18 books like Rob Roy
Moll Flanders
These are the true confessions of a remarkable and passionate young woman are thought to have been based on the adventures of a real prisoner in Newgate where Moll was born. ostensibly written as a warning to wrongdoers, the moral of Defoe's candid and cautionary tale is often lost in the sheer vitality of Moll - one of the supreme characters of English comic fiction.
Her fortunes and…
Shares: History
Margaret Ogilvy, and others
"On the day I was born we bought six hair-bottomed chairs, and in our little
house it was an event, the first great victory in a woman's long campaign; how
they had been laboured for, the pound- note and the thirty threepenny-bits they
cost, what anxiety there was about the purchase, the show they made in
possession of the west room, my father's unnatural coolness when he brought them
in…
Shares: Scottish authors, Scotland
Death Rides a Chestnut Mare
In the aftermath of the Civil War, a blacksmith from Missouri decides to travel to Texas to purchase a cattle herd. He hopes to sell the herd up north and turn a profit for his family to live on. However, the blacksmith had not reckoned on the dangers of the lawless plains, and is set upon and killed by a band of outlaws. When news of his death reaches his family, his eldest daughter straps on…
Shares: Outlaws, Historical Fiction
The raiders, being some passages in the life of John Faa, Lord and Earl of Little Egypt
Crockett’s ‘breakthrough’ and most famous novel, first published in 1894, this is part of a loose trilogy of smugglers and gypsies stories featuring the Herons, the Maxwells and the Faas. Stevensonesque in style, it is unique in its descriptions of Galloway’s coast and hills and still thrills a modern audience.
‘'The Raiders ' vibrates with sufficient dramatic action for a dozen ordinary…
Shares: Scotland, History
Waverley; or, 'Tis sixty years since ...
"Edward Waverley is a young, cultured man whose sensibilities lead to his involvement in the Jacobite Rising of 1745. In his journey into Scotland, down to Derby, and back up again he explores the cultural and political geography of Great Britain." "Waverley; or, 'tis Sixty Years Since was Scott's first novel, but like its final chapter, 'A Postscript, which should have been a Preface', it…
Shares: Scotland, British and irish fiction, Historical Fiction, History
Dragonfly in Amber
From the author of Outlander... a magnificent epic that once again sweeps us back in time to the drama and passion of 18th-century Scotland...For twenty years Claire Randall has kept her secrets. But now she is returning with her grown daughter to Scotland's majestic mist-shrouded hills. Here Claire plans to reveal a truth as stunning as the events that gave it birth: about the mystery of an…
Shares: Scotland, Historical, Historical Fiction, History
A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
In "A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland," Samuel Johnson embarks on a rich narrative that intertwines travelogue with philosophical reflection. Written in 1775, this work documents Johnson's exploration of the Scottish Highlands alongside his companion James Boswell. The text is characterized by Johnson's keen observations, eloquent prose, and a blend of personal anecdote and…
Shares: Scottish authors, Scotland, History
Kidnapped
KIDNAPPED is an adventure story that has become the model for any thriller of escape and suspense.
Set in 1751, the flight of David Balfour and Alan Breck across the Highlands of Scotland is based on real events. Though he wrote the book to make money, while living as an invalid in Bournemouth. Stevenson was proud of it; he inscribed a presentation copy with the couplet. Here is the one sound…
Shares: Scotland, British and irish fiction, Historical Fiction, History
David Balfour
From the book:It is the fate of sequels to disappoint those who have waited for them; and my David, having been left to kick his heels for more than a lustre in the British Linen Company’s office, must expect his late re-appearance to be greeted with hoots, if not with missiles. Yet, when I remember the days of our explo-rations, I am not without hope. There should be left in our native city some…
Shares: Scotland, British and irish fiction, Historical Fiction, History
An Inland voyage
Robert Louis Stevenson's 1878 travelogue, An Inland Voyage, details his canoeing trip through France and Belgium in 1876. Pioneering new ground in outdoor literature, this was Stevenson's first book. He had decided to become free from his parent's financial support so that he might freely pursue the woman he loved; to support himself he wrote travelogues, most notably An Inland Voyage, Travels…
Shares: Scottish authors, History
The master of Ballantrae
The Master of Ballantrae: A Winter's Tale is one of Stevenson's darker, more political novels. Two brothers are brought into conflict by the Jacobite rising of 1745, which tears their family apart.
Shares: Scotland, British and irish fiction, Historical Fiction, History
Pan Michael An historical novel
The third and final book of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s Trilogy takes a closer and more intimate look at one of the series’ protagonists: Pan Michael Volodyovski. The Polish Commonwealth has been through intense periods of war, and the peace that follows leaves one of its greatest heroes, Pan Michael, finally free to marry his beloved Panna Anusia. But in a twist of fate, she falls ill and dies, leaving…
Shares: Historical Fiction, History
St. George and St. Michael
It was the middle of autumn, and had rained all day. Through the lozenge-panes of the wide oriel window the world appeared in the slowly gathering dusk not a little dismal. The drops that clung trickling to the dim glass added rain and gloom to the landscape beyond, whither the eye passed, as if vaguely seeking that help in the distance, which the dripping hollyhocks and sodden sunflowers…
Shares: Historical Fiction, History
The Bride of Lammermoor
This new edition of The Bride of Lammermoor restores the action to 1703, before the Union of Scotland and England in 1707 rather than after it, which is where Scott's revisions of 1830 placed it. At last the sense of instability and of impermanence which permeates the novel makes sense, for what was to come in the impending revolution.
Love is doomed in this the most famous of Scott's plots.…
Shares: Scotland, British and irish fiction, Historical Fiction, History
Coniston
This book is about a love-story of long ago, of a time some little while after General Jackson had got into the White House and had shown the world what a real democracy was. The Era of the first six presidents had closed, and a new Era had begun. I am speaking of political Eras. Certain gentlemen, with a pious belief in democracy, but with a firmer determination to get on top, arose,—and got on…
Shares: British and irish fiction, Historical Fiction
In the South Seas
IN THE SOUTH SEAS records Stevenson's travels with his wife Fanny and their family in the Marquesas, the Paumotus and the Gilbert Islands during 1888-9. Originally drafted in journal form while Stevenson travelled, it was then ambitiously rewrittento describe the islands and islanders as well as Stevenson's own personal experiences. IN THE SOUTH SEAS was published posthumously in 1896. Its…
Shares: Scottish authors, British and irish fiction
Royal Escape
In 1650, dispossessed of Crown and kingdom, crushed and routed at the grim Battle of Worcester, the young Charles II is forced to flee for his life. Out of the heat of battle, the outlaw King and his tiny party must journey across Cromwell's England to a Channel port and a ship bound for France. For six weeks, Charles' life was in danger as he hid in the English countryside, disguised as a…
Shares: Historical, Historical Fiction, History
The stress of her regard
When Michael Crawford discovers his bride brutally murdered in their wedding bed, he is forced to flee not only to prove his innocence, but to avoid the deadly embrace of a vampire who has claimed him as her true bridegroom. Joining forces with Byron, Keats, and Shelley in a desperate journey that crisscrosses Europe, Crawford desperately seeks his freedom from this vengeful lover who haunts his…
Shares: Historical, Historical Fiction, History