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The Romantic
Set in the 19th century, The Romantic is the story of life itself. Following the roller-coaster fortunes of a man as he tries to negotiate the random stages, adventures and vicissitudes of his existence, from being a soldier to a pawnbroker, from being a jailbird to a gigolo to a diplomat - this is an intimate yet sweeping epic.
451 pages, Paperback
First published October 6, 2022
About the author
William Boyd
59 books2,018 followersNote: William^^Boyd
Of Scottish descent, Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana on 7th March, 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father, a doctor. Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War, the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him.
At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray, Scotland and then Nice University (Diploma of French Studies) and Glasgow University (MA Hons in English and Philosophy), where he edited the Glasgow University Guardian. He then moved to Jesus College, Oxford in 1975 and completed a PhD thesis on Shelley. For a brief period he worked at the New Statesman magazine as a TV critic, then he returned to Oxford as an English lecturer teaching the contemporary novel at St Hilda's College (1980-83). It was while he was here that his first novel, A Good Man in Africa (1981), was published.
Boyd spent eight years in academia, during which time his first film, Good and Bad at Games, was made. When he was offered a college lecturership, which would mean spending more time teaching, he was forced to choose between teaching and writing.
Boyd was selected in 1983 as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists' in a promotion run by Granta magazine and the Book Marketing Council. He also became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in the same year, and is also an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has been presented with honorary doctorates in literature from the universities of St. Andrews, Stirling and Glasgow. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005.
Boyd has been with his wife Susan since they met as students at Glasgow University and all his books are dedicated to her. His wife is editor-at-large of Harper's Bazaar magazine, and they currently spend about thirty to forty days a year in the US. He and his wife have a house in Chelsea, West London but spend most of the year at their chateau in Bergerac in south west France, where Boyd produces award-winning wines.
Of Scottish descent, Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana on 7th March, 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father, a doctor. Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War, the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him.
At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray, Scotland and then Nice University (Diploma of French Studies) and Glasgow University (MA Hons in English and Philosophy), where he edited the Glasgow University Guardian. He then moved to Jesus College, Oxford in 1975 and completed a PhD thesis on Shelley. For a brief period he worked at the New Statesman magazine as a TV critic, then he returned to Oxford as an English lecturer teaching the contemporary novel at St Hilda's College (1980-83). It was while he was here that his first novel, A Good Man in Africa (1981), was published.
Boyd spent eight years in academia, during which time his first film, Good and Bad at Games, was made. When he was offered a college lecturership, which would mean spending more time teaching, he was forced to choose between teaching and writing.
Boyd was selected in 1983 as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists' in a promotion run by Granta magazine and the Book Marketing Council. He also became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in the same year, and is also an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has been presented with honorary doctorates in literature from the universities of St. Andrews, Stirling and Glasgow. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005.
Boyd has been with his wife Susan since they met as students at Glasgow University and all his books are dedicated to her. His wife is editor-at-large of Harper's Bazaar magazine, and they currently spend about thirty to forty days a year in the US. He and his wife have a house in Chelsea, West London but spend most of the year at their chateau in Bergerac in south west France, where Boyd produces award-winning wines.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 630 reviews
February 23, 2023
Romanticism in its pure quintessential form:
“Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
Bird thou never wert,
That from Heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley – To a Skylark
On the plot side The Romantic is smartly stylized to the Victorian novel but it is written the modern explicit manner.
The hero of the novel spends his early childhood in Ireland and his birth is surrounded with mystery… Now he is in England and goes to school there… He runs away from home… He is a young brave soldier… He’s wounded in the battle… He is a lieutenant in the Indian army… He is obliged to leave…
He is romantic… Adventures call him… He finds himself in Italy where he inevitably meets the greatest romantics of the time – Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron…
There he encounters his true and only love… They part… He flees…
He is an idealist… All his adventures end up in misfortune… He writes a book… Success awaits him… He is swindled… He goes to America… He is a farmer… He is married… He is betrayed… He escapes… Back in England he turns into an explorer and departs to Africa…
Romance isn’t an acquired quality – it is a part of one’s nature.
“Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
Bird thou never wert,
That from Heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley – To a Skylark
On the plot side The Romantic is smartly stylized to the Victorian novel but it is written the modern explicit manner.
The hero of the novel spends his early childhood in Ireland and his birth is surrounded with mystery… Now he is in England and goes to school there… He runs away from home… He is a young brave soldier… He’s wounded in the battle… He is a lieutenant in the Indian army… He is obliged to leave…
He is romantic… Adventures call him… He finds himself in Italy where he inevitably meets the greatest romantics of the time – Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron…
We made our way up to the piano nobile where LB greeted us. He is quite short and, not to put too fine a point on it, very plump. His face is plump, his hands are plump, his fingers are plump. Hair receding, also. He introduced us to his mistress, Contessa Guiccioli, very young, 18–20, I’d say, who matches her paramour in plumpness but, however, is very beautiful with it, speaking hardly a word of English but, looking at her very ample figure, let’s say its noticeable prominences, it is not her anglophony that explains her attraction to LB, I would venture.
There he encounters his true and only love… They part… He flees…
He is an idealist… All his adventures end up in misfortune… He writes a book… Success awaits him… He is swindled… He goes to America… He is a farmer… He is married… He is betrayed… He escapes… Back in England he turns into an explorer and departs to Africa…
Set against this refulgent blue surface are low-lying buildings of white coraline stone, interspersed with the vivid green of palm trees, tamarind and fig. Closer to shore, a mephitic stink becomes more evident – rotting fish and putrid mud, charcoal smoke and human filth, overlaid by the cloying perfume of cloves. The smell of Zanzibar. One hundred thousand people live on this small island, crammed into the noisome, narrow alleyways of the old town, and their effluvia is everywhere.
Romance isn’t an acquired quality – it is a part of one’s nature.
December 8, 2023
Cashel Greville Ross was born somewhere in Scotland on 14th December 1799, the same day George Washington died. He was to be relocated to County Cork, Ireland, not long into his life and in due course learned of a tragedy that had befallen his parents at that time. The story - a fictional autobiography - picks up his life from this point and follows it all the way through. And what a life it is. If I felt I’d trodden this path with Boyd before then that’s because I have: Any Human Heart and The New Confessions each followed the life of a man through the course of the 20th Century. I’d enjoyed both enormously and saw no reason why I’d feel any differently about this one, set a hundred years earlier.
