This book was death. And it wouldn't end. I just could not get past the language in two ways:

(1) Get to the point. Sir Walter Scott apparently decided that there is no reason to use one word when five will suffice. For instance, rather than saying that a character was hungry because he ate lunch earlier than usual Scott notes instead that the character was hungry because "he had ante-dated his meridian repast, having dined at twelve instead of one o'clock, then the general hour of dining." Honestly, reading this book was like listening to a preacher describe prom -- you may get the story, but not the way you want to hear it.

(2) Scottish isn't English. I had high hopes that my Scottish blood would somehow instill in me to the ability to understand what in the world the Scottish characters were saying. No such luck. It's no fun to read a book in which half the dialogue looks like it was typed by a pre-schooler.

At any rate, for my two cents, if you want to read Scott, read Ivanhoe -- skip this one.

Well, this was a little different. There's a set of introductions to the book that, between them, take up well over 50 pages. The main one (by the author) gives a short history of clan MacGregor, and explains the long-term problems they have had with the law. This then turns into a history of the actual person, Rob Roy. This would have been fine, but was over-long, not that well written, and of course, I wanted to get to the actual story.

The other introduction is from the publisher (of the 1893 edition) describing the writing of the novel. It is much shorter, and has some interesting points. An important one is that Rob Roy is not about Rob Roy. Sir Walter Scott in fact resisted the title for that very reason, but he was a popular enough figure that as soon as he was in the story, it was what everyone wanted to know about.

My copy of the book is a cheap (I got it for free) Kindle ebook from Waxkeep publishing. Unlike some other cheap ebooks, this one was in pretty good shape. All the footnotes merely appeared at the end of the paragraph they occurred in, and there's a few 'L's instead of '£'s, but is mostly free of problems.

The book itself was a disappointment. It was by no means bad, but I found it nowhere near as engaging as Ivanhoe. The main character is Francis Osbaldingstone, a young man enamored of France, and poetry and creative endeavors. His father is a colorless businessman in London, estranged from the rest of his large Scottish family, and wants his son to take over the business. When his son refuses, Francis is exiled to his relatives with instructions to pick one out as the heir to the business.

Things get complicated from there, with fellow travelers on the road north, his uncle and cousins, a romantic interest... and then things go a bit sideways with trouble with his father's business, sending him into Scotland and a new cast of characters. This new cast of course prominently features Rob Roy himself, but also the Scottish countryside.

The structure of the plot is sound; everything in the novel rests on other elements, even when it seems like a digression. In fact, the least essential thing in the book could well be the main character. His presence kicks off much of the action, but the vast bulk of the book is him being acted upon instead of acting. Add to this the fact that there's a fair amount of dialog in various Scots accents, and the book is a slow read. (I found the heavier accents easier going for some reason.)

So, I can't really recommend Rob Roy, even though I did generally enjoy it. If you do generally like 19th Century writing, I do recommend it.

I will without a doubt be the only person to check this book out of the Guabuliga Public Library. After all, I could not understand a good portion of the book, given all the Scottish slang and odd accents, as well as the mass of historical details on which I wasn't all that clear. Now I know a little more about the conflict between the two kings, George and James (I think) and the failed Jacobite uprising in Scotland.

The English that wasn't Scottishly distorted was of great elegance and wit. I enjoyed Scott's style immensely. Some of the second half when he gets into the fighting and intrigues in Scotland got a little too romantic for me. But it must have been well-done, because I do think it was the first time that a description of a battle managed to thrill me. I even enjoyed the paragraphs describing the landscape, which almost always bore the hell out of my spatially-challenged brain. Now I REAlly want to visit Scotland again in the near future!

Urrrrgh.

I really wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. But I can't in good conscience give it more than three stars from my perspective as a modern reader.

I'm not impatient or unappreciative of the classics and I didn't go into an early 19th century historical novel expecting it - or wanting it - to be balls-to-the-wall roaring blockbuster action. But Rob Roy, for probably the entire first half of the novel, is just so dull. 100 pages in, the most exciting thing that had happened, in the middle of endless discussions about how unexciting banking is, was that the protagonist had travelled on the roads for a while and thought about how it would be really funny if he was a highwayman and robbed people. But he isn't, so he doesn't, and nothing happens. For the next 50-100 pages, nothing continues to happen, excessively.

When the action events words move to Scotland, things do take a turn for the better. A lot of that is probably helped by my enjoyment of seeing the historical depiction of my own city of Glasgow and the politics that continue to be relevant today - in the wake of the independence referendum, having one character describe Glaswegians as the "last to stop protesting and the last to give in to the Union" made me smile somewhat painfully - and the lovely and evocative prose that accompanies Scott's depiction of the country. The dialogue is generally longwinded and unnatural, but again, when we reach Scotland, it takes on a beautiful tone and cadence. I admit, I expected to understand more of the Scots than I did, but I suppose it was a humbling experience.

Maybe the problem was with me, but reading other reviews, it seems to be a common enough one. When this book is with its heart - in the highlands, in the violent, sorrowful dealings of Rob Roy and his kin in their doomed struggle - it makes for a wonderful read that will stick with me for a long time to come. But for far too much of its length, it concerns itself needlessly with the deliberately dull nonadventures of a deliberately dull protagonist aimlessly drifting through a deliberately dull life. Ultimately, it's worth reading for the last third or so, and I wrestled with giving it four or even five stars; but, at the end of the day, there's too much dragging it down. Novels don't need to be all adventure all the time to be interesting, of course not. But far too much of Rob Roy is simply boring.

omit unnecessary words

Hard to understand sometimes the Scottish dialect but a good book anyway.

