time a movie has been superior to its source material.
Being terrible for buying tons of books at a time, which then sit untouched on my physical and virtual shelves for years whilst I get distracted by newer, shinier books, I thought Id start this year by trying to get through some of my backlog.
I picked Lorna Doone this was a HUGE mistake, nearly robbing me of my reading mojo just two books into the new year.


John Ridd is a farmer in the village of Oare and leads a simple enough life.
Bringing in the harvest, going fishing, and hoping to avoid the local colour the Doones, a family of apparently noble birth who spend their time robbing and killing as many of the locals and visitors to Exmoor as they can.
John falls in love with one of their

number, Lorna, through a chance encounter at a young age, and from there on starts planning on how to release her from the Doones clutches.


A classic that has apparently never been out of print since its publication, I can only imagine that every other reader is far more patient and clever than I am.
Moving slower than a comatose sloth, and filled with incredibly dense language that was agony to wade through, if I was any other person I would have abandoned this book fairly quickly.
Unfortunately, my approach is a little more Magnus Magnusson “Ive started so Ill finish”,  leaving me to read of John walking backwards and forwards across Exmoor, describing every sodding single blade of grass in minute detail each time, and having virtually incomprehensible conversations with the locals:

Zailor, ees fai! ay and zarve un raight.
Her can't kape out o' the watter here, whur a' must, goo vor to vaind un, zame as a gurt toad squalloping, and mux up till I be wore out, I be, wi' the very saight of 's braiches.
How wil un ever baide aboard zhip, wi' the watter zinging out under un, and comin' up splash when the wind blow.
Latt un goo, missus, latt un goo, zay I for wan, and old Davy wash his clouts for un.
”

Nope, me neither,

If you like your reading matter to be incredibly hard work, with a meandering plot and usingwords where it could have used one, Lorna Doone will be well up your street.
Otherwise, avoid at all costs,

sitelinkAlso posted at Cannonball Read,