One of the tricks the author employs is to introduce notable events and figures into his narrative. In this book we find ourself a witness at the battle of Waterloo and meet distinguished figures such as poets Byron and Shelley and John Hanning Speke, the man who discovered the source of the Nile. It’s something that I initially found disconcerting in his earlier books but in time I grew to enjoy looking out for these contrivances. What it does help to achieve, I think, is to provide some historical context and also it’s a distraction from some of the more pedestrian activities that are naturally part of the subject’s life.
Ross is a headstrong and an impulsive character, so his reaction to a situation or an idea is to rush into action. Often this means that his excitement or simply following his gut-feel can end up pushing him in some unpredictable directions. Sometimes this works in his favour but it’s a trait that also causes him much regret and angst throughout his life. A rover by nature, he travels to mainland Europe, Asia, Africa and America as his various schemes and his travails play out. Travel and communications being what they were in the 19th Century it could take him months to reach a destination or even to get a message to someone in another continent. In consequence, his life is complicated, with a tendency for loose ends to be created.
Cashel’s relationships with women tend to be interrupted by either his roving nature or his impetuosity. But there is one woman in particular with whom he becomes so besotted that their eventual parting becomes something that forever haunts him. This is a key theme that becomes a focus of his thoughts and actions as he reaches an age where he increasingly starts to reflect on his life. Can he eventually find happiness, or at least closure? This becomes something that I found had an emotional impact on me as I neared the end of this tale. I’d enjoyed it to this point but now I was somewhat obsessed about knowing how this would all conclude.
Boyd is a supremely accomplished writer and once again he’s delivered a novel that’s grabbed me and taken me on a rollercoaster ride in the company of a man I grew to like and eventually to care for. I truly enjoyed my journey with Cashel Greville Ross with its many adventures, twists and turns, over the course of the best part of a century.
My thanks to Penguin for providing a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
One of the tricks the author employs is to introduce notable events and figures into his narrative. In this book we find ourself a witness at the battle of Waterloo and meet distinguished figures such as poets Byron and Shelley and John Hanning Speke, the man who discovered the source of the Nile. It’s something that I initially found disconcerting in his earlier books but in time I grew to enjoy looking out for these contrivances. What it does help to achieve, I think, is to provide some historical context and also it’s a distraction from some of the more pedestrian activities that are naturally part of the subject’s life.
Ross is a headstrong and an impulsive character, so his reaction to a situation or an idea is to rush into action. Often this means that his excitement or simply following his gut-feel can end up pushing him in some unpredictable directions. Sometimes this works in his favour but it’s a trait that also causes him much regret and angst throughout his life. A rover by nature, he travels to mainland Europe, Asia, Africa and America as his various schemes and his travails play out. Travel and communications being what they were in the 19th Century it could take him months to reach a destination or even to get a message to someone in another continent. In consequence, his life is complicated, with a tendency for loose ends to be created.
Cashel’s relationships with women tend to be interrupted by either his roving nature or his impetuosity. But there is one woman in particular with whom he becomes so besotted that their eventual parting becomes something that forever haunts him. This is a key theme that becomes a focus of his thoughts and actions as he reaches an age where he increasingly starts to reflect on his life. Can he eventually find happiness, or at least closure? This becomes something that I found had an emotional impact on me as I neared the end of this tale. I’d enjoyed it to this point but now I was somewhat obsessed about knowing how this would all conclude.
Boyd is a supremely accomplished writer and once again he’s delivered a novel that’s grabbed me and taken me on a rollercoaster ride in the company of a man I grew to like and eventually to care for. I truly enjoyed my journey with Cashel Greville Ross with its many adventures, twists and turns, over the course of the best part of a century.
My thanks to Penguin for providing a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
September 12, 2022
Well that's more like a William Boyd. Or rather, the sort of Boyd that I enjoy.
I've been disappointed with some of his more recent books but this takes me back to wonderful saga style that he is so brilliant at.
In The Romantic we follow the life of Cashel Greville Ross who, you might be forgiven for thinking, was a real person, such is the mastery of Boyd's work. Ross begins life ignominiously enough but he makes the most of the opportunities that come his way. Although I can't help thinking that things happen to Mr Ross rather than him making them occur. In fact when he does have an idea of how to proceed in life it invariably means disaster to some extent.
I think the only time Cashel makes the running is in affairs of the heart and the name of the book is apt. He is a true romantic. From affairs of the heart to wanting to be a success at anything, Cashel Ross finds himself generally outplayed, outwitted and taken advantage of at every turn.
This might sound like a bad thing but he always takes his beatings with grace and finds another scheme to make his name. He's extremely adaptable, personable, attractive and a gentleman to boot.
All in all this is a thoroughly enjoyable, immensely readable book. It's not overlong as some fictional autobiographies can be and you get some very famous names thrown in for good measure as Cashel Greville Ross continues his adventures from Waterloo to the discovery of the source of the Nile.
Highly recommended for fans of Boyd or not. If you simply enjoy a good tale, extremely well told you will enjoy this. Just don't try to rush it. Sit back and enjoy the life.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Penguin books for the ARC. To say I was delighted to be approved would be a huge understatement.
I've been disappointed with some of his more recent books but this takes me back to wonderful saga style that he is so brilliant at.
In The Romantic we follow the life of Cashel Greville Ross who, you might be forgiven for thinking, was a real person, such is the mastery of Boyd's work. Ross begins life ignominiously enough but he makes the most of the opportunities that come his way. Although I can't help thinking that things happen to Mr Ross rather than him making them occur. In fact when he does have an idea of how to proceed in life it invariably means disaster to some extent.
I think the only time Cashel makes the running is in affairs of the heart and the name of the book is apt. He is a true romantic. From affairs of the heart to wanting to be a success at anything, Cashel Ross finds himself generally outplayed, outwitted and taken advantage of at every turn.
This might sound like a bad thing but he always takes his beatings with grace and finds another scheme to make his name. He's extremely adaptable, personable, attractive and a gentleman to boot.
All in all this is a thoroughly enjoyable, immensely readable book. It's not overlong as some fictional autobiographies can be and you get some very famous names thrown in for good measure as Cashel Greville Ross continues his adventures from Waterloo to the discovery of the source of the Nile.
