Bonny Braes and Banks

[bibliogramma]

Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon

I have no idea why I waited so long to read this book. I'd heard about this great series about a woman from modern times (well, post-WWII, anyway) who is magically transported two hundred years into the past, where, despite having a nice husband in her own time, she falls in love - somewhat unwillingly - with another nice man in the past, and gets all mixed up in the events preceding the battle of Culloden.

But for some reason I just didn't get around to reading it until recently - and now I find that I must go out and buy about half-a-dozen sequels, because the first book was every bit as good as everyone has been telling me it was.

Outlander begins with one of the lead characters, Claire Randall, an English nurse, on a second honeymoon in Scotland. There's some discussion of the role her husband's ancestor, a Captain John Randall, played in the bloody hisory of the Jacobite Risings - the long attempt by the Highland Scots to return the house of Stuart to the throne of England and Scotland following deposition of James II in 1688, which was finally crushed in 1746 at the Battle of Culloden. (I should digress here to note that I myself am part Scot, part Welsh, and all Celt, and as far as the history of the time is concerned, my sympathies are all with the Scots and not the slightest with the Sassenach.)

While in Scotland, Claire discovers that there is a standing circle near where they are staying, where some of the local women still worship in the "old ways." When she explores the circle herself, she finds herself drawn back to 1745, where she finds herself caught up in the politics of the clans, the cause of the Jacobites, the invading Sassenach - one of whom is her husband's ancestor, and eventually a bold Scotsman named Jamie Fraser who wins her heart.

It's fascinating historical fiction wrapped up in a time-travelling frame, with all the complications that entails, it's a refreshing romance between two people who become friends and partners as well as lovers, and it's - most welcome of all - a story of an intelligent, resourceful, courageous and tough woman who survives and thrives despite being thrown out of her own time and all that she knows and understands.

Comments

[mishaslair.livejournal.com]

Outlander is about the only book sold in the romance category I've been able to read in about the last 10 years. I don't know if it's that I outgrew the genre, or if Gabaldon spoiled me for all other romance writers, but I really loved her books. I think there's one or two that I haven't read, though.

[calico-reaction.livejournal.com]

I really need to read this freaking book, but like you, for some reason, I keep putting it off. I shouldn't, but I do, and now I'm at a point where I really need to STOP buying books cause there's so many on my shelf I haven't read. Boo!

Question: without spoiling too much, can you talk about how the relationship with Jamie played out? I ask because I've found a certain kind of bias against female characters who are married but end up having affairs with someone else. I know it can be done and done well and still keep the woman sympathetic (the obvious trick is having the woman's husband be a jerk), but I'm curious as to the dynamics in this, and how Gabaldon pulls it off?

Keep in mind, I could be completely crazy too. :)

[sausconys-books.livejournal.com]

I too have been putting off reading this book, although I've had it for years now. I think part of it is the daunting length and the fact that there are so many sequels.