Summary
Soldier. Farmer. Felon. Writer. Father. Lover.
One man, many lives.
Born in 1799, Cashel Greville Ross experiences myriad lives: joyous and devastating, years of luck and unexpected loss. Moving from County Cork to London, from Waterloo to Zanzibar, Cashel seeks his fortune across continents in war and in peace. He faces a terrible moral choice in a village in Sri Lanka as part of the East Indian Army. He enters the world of the Romantic Poets in Pisa. In Ravenna he meets a woman who will live in his heart for the rest of his days. As he travels the world as a soldier, a farmer, a felon, a writer, a father, a lover, he experiences all the vicissitudes of life and, through the accelerating turbulence of the nineteenth century, he discovers who he truly is. This is the romance of life itself, and the beating heart of The Romantic.
From one of Britain's best-loved and bestselling writers comes an intimate yet panoramic novel set across the nineteenth century.
'Picaresque, big-hearted and moving, this is Boyd at the top of his game' Observer
'There are few reading pleasures as great as giving in to a William Boyd novel' Sunday Times
'One of our best contemporary storytellers' Spectator
'Simply the best realistic storyteller of his generation' Sebastian Faulks
Shopping for books made easy
- FAST UK Delivery
- Support small business
- Despatched in fully recyclable packaging
- Excellent customer service
- Summary
- Author
- Product Details
- Review
Soldier. Farmer. Felon. Writer. Father. Lover.
One man, many lives.
Born in 1799, Cashel Greville Ross experiences myriad lives: joyous and devastating, years of luck and unexpected loss. Moving from County Cork to London, from Waterloo to Zanzibar, Cashel seeks his fortune across continents in war and in peace. He faces a terrible moral choice in a village in Sri Lanka as part of the East Indian Army. He enters the world of the Romantic Poets in Pisa. In Ravenna he meets a woman who will live in his heart for the rest of his days. As he travels the world as a soldier, a farmer, a felon, a writer, a father, a lover, he experiences all the vicissitudes of life and, through the accelerating turbulence of the nineteenth century, he discovers who he truly is. This is the romance of life itself, and the beating heart of The Romantic.
From one of Britain's best-loved and bestselling writers comes an intimate yet panoramic novel set across the nineteenth century.
'Picaresque, big-hearted and moving, this is Boyd at the top of his game' Observer
'There are few reading pleasures as great as giving in to a William Boyd novel' Sunday Times
'One of our best contemporary storytellers' Spectator
'Simply the best realistic storyteller of his generation' Sebastian Faulks
Title: The Romantic
Author:
ISBN: 9780241542026
Binding:
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Publication Date: 2022-10-06
Number of Pages: 464
Weight: 0.7002 kg
Boyd is as magically readable as ever, and, as always with his whole life novels, there is an invigorating air of spontaneity * Telegraph *
Cashel ultimately emerges as a one-off - an inimitable character, whether he knows it or not . . . what is often lost behind the sheer pleasure brought by [Boyd's] books is their layered Chekhovian subtleties: Boyd is abundantly talented at capturing life's disconnections . . . it is intoxicating to be in the company of a writer who seems to be having such fun * Guardian *
William Boyd's new novel is one of his best * Scotsman *
A rambunctious, swashbuckling tale, told with panache by a master storyteller . . . Those who fall in love with The Romantic may wonder whether their own lives lack adventure. Surrender to this fine novel's spell, though, and it will vicariously supply more than enough thrills for anyone * Observer *
If it's true escapism you're after, William Boyd can always be relied upon to transport the reader from reality and his next offering, The Romantic, another epic that follows Cashel Greville Ross from 19th-century Country Cork to Zanzibar via Oxford and Sri Lanka, offers a wonderful literary getaway as the nights draw in * Vogue, A Most Promising Page-Turner of the Season *
Packed with passion, adventure, suspense, comic interludes and a range of colourful characters . . . the rollicking work of a masterful storyteller, The Romantic is both a vivid portrait of a life and a sweeping panorama of an age * Economist *