Highly recommended for fans of Boyd or not. If you simply enjoy a good tale, extremely well told you will enjoy this. Just don't try to rush it. Sit back and enjoy the life.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Penguin books for the ARC. To say I was delighted to be approved would be a huge understatement.
November 19, 2022
The fictional biography is my favourite genre. I suppose that's why I somewhat surprisingly enjoyed reading Daniel Defoe. And it's good to see the genre is now getting some popular traction; The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a whole life novel. But the first modern example I read was Boyd's Any Human Heart, a book which must be in my lifetime top ten. If I hadn't been so excited about Boyd writing another, set this time in the 19th century, I wouldn't be so disappointed now.
This is a perfectly enagaging read, it just isn't as enjoyable a journey as Any Human Heart, or The New Confessions for that matter. It goes adrift from the first page in the author's note when Boyd 'admits' that he has constructed Cashel Greville Ross's biography from a part written autobiography and a collection of letters and sketches, maps and plans. Given the 19th century setting, this immediately set me thinking of The Flashman Papers where Macdonald Fraser uses the same device. The problem is immediately compounded by Boyd's quotation from Chekov's biographer that "All biography is fiction, but fiction that has to fit the documented facts." The Flashman stories can only be described as historical comedy with a rich vein of seventies style smut. But George MacDonald Fraser (like Boyd another misplaced Scot) is more of a historian manqué than a novelist, and Flashman is just a literary device to allow him to write about History. The events described in the Flashman Papers are what is important; Flashman and the Tiger for example has an appendix and 15 pages of footnotes in smallprint. Once this came into my mind, The Romantic wasn't just competing with other similar novels, but with Flashman, and with History proper, a genre I like more than fiction.
In trying to steer Ross's fictional biography around certain 'documented facts', the overall arc of Ross's life is lost, as is the overall arc of events. Waterloo, The 3rd Kandian War, the death of Shelley, the discovery of the Victoria Falls are there and might have said something about how Britan's relationship with the world changed over the nineteenth century. But the Dickensian sojourn in the Marshalsea prison, ice manufacture in Massachussets, and ancient artefact looting in the Ottoman Empire all seem unbridgeably disconnected. Altogether the novel felt random, and is probably realistic for it, but random doesn't constitute good art. In Any Human Heart, I was able to identify with the protagonist's journey, from early unearned comfort and success, through failure and penury to achieve an authentic comfort at the close of the the novel. No such luck here.
The character of Cashel Greville Ross shares some qualities with Henry Paget Flashman (to make matters worse). He is tall, a gifted linquist, and good-looking to the point where, somewhat implausibly in both cases, women of all ranks want to jump immediately into bed with him. The differences are that Ross is naive (he is duped repeatedly) and his romantic nature seems to come down to a lack of self-awareness or willingness to think about his life, something he describes as 'following his heart'. As a consequence the denouement, when it finally comes in his eighties, offers no surprise or satisfaction cf. Any Human Heart, or The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
The historical events described are sketched not painted, and are with the exception of the 3rd Kandian War familar to me: Boyd's sketches offered nothing new cf. The Flashman Papers.
Neither fish nor fowl.
This is a perfectly enagaging read, it just isn't as enjoyable a journey as Any Human Heart, or The New Confessions for that matter. It goes adrift from the first page in the author's note when Boyd 'admits' that he has constructed Cashel Greville Ross's biography from a part written autobiography and a collection of letters and sketches, maps and plans. Given the 19th century setting, this immediately set me thinking of The Flashman Papers where Macdonald Fraser uses the same device. The problem is immediately compounded by Boyd's quotation from Chekov's biographer that "All biography is fiction, but fiction that has to fit the documented facts." The Flashman stories can only be described as historical comedy with a rich vein of seventies style smut. But George MacDonald Fraser (like Boyd another misplaced Scot) is more of a historian manqué than a novelist, and Flashman is just a literary device to allow him to write about History. The events described in the Flashman Papers are what is important; Flashman and the Tiger for example has an appendix and 15 pages of footnotes in smallprint. Once this came into my mind, The Romantic wasn't just competing with other similar novels, but with Flashman, and with History proper, a genre I like more than fiction.
In trying to steer Ross's fictional biography around certain 'documented facts', the overall arc of Ross's life is lost, as is the overall arc of events. Waterloo, The 3rd Kandian War, the death of Shelley, the discovery of the Victoria Falls are there and might have said something about how Britan's relationship with the world changed over the nineteenth century. But the Dickensian sojourn in the Marshalsea prison, ice manufacture in Massachussets, and ancient artefact looting in the Ottoman Empire all seem unbridgeably disconnected. Altogether the novel felt random, and is probably realistic for it, but random doesn't constitute good art. In Any Human Heart, I was able to identify with the protagonist's journey, from early unearned comfort and success, through failure and penury to achieve an authentic comfort at the close of the the novel. No such luck here.
The character of Cashel Greville Ross shares some qualities with Henry Paget Flashman (to make matters worse). He is tall, a gifted linquist, and good-looking to the point where, somewhat implausibly in both cases, women of all ranks want to jump immediately into bed with him. The differences are that Ross is naive (he is duped repeatedly) and his romantic nature seems to come down to a lack of self-awareness or willingness to think about his life, something he describes as 'following his heart'. As a consequence the denouement, when it finally comes in his eighties, offers no surprise or satisfaction cf. Any Human Heart, or The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
The historical events described are sketched not painted, and are with the exception of the 3rd Kandian War familar to me: Boyd's sketches offered nothing new cf. The Flashman Papers.
Neither fish nor fowl.
April 30, 2023
R(possibly)TC
December 18, 2022
William Boyd on top form, returning to the epic biographical fiction he has written so well in the past. The life of Cashel spanning 80 years in the 19th Century tales in both real and fictional drama, woven together expertly.
January 21, 2024
"I mean, we have to accept the lives we’ve lived. Not imagine lives we might have lived."
This is not the first time William Boyd has written a 'cradle-to-grave' novel - Any Human Heart was a rollicking tale of a fictional man of letters named Logan Mountstuart, which took in many of the important events of the 20th century. The Romantic examines the fortunes of a very different kind of character, an adventurer by the name of Cashel Greville Ross.
