I wanted to love this but the truth is that the grand majority of it was just so dull. Conversation after conversation between characters I really disliked - it turns out Rob Roy doesn't feature very much in this. Very annoying though, as the action scenes towards the end really did have me gripped...for a few pages, and then I was back to wishing the novel would end already. For such a fascinating time in history, it's a shame this fell so short.

I really thought Rob Roy would be a main character & the intro material wasn’t easy to get through, but I’m
glad to have listened to this one! it felt slower than Ivanhoe or Tailsman but maybe that was in part to my start-stop-start listening. (highly recommend audiobook for the Scottish tongue!)

I’d like to revisit this again in the future after studying more about the Jacobites.

The Wikipedia article for this book describes part of the plot as " In between hours in the library with Die, he converses with Andrew Fairservice and learns much about goings on at the Hall."

It does feel like hours, even when reading. The characters discuss politics, the situation, love, life, business, etc'. At great length.

As usual with Scott, the protagonist is rather colourless, the villain is a good deal more sympathetic and interesting, and earns his just desserts by the end. Hoping these desserts would be tastier than Scott usually tends towards, you will be severely disappointed.

Really, the main problem with the book is that it is rather dull. There is a good chance that I simply overwhelmed myself with too much Victoriana lately, but it was almost a chore to plough through, and the heavy uninterpreted Scottish really didn't help matters. Realistic? Yes. Incomprehensible? Also yet. I kept wondering whether I had missed something pertinent to plot, but I really should have known better.

My sincerest apologies to my book club for having recommended this. I really enjoyed Ivanhoe and was expecting more of the same. Unfortunately, this was a very dry, almost incomprehensible 500 pages. I have a really hard time understanding the Scottish English. Little did I know that this novel wrote most of its dialogue using Scottish phonetics! At the very least, I have since learned what Auld Lang Syne means (old long since). Aside from that, it was an utter waste of my time.

"Two faces under one hood is no true heraldry."

Rob Roy, the Highlander, the Robin Hood of Scotland; a swashbuckling tale of adventure, greed, and honor filled with action. There is much beauty in description, and an appreciation of Scottland shows through the writing. The plot (and historical setting) also has much to recommend it for modern readers. This was my first sight of the Red Rogue. Sir Walter Scott wrote so much that its impossible to make a dent in his works. I've read more of his short stories than anything else in the past. But, this was an enjoyable read. I always enjoyed reading Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas more than Scott, though its clear they took much influence from him. I will have a time choosing which two or three other of his works I want to read soon.

I read this in Kindle whisper-sync, narrated by Sean Barrett in an excellent Scottish brogue. This book may not be for everyone's taste, even with the narration, because the language is quite difficult unless you are of that dialect yourself. It helps to remember that the consonants are often the same as English, but the vowels often trade places. (mair = more, for example) It's almost like listening to a foreign language at times. I'm including several quotes and expressions that I particularly enjoyed. I haven't watched either movie before, though my husband has and is anxious to watch them with me this week. I am sure Liam makes the better rogue. We will see.

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"I have so little desire to be there that if my horse’s head were over the Border, I would not give his tail the trouble of following."

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"he is always willing to stand noun substantive to it himself."

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"you know, where there is nothing, your own law allows that the king himself must lose his rights"

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"Honour is a homicide and a bloodspiller, that gangs about making frays in the street; but Credit is a decent honest man"

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"There’s sma’ sorrow at our parting, as the auld mear said to the broken cart."

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"an honest woman wad live quieter in hell than on the Hieland line."

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"the penny siller slew mair souls than the naked sword slew bodies."

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"...we turned the horses’ heads round,"

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I think I understand better people who don't like to read after reading this book. It was a labor. Meaningless scenes took forever to unfold. Half of the dialogue is in Scots, and I didn't discover the glossary until halfway through the book. It should be titled "Frank Osbaldistone" rather than "Rob Roy," but that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. I'm not sure what compelled me to finish a book like this. I tried to channel the excitement Scott's fans experienced as each volume was published, but my imagination is not quite that disciplined.

The title is a bit of a misnomer, but "The Adventures of Francis Osbaldistone" does not quite have the same ring. Scott collates the legendary persona of Rob Roy Macgregor and sends him to the aid of a romantic Englishman swindled by an evil cousin. It is interesting that he does not whitewash Rob Roy of his blackmail and violence, but passes his worst crimes on to the head of his wife, Helen. Purely as a novel, I don't think this is a great work. As a misty-eyed evocation of the noble savage Highland Scotland, that has given a nation its identity, it has a resonance far beyond its initial scope. I finished this while in Edinburgh within sight of the magnificent monument to Scott himself. For a second or two, I almost regretted not being Scottish.

Possibly the worst book I've ever read, and I've read a lot of books. But Rob Roy is a slog beyond slogs. It's just so slow. The characters are bland, Rob Roy doesn't fully come into the story until about 100 pages in, and it's just so overwritten it's unbearable. Moby Dick had some scenes that felt neverending, but there were also staggeringly beautiful moments in that book. There is none of that here. Just terrible classic lit that I don't recommend to anyone. Garbage.

I was promised swashbuckling. My swash remains decidedly unbuckled.

The protagonist in the novel Rob Roy is Francis Osbaldistone (an unappealing moniker) not the title character! The famous criminal, he was a cattle thief has been written about many times before but who has ever heard of this man , ( makes a better name, Rob Roy too). Francis a spoiled son of a rich London businessman, who would rather write poetry than work for his father, lets say he is kind of indolent; no doubt, he was learning in France not about his merchant father's business but writing verses which angered the elder Mr. Osbaldstone. Sent to his uncle's estate as punishment in northern England bordering simmering Scotland that nation is always that.He soon becomes involved in a feud with his cousin the treacherous Rashleigh (youngest and smartest of six brothers) no family love between the two, only relatives could hate this deeply and for so long . A woman, beautiful Diana is quite a prize , the main reason (isn't it always in these books) this makes the situation more interesting, conflicts cause tension which brings a certain degree of curiosity to the gripping narrative.This being the long ago year 1715, a revolt soon brakes out, the brutal Jacobite uprising, Rashleigh steals important papers from Francis's trusting father, (he took over our hero's job) if they aren't recovered, the family will be ruined the usual plot device, still works even today . Osbaldistone finally wakes up and seeks the help of Rob Roy,(remember him?) he is a notorious outlaw. The bloody (the English love that word) conclusion occurs at the ancient Osbaldistone Hall. Sir Walter Scott a very sophisticated, intelligent, underappreciated man once the most popular writer in the world deserves a new renaissance, his books should be read and they will be enjoyed...I did.

Rob Roy is a key figure in part of my family, the MacGregor clan. We had to rename ourselves to remain within land-owning society in Scotland, and my branch ended up MacAdam, then McAdam, partly due to the work of this outlaw! I slogged through this in 1999, after a trip to the UK where I got to see the old MacGregor lands and visit Rob Roy's grave. I would never have forced myself through it without my connections to this historical figure.

This is not a story much about Rob Roy -- he is an important, but more minor character. Reading the dialect in the conversations of the characters was exhausting for me, and honestly at times impossible to understand -- so I confess to some skimming here. Otherwise this is a wonderful story, just not what I expected (it is not the movie starring Liam Neeson)