The Romantic is certainly a crowd-pleaser . . . Boyd knows how to time the hights and lows, how to blend triumphs and tragedies, personal and historical . . . genuinely poignant and wise * Sunday Times *
A panoramic and deeply satisfying narrative from an author on top form * Mail on Sunday *
It's tremendously entertaining and, as always with Boyd, virtually impossible to stop reading * Daily Mirror *
A globe-trotting adventure through the 19th century * i, Best Books for Autumn *
Boyd's pile-up of set piece escapades offers a huge amount of fun * Daily Mail *
Boyd's books are so enjoyable that it's hard for us to resent the tricks being played on us, even as we find ourselves constantly reaching for Google, wanting to know what is and isn't real * TLS *
There's a cornucopia of fine things here . . . The Romantic, always enjoyable, ranks with two of his best: The New Confessions and Any Human Heart. Both were intelligent and engrossing, novels you lived with. Both told a fine story very well. The Romantic does just that * Scotsman *
A ripping yarn. And as such, it is pretty much faultless: as moreish as good chocolate, terrifically entertaining, and deeply humane * i *
A huge amount of fun * Daily Mail (Ireland) *
One of our best contemporary storytellers * Spectator *
A narrative that Charles Dickens or Jane Austen would surely have been happy to claim as their own . . . there's a joy to Boyd's storytelling throughout and his hero is one to cheer for * Business Post (Ireland) *
There is a cornucopia of fine things here . . . The Romantic, always enjoyable, ranks with two of his best: The New Confessions and Any Human Heart. Both were intelligent and engrossing, novels you lived with. Both told a fine story very well. The Romantic does just that * Scotsman *
A wonderful tale that spans a life of adventure, this is storytelling at its very best * Best *
Crammed with incident, the novel has the wonderfully freewheeling quality that one associates with the great 19th-century novelists. As with most of Boyd's works, it manages to be warm-hearted and deliciously sardonic at the same time * Literary Review *
William Boyd taps into the classic novel tradition with this sweeping tale of one man's century-spanning life * Spectator *
There is no doubt that Boyd is a masterful storyteller . . . this is a book to get totally, utterly and delightfully lost in -- Anna Bonet
A new novel by William Boyd is always a treat and in his picaresque latest, The Romantic, his hero is Cashel Greville Ross, born in 1799, a soldier, lover, friend of poets, bankrupt and adventurer who is swept into many of the most important episodes of the 19th century -- Lucy Lethbridge * Oldie *
This highly entertaining, engrossing page-turner is the fictionalised biography of Cashel Greville Ross, who was born in 1799 in Scotland and brought up in Cork. Such is William Boyd's mastery as a storyteller, one begins to believe that all of the events are entirely real -- James Lawless * Sunday Independent *
The Romantic is a rollicking read that will delight his many fans -- Susie Mesure * i *
A wild ride across the 19th century on the back of a narrative that never pauses for breath . . . this breakneck pace seems to be a function of Boyd's exceptional imaginative facility, which sees him just as irresistibly drawn to new ideas as his hero is -- John Self * Financial Times *
What could be more reassuring in troubling times than a new William Boyd novel? Trio is immensely readable, its descriptions full of light and colour, its humour spot on, its mood a perfect mix of frolicsome and melancholy * Sunday Telegraph on Trio *
Reading William Boyd's Trio is like shrugging on a worn leather jacket on the first brisk morning of autumn: cosy but cool . . . He has enormous fun with the worlds - and egos - of page and screen * The Times on Trio *
Breakneck pace seems to be a function of Boyd's exceptional imaginative facility, which sees him just as irresistibly drawn to new ideas as his hero is . . . there's something irresistible about that energy . . . if a whole-life novel is intended to represent the span of a unique existence, then The Romantic gets it right * FT *
Picaresque, big-hearted and moving, this is Boyd at the top of his game * Guardian *
-
FREE UK delivery for all orders over £20
Worldwide shipping from £2.99
-
Over 6 million books available and ready to ship!
-
Excellent customer service & over 3 million satisfied customers