Ross is initially raised in Ireland by an aunt, but after some doubts about his parentage the pair move to Oxford. A family dispute prompts him to join the British Army and at age 15 he takes part in the Battle of Waterloo. A serious injury causes him to re-evaluate his purpose in life and he decides to travel the globe in the hopes of making his fortune. A stint in the East Indian Army doesn't work out so well, but he fares better in Italy, becoming friends with Mary Shelley and Lord Byron. There he meets the love of his life, a countess from Ravenna. Ross also writes a successful novel and ends up in Massachusetts, where he becomes a brewer. There he begins to raise a family but that path grows complicated, as old weaknesses return to haunt him.
I found this an absorbing but melancholy tale. Cashel Greville Ross is a flawed, yet sympathetic character. He is haunted by his mistakes, forever wondering what might have been. And an impulsive fellow who has had his fair share of bad luck. However he lives an extraordinary if implausible life, and his escapades are a pleasure to read about. Once again William Boyd has bestowed upon us a picaresque that is fabulously entertaining and highly compelling.
September 14, 2022
A longtime fan of William Boyd's novels and this one didn't disappoint. . A fictional autobiography centered around the likeable character Cashew Greville Ross and how his life links through to historical events of the 19th century. Well written, wonderful story and interesting characters throughout. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance readers copy
May 16, 2023
A gloriously old-fashioned and sumptuous read. William Boyd is as good as ever as he ages. He's now in his Seventies and his writing is as fine as ever. This is a "whole life" novel telling the fictional story of Cashel Greville Ross, whose long life spans the 19th Century.
Ross fights at the Battle of Waterloo and explores the world, meeting Byron and Shelley, brewing German beer in America and attempting to discover the source of the Nile.
It is a gripping page turner full of exciting twists and turns, yet it is also deeply moving, a great, generous big read of a book which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Ross fights at the Battle of Waterloo and explores the world, meeting Byron and Shelley, brewing German beer in America and attempting to discover the source of the Nile.
It is a gripping page turner full of exciting twists and turns, yet it is also deeply moving, a great, generous big read of a book which I thoroughly enjoyed.
September 11, 2023
It’s often been said that within our lifetimes, we live many lives. Certainly that’s the case with William Boyd’s latest protagonist, Cashel Greville Ross.
Within his 80+ year lifespan, Cashel Greville Ross will fight at Waterloo where Napoleon made his last stand…enter the inner circle of Percy Shelley, his wife Mary Shelley, and the legendary Lord Byron…set out in search of the source of the Nile where he will meet up with the famed explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton and the duplicitous John Hanning Speke..and become inadvertently involved in the smuggling of Greek antiquities.
Most of all, this romantic will fall head over heels for a glamorous Contessa named Raphaella, who will never stray far from his mind. Although to this reader, Raphaella came across as vainglorious, manipulative and materialistic as well as (of course) beautiful, this is, after all the romantic era, and Cashel is the ultimate romantic.
Do not expect deep introspection. The purpose is not to wonder what drives Cashel or what he is thinking. Instead, the goal is to surrender to a hugely satisfying good yarn that follows one colorful character through his multiple iterations – son and brother, lover, soldier, farmer, debtor, best-selling writer, husband and father, world traveler (and Ivan Turgenev look-alike). The real-life people he encounters along this journey only heightens the fun.
As Cashel pursues life’s ripening and turning point, he realizes that life is not about pursuing the ifs, the maybes, the wrong turnings, the dead ends. It’s really about accepting the life that's lived and not waste time imagining the lives that could have been have lived. This novel provides an abundance of page-turning literary escapism with rousing plot twists galore, many fueled by his gullibilities. I am very grateful to Alfred A. Knopf, Publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.
Within his 80+ year lifespan, Cashel Greville Ross will fight at Waterloo where Napoleon made his last stand…enter the inner circle of Percy Shelley, his wife Mary Shelley, and the legendary Lord Byron…set out in search of the source of the Nile where he will meet up with the famed explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton and the duplicitous John Hanning Speke..and become inadvertently involved in the smuggling of Greek antiquities.
Most of all, this romantic will fall head over heels for a glamorous Contessa named Raphaella, who will never stray far from his mind. Although to this reader, Raphaella came across as vainglorious, manipulative and materialistic as well as (of course) beautiful, this is, after all the romantic era, and Cashel is the ultimate romantic.
Do not expect deep introspection. The purpose is not to wonder what drives Cashel or what he is thinking. Instead, the goal is to surrender to a hugely satisfying good yarn that follows one colorful character through his multiple iterations – son and brother, lover, soldier, farmer, debtor, best-selling writer, husband and father, world traveler (and Ivan Turgenev look-alike). The real-life people he encounters along this journey only heightens the fun.
As Cashel pursues life’s ripening and turning point, he realizes that life is not about pursuing the ifs, the maybes, the wrong turnings, the dead ends. It’s really about accepting the life that's lived and not waste time imagining the lives that could have been have lived. This novel provides an abundance of page-turning literary escapism with rousing plot twists galore, many fueled by his gullibilities. I am very grateful to Alfred A. Knopf, Publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.
September 5, 2022
Regrets? I’ve had a few.
Being the biography of Cashel Greville Ross, born in Ireland in 1799, buried in Venice over eighty years later, a picaresque, episodic narrative, reminiscent of Barry Lyndon or one of those Victorian novels originally serialised in a magazine.
Ross, the illegitimate son of the big house, a drummer boy at Waterloo, an officer in the Indian Army refusing to carry out an atrocity, by his late twenties he has partied with Byron and the Shelleys in Italy, had a frenzied affair with an Italian noblewoman, published his first novel, been defrauded, imprisoned for debt and emigrated to the United States to build an ideal community. With his loyal servant Ignatz, he starts the first Lager brewery in America, marries, fathers two daughters, attempts to find the source of the Nile, begins a feud with Burton and Speke, becomes a Consul in Trieste, meets again the love of his youth, Countess Raphaella, but perhaps, all too late.
A panoramic story, at its heart the hopeless, impetuous romantic that is Cashel Greville Ross. William Boyd is a superb story teller. The conceit of the tale is that he is merely reworking the surviving notes, letters and mementoes of Ross into a fictionalised biography. Footnotes enhance the joke. I especially enjoyed finding out where in the British Museum could be found the Lion of Glymphonos, a particularly impressive piece of looted Greek statuary. Cashel is a wonderful creation, Don Quixote to Ignatz’ Sancho Panza and Raphaella’s Dulcinea.
