Ever since my parents saw the opera I’ve wanted to know the story! So slow and typical heavy handed moralizing, but I think Scott is trying to reconcile his golden memories of past glory with the indignities of his present time. He really cares about hospitality, which isn’t as relevant to my life. I think most can relate to nostalgia and wanting to reach back in time, and the growing awareness of evils as we grow up and have to deal with the wider world.
The last 20 minutes of the audiobook were crazy, Lorna Doone but tragedy vibes.

At 50% I waved the white flag. I'm all for giving Sir Walter a good 8% to get rolling, but, out of the generous 50% I allotted him this time, only about 10% was interesting. I ended up watching clips of Lucia di Lammermoor on YouTube, and it sounds like Donizetti did a better job of cutting to the chase.

Somebody Ravenswood has lost the family estate to Somebody Ashton, and there's no love lost between them. But then Ravenswood happens along to save Ashton and beautiful daughter Lucia from a charging bull, and the two young people start to have a thing for each other. Judging by the opera synopsis, it all ends tragically and sounds pretty good, but I just couldn't make it through Scott's boring servant scenes and paragraphs and paragraphs of Scotch dialect and my free Kindle edition's countless typos. Plus, Lucia fainted a lot and was generally insipid. She made Rowena look exciting--she was that dull.

Somehow this man was a bestselling author, and I will totally give him IVANHOE, which I love and which abides by the 8% rule, but the other ones I've tried have been 3 stars at best. Maybe ROB ROY next?

This is another Book Group book that I would never have chosen on my own, but thought I would give it a try as it is the basis for "Lucia de Lammermoor", one of my favorite operas. The novel was a pleasant surprise - there are, of course, stock elements of love and revenge, but the tale of an ancient family brought low and lovers parted by greed and Lady Macbeth-type evil is compelling. My only complaint is the abundance of dialogue in near-incomprehensible Scottish dialect - even the glossary was no help. However, most meaning can be sorted out by context. I was also surprised by touches of droll humor, especially in Scott's depictions of characters we would now term 'social climbers'. I got a bit of a laugh from the description of a 'dejected parasite'!

First book in a series of classic readings. Why Sir Walter Scott's Bride of Lammermoor? Because I loved so much Donizetti's opera that I wanted to know more about this romantic tragedy.
Scott's slow prose wasn't easy for me as well as the Scottish characters' language. A real challenge.

I discovered a strong plot and interesting characters like the weak Sir Ashton, the cruel Lady Ashton, and the resourceful butler Balderstone. A traditional Scottish story of the pasqt, full of passion, superstition, gloomy legends, devilish healers, sybils and revenants.