This just totally defeated me. I have a high tolerance for voluminous prose and thick brogues, but I just couldn't get through it. NOTHING happened until about page 148, and by page 164 I just couldn't take it any more. Rob Roy himself isn't even in it bar a brief glimpse until about then anyway. And you can't skim because the brogue makes it impossible to get what's going on. Ivanhoe was much more interesting.

Jan 6, 2015

It's been so long since I started this that I had to go back and re-start. And then I almost immediately lost interest again and picked up something else.

Two tries seems over eight years says yeah, no.

Started 2015, abandoned 2023

This is an interesting historical swashbuckling tale in the Waverley series. Set amidst the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715, it brings the story of the young Francis Osbaldistone, who, having fallen out with his father for refusing to be a partner in his business, is sent to his uncle's estate in Northumberland in exchange for a son of him to replace his position. There in Northumberland, he unwittingly embroils himself in the political intrigues in the wake of the Jacobite uprising. Francis is a naive hero, whose good heart and straightforward principles are insufficient armaments to combat the cunning and treachery carried against him. His adventures, coupled with true historical events, form the story.

The story is a fast-paced gripping adventure with a set of unique characters. The diversity of the characters heavily contributes to the enjoyment of this simple storyline. While many of them arrested my attention, including the titular character Rob Roy (who was a true historical character, who Scott calls the Scottish Robin Hood), it is the courageous female heroine, Diana Vernon, that touched me the most. It was a pleasant novelty. There was also a clear-cut villain in the story proving the saying that it is not a stranger but someone who is close to you that would be your worst enemy.

It was truly an enjoyable story. I've always been a fan of swashbuckling historical fiction, so it's no surprise that I was immediately connected with it. With its good pace, fine storyline, and interesting characters, Rob Roy is a balanced product.

Трудно е да оцениш класика, защото класическите книги, които са достигнали до нас, разкриват различни ценности и странни приключения, различни от нашето ежедневие. Мога да потвърдя, че това беше един увлекателен исторически роман, тъй като авторът ми излагаше мислите на главния герой и така можехме да разберем гледната му точка и нормите на поведение, което той следва. Със сигурно беше един приключенски роман, чието действие се развиваше малко по-бавно от нашето ежедневие. Но въпреки това романът ни учи на тогавашните норми на поведение и начина им на живот, на спокойствието и на тяхното ежедневие. Учи ни на моралните ценности, които не бива да забравяме, и ни разкрива красивия и необятен свят на Шотландия!

I desperately wanted to like "Rob Roy"--nay, I wanted to love it. I have largely fond experiences of Sir Walter Scott. I first read "Ivanhoe" in my middle school years, around the time that my younger brother and I were enchanted by an early 80s TV version of the novel (which I suspect wouldn't hold up very well in 2024). I re-read "Ivanhoe" some years later, probably while binge-watching DVDs of the BBC's 1997 "Ivanhoe" miniseries (featuring the incomparable Christopher Lee as the Grand Master of the Knights Templar and the always-compelling Ciaran Hinds as Brian de Bois-Guilbert)). And back in the day my kids loved Disney's 1973 purple-haze-infused cartoon movie "Robin Hood" which, while not re-telling "Ivanhoe," features many of the same characters (Robin Hood, Little John) as the novel. On a lark, I also read "Waverly," Scott's first novel, after picking it up for a pittance in a used book shop. I enjoyed it so much that I eventually re-read it.

But my experience of Scott's fiction had not been all sunshine and unicorns. Twenty years ago I read "Quentin Durward" and was underwhelmed--my principal recollection is that the protagonist is (unintentionally) dislikeable. And Scott's bloated style can be off-putting. In good works such as "Ivanhoe" and "Waverly," one get used to it after a couple of dozen pages and begins even to grow somewhat fond of it. But in an inferior story, his elaborations are a distraction.

"Rob Roy," unfortunately, has both of these flaws, on steroids, and others to boot. The protagonist is a spoiled, self-indulgent twit, despite Scott's wanting the reader to love and empathize with him. My copy of the novel is 447 pages long, yet little of consequence ever happens--and not in an edifying Proustian kind of stuff-not-happening vein. The story is just slow and dull, somehow largely squandering its historical setting of what appears to be the second Jacobite uprising of 1715. Pages and pages of the novel (maybe it's not that much, but it sure seems that way) are larded up with impenetrable attempts to render Scottish brogue. Maybe that was precious in 1817, the book's year of publication, but now it's just irritating (and incomprehensible). And Scott wastes his two best characters--Diana Vernon and Rob Roy himself--by benching them for far too long.

So I reluctantly give "Rob Roy" an emphatic thumbs down. But I still hold out hope for Scott. It's hard for me to emotionally separate Sir Walter from the image on his card in the Go Fish-like Authors card game that my brothers and I obsessively played with our grandmother as boys until the cards were giveaway dog-ears: Unlike like the mostly mustachioed, bearded, and sober other authors portrayed in the deck (looking at you, Longfellow), Scott's clean-shaven face stares dreamily off into the distance, his short white hair and bluish suitcoat somehow making him look younger. The image is a compelling advertisement for his work. But if I tackle another Scott novel and it turns out to be more like "Rob Roy" than "Ivanhoe" or "Waverly," I'll be forced to give up and reconcile myself to my loss of Scott faith. If there are suggestions on which Scott work to crack open next--"The Heart of Midlothian?" Kenilworth?" "The Talisman?"--I'm all ears.

FWIW the 1995 "Roby Roy" movie starring Liam Neeson and Jessica Lange takes only its title from the novel--the plot otherwise has nothing to do with Scott.

I would have enjoyed it more had I known more about the history of the Jacobite rebellion, and especially if I had understood the Northern English and Scottish dialects. As it is, reading most of this book was torture to me. I enjoyed it a lot where I didn't have to decipher just what was being said. Pity.

2.5 stars.