A super novel; great reading; whatever next?
Being the biography of Cashel Greville Ross, born in Ireland in 1799, buried in Venice over eighty years later, a picaresque, episodic narrative, reminiscent of Barry Lyndon or one of those Victorian novels originally serialised in a magazine.
Ross, the illegitimate son of the big house, a drummer boy at Waterloo, an officer in the Indian Army refusing to carry out an atrocity, by his late twenties he has partied with Byron and the Shelleys in Italy, had a frenzied affair with an Italian noblewoman, published his first novel, been defrauded, imprisoned for debt and emigrated to the United States to build an ideal community. With his loyal servant Ignatz, he starts the first Lager brewery in America, marries, fathers two daughters, attempts to find the source of the Nile, begins a feud with Burton and Speke, becomes a Consul in Trieste, meets again the love of his youth, Countess Raphaella, but perhaps, all too late.
A panoramic story, at its heart the hopeless, impetuous romantic that is Cashel Greville Ross. William Boyd is a superb story teller. The conceit of the tale is that he is merely reworking the surviving notes, letters and mementoes of Ross into a fictionalised biography. Footnotes enhance the joke. I especially enjoyed finding out where in the British Museum could be found the Lion of Glymphonos, a particularly impressive piece of looted Greek statuary. Cashel is a wonderful creation, Don Quixote to Ignatz’ Sancho Panza and Raphaella’s Dulcinea.
A super novel; great reading; whatever next?
October 8, 2023
I was a little disappointed in this book. It's described in the preface as a novel based on the true story of a late eighteenth/early nineteenth century adventurer, Cashel Greville Ross. He certainly led an interesting life, traveling the world, managing to get into a few scrapes and rising up the ladder of success only to fall back down a few rungs.
My gripe is the lack of depth in terms of the writing. As this is a fictional account, there was enough leeway for the author to show a bit more emotion. As it is, the book is almost a straight run through of the main character's life without consideration of how he felt about his situations; almost 'and then Ross did this, then he did that etc.' I think this was because there was so much of Ross' life to cover and maybe it would have been improved if the author had focused on a particular section of his life and drawn it out with more colour and pathos.
Having said all that, the writing was good, the story interesting and the jaunts round Europe, America and Africa during these times were very entertaining. I just felt it lacked something.
My gripe is the lack of depth in terms of the writing. As this is a fictional account, there was enough leeway for the author to show a bit more emotion. As it is, the book is almost a straight run through of the main character's life without consideration of how he felt about his situations; almost 'and then Ross did this, then he did that etc.' I think this was because there was so much of Ross' life to cover and maybe it would have been improved if the author had focused on a particular section of his life and drawn it out with more colour and pathos.
Having said all that, the writing was good, the story interesting and the jaunts round Europe, America and Africa during these times were very entertaining. I just felt it lacked something.
December 29, 2022
This is one of his best novels as we have a voyage through the early 19th century through Cashel Ross and experience his ups and downs
February 27, 2023
Disappointing. A flat and unconvincing story. The protagonist makes a long series of poor judgements and is somewhat impassively buffeted from one catastrophy to another, largely avoidable had be been less naive. He is supported by an inexplicably loyal character with quite ludicrous (overly convenient) talents, designed simply to rescue Cashel at every turn. The love interest who purportedly sustains the hero through his tribulations is utterly unconvincing, cold and manipulative - only he won't let himself see it.
Overall a very frustrating and unsatisfying book; far removed from Boyd's finer works.
Overall a very frustrating and unsatisfying book; far removed from Boyd's finer works.
March 22, 2023
The Romantic is one of the books on the longlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2023 but it had been on my RADAR long before that. The Romantic has been compared by other readers to one of William Boyd’s earlier books, Any Human Heart, which is also a ‘whole life’ story, albeit set in a different period. I haven’t read that book although it is on my virtual TBR pile.
The Romantic is a faux biography, complete with footnotes, sketches and draft letters, of Cashel Greville Ross which recounts events in his life from his childhood in 19th century Ireland to his demise at the age of 82. It’s picaresque in style with Cashel undertaking many adventures including being wounded whilst serving as a drummer boy at the Battle of Waterloo, becoming an ice trader and pioneering a new kind of beer (‘Rossbrau’) in New England, and undertaking a search for the source of the River Nile. Cashel’s fictional exploits are intertwined with real historical events and actual historical personages such as Lord Byron and Mary Shelley, and the explorers Richard Burton and John Speke. There is a colourfully drawn cast of minor characters. For example, banker Mr Forbes Harkin described as ‘a slim, serious-looking bald man with a stiff-pointed white wisp of a beard growing from his chin that looked as if it had been stuck there as a prank’.
Described by one reviewer as ‘Around the World in 80 Years’, Cashel’s adventures take him across the globe to places as varied as Oxford, Venice, Zanzibar and Madras. It’s during his time in Italy that the most significant event in his life occurs: the moment he meets the Countess Raphaella Rezzo. From the start he is completely bewitched by her. ‘And he knew – as an animal knows that he has found his mate. He need look no further, ever.’ However, as we know from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, ‘The course of true love never did run smooth’.
Yes, there’s a love story so Cashel is a romantic in that respect but he is also a romantic in outlook, being driven by impulse and circumstance, rather than by thoroughly thought through plans. ‘Why did he always have to act so spontaneously, he wondered, driven by absolute conviction? Absolute convictions could all too easily be wrong – as his own life had demonstrated.’ Quite. Cashel experiences all the vicissitudes of life from becoming a bestselling author to (shades of Dickens’ Little Dorrit) being imprisoned in the Marshalsea prison for debt. In the process he gains both friends and enemies leading him to adopt new identities from time to time. It also has to be said that he leaves a trail of discarded relationships in his wake, there always seeming to be one more obstacle for him to overcome. ‘He thought he could detect a malign pattern in his life – that he was always moving on, for some reason or other, and leaving something precious behind.’ Somehow, though, Cashel always picks himself up, dusts himself down and sets off anew. By the way, you’ll need to be patient for the significance of the image on the cover to be revealed.
The Romantic is quite a big book but the sheer zest with which Cashel’s story unfolds means it doesn’t feel like that. It’s a wonderfully entertaining romp through the 19th century with the most engaging travelling companion you could possibly hope for. It’s an achievement of literary imagination that surely makes it a strong contender for the shortlist; some even tip it to be the winner.
The Romantic is a faux biography, complete with footnotes, sketches and draft letters, of Cashel Greville Ross which recounts events in his life from his childhood in 19th century Ireland to his demise at the age of 82. It’s picaresque in style with Cashel undertaking many adventures including being wounded whilst serving as a drummer boy at the Battle of Waterloo, becoming an ice trader and pioneering a new kind of beer (‘Rossbrau’) in New England, and undertaking a search for the source of the River Nile. Cashel’s fictional exploits are intertwined with real historical events and actual historical personages such as Lord Byron and Mary Shelley, and the explorers Richard Burton and John Speke. There is a colourfully drawn cast of minor characters. For example, banker Mr Forbes Harkin described as ‘a slim, serious-looking bald man with a stiff-pointed white wisp of a beard growing from his chin that looked as if it had been stuck there as a prank’.
Described by one reviewer as ‘Around the World in 80 Years’, Cashel’s adventures take him across the globe to places as varied as Oxford, Venice, Zanzibar and Madras. It’s during his time in Italy that the most significant event in his life occurs: the moment he meets the Countess Raphaella Rezzo. From the start he is completely bewitched by her. ‘And he knew – as an animal knows that he has found his mate. He need look no further, ever.’ However, as we know from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, ‘The course of true love never did run smooth’.
Yes, there’s a love story so Cashel is a romantic in that respect but he is also a romantic in outlook, being driven by impulse and circumstance, rather than by thoroughly thought through plans. ‘Why did he always have to act so spontaneously, he wondered, driven by absolute conviction? Absolute convictions could all too easily be wrong – as his own life had demonstrated.’ Quite. Cashel experiences all the vicissitudes of life from becoming a bestselling author to (shades of Dickens’ Little Dorrit) being imprisoned in the Marshalsea prison for debt. In the process he gains both friends and enemies leading him to adopt new identities from time to time. It also has to be said that he leaves a trail of discarded relationships in his wake, there always seeming to be one more obstacle for him to overcome. ‘He thought he could detect a malign pattern in his life – that he was always moving on, for some reason or other, and leaving something precious behind.’ Somehow, though, Cashel always picks himself up, dusts himself down and sets off anew. By the way, you’ll need to be patient for the significance of the image on the cover to be revealed.
The Romantic is quite a big book but the sheer zest with which Cashel’s story unfolds means it doesn’t feel like that. It’s a wonderfully entertaining romp through the 19th century with the most engaging travelling companion you could possibly hope for. It’s an achievement of literary imagination that surely makes it a strong contender for the shortlist; some even tip it to be the winner.
January 9, 2023
I’ve read a lot of William Boyd over the years (though not the complete seventeen novels that he’s now produced) and he’s the closest I’ve come to a comfort read. This latest work, for the first time, did feel a bit too much like a re-hash of earlier work. Boyd calls a number of his novels “whole life” stories, and Any Human Heart: The Intimate Journals of Logan Mountstuart is possibly the one most lauded, and the one early reviewers have compared to The Romantic.
The difference is the background setting. Logan Mountstuart straddles the twentieth century, while the central ‘hero’ in The Romantic, The Real Life of Cashel Greville Ross, is born at the turn of the nineteenth century and this story is altogether a more fanciful imagining of history that took place from a time when written accounts of history are much more inaccessible, starting with the battle of Waterloo.
One reflection on Victorian London struck me when Cashel returns home on foot through Covent Garden in London (to save money) and as a necessary precaution he ties up with two men and one woman and her child for the journey.. Safety in numbers. This is a London without gas lighting with attendant dangers..
I felt that I knew what Boyd was going to describe, and how the life of the protagonist would turn out. I was also conscious that in a (literary) world that has changed enormously in the last twenty years, the characterisations were a bit dated and focused on too limiting a view of history. An early example when a young man is seduced by a randy housekeeper was flat. There’s schoolboy masturbation; there’s extraordinary fortune smiling on our main man in whatever predicament presents itself. Boys own stuff.
I suspect that if you ask a type of reader to align William Boyd with another writer of his generation the name Sebastian Faulks will come up. Faulks is quoted on the book cover endorsing The Romantic. I think there’s quite a similarity in the two writers’ output. Boyd, like Faulks, is strongest in his depiction of the horrors and depravity of war, and the more bloody the hand to hand combat, the more striking the description. An early Boyd novel is An ice Cream War set in World War One, in Africa. Boyd doesn’t glamorise bloodshed, and in the Romantic the fate of Cashel’s comrade Croker will stay with me. Hand to hand fighting, as depicted in the Battle of Waterloo, was not fun.
The lifelong association that Cashel carries with him as a Waterloo veteran reminded me of Joseph Roth’s The Radetzky March in which Captain Joseph Trotta saves the life of the young Kaiser Frank Joseph 1, on the battlefield at Solferino. Henceforth the “Hero of Solferino” is a label which travels with the Trotta family.
When it comes to his description of love stories, and dalliances, Boyd is rather old fashioned. I did like Cashel’s definition of love “to care more about the person you loved than you did about yourself” (444).
Two strong women become central to the story; Contessa Raphaella Rezzo; and widow Mrs Frances (Frannie) Broome. Both women are interesting but from their character descriptions, and their actions, it becomes difficult to differentiate between the two, who occupy different parts of the world, and the narrative. Boyd uses the description ‘cavaliere servante’ to describe Raphaella.
The Boyd reach means that you get several stories spliced into one. Renowned figures commune with Boyd protagonists, in this case Mary and Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and John Hanning Speke (of the search for the Nile). It’s a global book with action variously in Cork, Ireland; the Netherlands/Belgium; London; Ooty southern India; Kandy ‘Ceylon’; Ravenna Italy; Arles France; Willow Creek, near Boston USA; Kazeh in the Lake Regions of Central Africa.
I wonder if most of Boyd’s books are released in the months immediately preceding Christmas? This is a book, and an author, with something for everyone. It may not challenge the reader, but Boyd is a master of what he does.
The difference is the background setting. Logan Mountstuart straddles the twentieth century, while the central ‘hero’ in The Romantic, The Real Life of Cashel Greville Ross, is born at the turn of the nineteenth century and this story is altogether a more fanciful imagining of history that took place from a time when written accounts of history are much more inaccessible, starting with the battle of Waterloo.
One reflection on Victorian London struck me when Cashel returns home on foot through Covent Garden in London (to save money) and as a necessary precaution he ties up with two men and one woman and her child for the journey.. Safety in numbers. This is a London without gas lighting with attendant dangers..
I felt that I knew what Boyd was going to describe, and how the life of the protagonist would turn out. I was also conscious that in a (literary) world that has changed enormously in the last twenty years, the characterisations were a bit dated and focused on too limiting a view of history. An early example when a young man is seduced by a randy housekeeper was flat. There’s schoolboy masturbation; there’s extraordinary fortune smiling on our main man in whatever predicament presents itself. Boys own stuff.
I suspect that if you ask a type of reader to align William Boyd with another writer of his generation the name Sebastian Faulks will come up. Faulks is quoted on the book cover endorsing The Romantic. I think there’s quite a similarity in the two writers’ output. Boyd, like Faulks, is strongest in his depiction of the horrors and depravity of war, and the more bloody the hand to hand combat, the more striking the description. An early Boyd novel is An ice Cream War set in World War One, in Africa. Boyd doesn’t glamorise bloodshed, and in the Romantic the fate of Cashel’s comrade Croker will stay with me. Hand to hand fighting, as depicted in the Battle of Waterloo, was not fun.
The lifelong association that Cashel carries with him as a Waterloo veteran reminded me of Joseph Roth’s The Radetzky March in which Captain Joseph Trotta saves the life of the young Kaiser Frank Joseph 1, on the battlefield at Solferino. Henceforth the “Hero of Solferino” is a label which travels with the Trotta family.
When it comes to his description of love stories, and dalliances, Boyd is rather old fashioned. I did like Cashel’s definition of love “to care more about the person you loved than you did about yourself” (444).
Two strong women become central to the story; Contessa Raphaella Rezzo; and widow Mrs Frances (Frannie) Broome. Both women are interesting but from their character descriptions, and their actions, it becomes difficult to differentiate between the two, who occupy different parts of the world, and the narrative. Boyd uses the description ‘cavaliere servante’ to describe Raphaella.
The Boyd reach means that you get several stories spliced into one. Renowned figures commune with Boyd protagonists, in this case Mary and Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and John Hanning Speke (of the search for the Nile). It’s a global book with action variously in Cork, Ireland; the Netherlands/Belgium; London; Ooty southern India; Kandy ‘Ceylon’; Ravenna Italy; Arles France; Willow Creek, near Boston USA; Kazeh in the Lake Regions of Central Africa.
I wonder if most of Boyd’s books are released in the months immediately preceding Christmas? This is a book, and an author, with something for everyone. It may not challenge the reader, but Boyd is a master of what he does.
October 12, 2022
Wandering through Africa wasn’t that much different, in a sense, from wandering through London, or Paris, or Boston. You thought the road ahead was obvious and well marked but more often than not the destination you had so clearly in mind would never be reached. Never. Things got in the way. There were diversions, problems, changes of mind, changes of heart…
Cashel Greville Ross, the hero of William Boyd’s new novel The Romantic, is a man who does plenty of wandering and whose path through life changes direction many times. Born in Ireland in 1799, he lives through some of the major events of the 19th century and becomes a soldier, a writer, a farmer and an explorer – though not all at the same time. He is present on the battlefield of Waterloo, befriends Byron and Shelley in Pisa and travels through Africa in search of the source of the Nile.
Cashel is not a real person, of course, although Boyd does his best to convince us that he is. The book is presented as a biography, complete with footnotes, pieced together from a bundle of letters, notes, maps and photographs which apparently fell into Boyd’s hands several years ago. It’s not a new idea, but it’s very cleverly done here and I can almost guarantee that you’ll be googling things to see if they’re true, even while knowing that they can’t possibly be!
The Romantic is a long novel, but I read most of it in one weekend because it was so gripping I couldn’t bear to put it down. Although the story never becomes bogged down with historical or geographical detail, it’s still completely immersive and I loved every minute I spent in Cashel’s world. His life story unfolds in a series of distinct episodes and I found each one equally compelling: his childhood in County Cork and the uncovering of family secrets; a journey across Italy in order to write a book about his travels; a moral dilemma faced in a Sri Lankan village while fighting with the Indian Army…these are just a few of Cashel’s adventures and there are many more which I’ll leave you to discover for yourself.
Cashel himself is a likeable character, but also a flawed one. As the title suggests, he’s hopelessly romantic; as a young man, his own proud and impulsive nature ruins his chance of happiness with the woman he loves and this sets the tone for the rest of the novel and the rest of his life, as he continually moves from country to country, continent to continent, unable to put this missed opportunity behind him and settle down. His naivety makes him vulnerable and he is repeatedly taken advantage of, suffering a series of injustices and at one point ending up in the Marshalsea Prison for debt, but he never seems to learn from his mistakes, falling into the same traps over and over again. It’s frustrating, but it’s also what kept me turning the pages, desperate to see how Cashel would get out of the latest predicament he had found himself in!
This is one of my books of the year without a doubt and I’m sorry that I’ve never read any William Boyd before.
Cashel Greville Ross, the hero of William Boyd’s new novel The Romantic, is a man who does plenty of wandering and whose path through life changes direction many times. Born in Ireland in 1799, he lives through some of the major events of the 19th century and becomes a soldier, a writer, a farmer and an explorer – though not all at the same time. He is present on the battlefield of Waterloo, befriends Byron and Shelley in Pisa and travels through Africa in search of the source of the Nile.
Cashel is not a real person, of course, although Boyd does his best to convince us that he is. The book is presented as a biography, complete with footnotes, pieced together from a bundle of letters, notes, maps and photographs which apparently fell into Boyd’s hands several years ago. It’s not a new idea, but it’s very cleverly done here and I can almost guarantee that you’ll be googling things to see if they’re true, even while knowing that they can’t possibly be!
The Romantic is a long novel, but I read most of it in one weekend because it was so gripping I couldn’t bear to put it down. Although the story never becomes bogged down with historical or geographical detail, it’s still completely immersive and I loved every minute I spent in Cashel’s world. His life story unfolds in a series of distinct episodes and I found each one equally compelling: his childhood in County Cork and the uncovering of family secrets; a journey across Italy in order to write a book about his travels; a moral dilemma faced in a Sri Lankan village while fighting with the Indian Army…these are just a few of Cashel’s adventures and there are many more which I’ll leave you to discover for yourself.
Cashel himself is a likeable character, but also a flawed one. As the title suggests, he’s hopelessly romantic; as a young man, his own proud and impulsive nature ruins his chance of happiness with the woman he loves and this sets the tone for the rest of the novel and the rest of his life, as he continually moves from country to country, continent to continent, unable to put this missed opportunity behind him and settle down. His naivety makes him vulnerable and he is repeatedly taken advantage of, suffering a series of injustices and at one point ending up in the Marshalsea Prison for debt, but he never seems to learn from his mistakes, falling into the same traps over and over again. It’s frustrating, but it’s also what kept me turning the pages, desperate to see how Cashel would get out of the latest predicament he had found himself in!
This is one of my books of the year without a doubt and I’m sorry that I’ve never read any William Boyd before.
November 2, 2022
A nice quick read following the varied life of Cashel Greville Ross from his birth in 1799 to his death. William Boyd has his character cover many miles in the course of his life: Ireland, Oxford, Waterloo, India, Ceylon, France, Italy, US, Cape Town, Zanzibar, East Africa, Trieste, Rhodes, Baden-Baden & Venice. Ross is an adventurer & indeed encounters Byron, the Shelleys, Richard Burton (explorer not actor) & is mistaken for Turgenev near the novel's end. However, I found Boyd's writing style somewhat flat & drab & in order to stretch to a long life, many of the adventures felt fleeting. It was also remarkable how gullible Ross was & just how many times he was a poor judge of character & how underwritten the female characters are. It's a nice enough historical novel to pass a few days, but instantly forgettable.
December 7, 2023
I suppose that because ‘Any Human Heart’ is my favourite Boyd novel it made perfect sense that I really enjoyed this- it’s basically ‘Any Human Heart’ but spanning the nineteenth century rather than the twentieth. A very extended kind of Bildungsroman, in which the historically ‘real’ is used to anchor the fictional. Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron come off as a real pair of wankers here … which is fun, and it’s nice that culturally important real-world figures and events become the secondary ephemera of our protagonist, Cashel’s life story.
I enjoy the dense-ness of this narrative; it echoes the common structure of much Victorian fiction. Similarly, the introduction draws upon eighteenth century traditions when it asserts that the implied author (Boyd) has historical manuscripts to verify the chronology of the story. One can never forget the magnificent artifice of Boyd’s ‘Nat Tate’ creation. It seems fitting that he is now playing with centuries old literary conventions to build a story that plays with the real and the imagined, the chronicled and the fictitious. Cashel may be neither quite as funny nor as fucked up as AHH’s Logan Mountstuart, but this is still a lovely story of one man’s life.
I enjoy the dense-ness of this narrative; it echoes the common structure of much Victorian fiction. Similarly, the introduction draws upon eighteenth century traditions when it asserts that the implied author (Boyd) has historical manuscripts to verify the chronology of the story. One can never forget the magnificent artifice of Boyd’s ‘Nat Tate’ creation. It seems fitting that he is now playing with centuries old literary conventions to build a story that plays with the real and the imagined, the chronicled and the fictitious. Cashel may be neither quite as funny nor as fucked up as AHH’s Logan Mountstuart, but this is still a lovely story of one man’s life.
April 6, 2023
William Boyd is a must-read author for me; I’ve enjoyed his novels, short stories and non-fiction for many years, but it’s his three ‘full-life’ novels (The New Confessions, Any Human Heart, and now, The Romantic) that I love most. Boyd’s effortless storytelling and sympathy for the ups and downs of a single life make these books his greatest achievement. The Romantic follows the life of Cashel Greville Ross, born in mysterious circumstances in 1799, through an incident-packed life (taking in, among other things, action at Waterloo, service in the Indian Army, friendship with Lord Byron and the Shelleys, several careers of varying success, time in a debtors’ prison, African exploration, several love affairs - although only one that is a lifelong passion, friendships, enmities and deadly rivalries), all in the most vividly described settings, and with a remarkable sense of historical context. The Romantic is an unmissable treat for readers who love a truly immersive novel.
February 24, 2024
William Boyd has a knack for this 'fictional biography' sort of writing, a sort of novel I'd never read before my book by Boyd, Any Human Heart. I loved The Romantic just as I did that one!
The story opens with our meeting Cashel Greville Ross, a wonderfully reactive young boy whose life we live alongside him with all of its adventures, ups, downs, loves lost and found, choices good and bad. And what a life it is! From London to the battle of Waterloo to Zanzibar (time period 1799 to roughly 1882) meeting the likes of author, Mary Shelley, her husband and Lord Byron. I was never bored and more often than not quite surprised by choices (some very impulsive) that our trusting Cashel made along the way. He has a heart of gold which sometimes can get us into trouble.
Another draw was Cashel's time spent in Boston; I loved reading of the days during the 1800's of Beacon Hill, Devonshire Street and so many other familiar areas of home. Just as wonderful were places I've never been throughout the world.
The story captivated me right from the beginning; I did find it to get a bit cumbersome towards the latter 3/4 of the book, but not for long. It picked right back up and captivated me again up until the end.
It's a book of love and friendship, loyalties and betrayals. I loved most of the connections and characters that Cashel had throughout his life. It all felt so real, the character development is wonderful, and the way the book really came full circle at the end was something I really appreciated.
The story opens with our meeting Cashel Greville Ross, a wonderfully reactive young boy whose life we live alongside him with all of its adventures, ups, downs, loves lost and found, choices good and bad. And what a life it is! From London to the battle of Waterloo to Zanzibar (time period 1799 to roughly 1882) meeting the likes of author, Mary Shelley, her husband and Lord Byron. I was never bored and more often than not quite surprised by choices (some very impulsive) that our trusting Cashel made along the way. He has a heart of gold which sometimes can get us into trouble.
Another draw was Cashel's time spent in Boston; I loved reading of the days during the 1800's of Beacon Hill, Devonshire Street and so many other familiar areas of home. Just as wonderful were places I've never been throughout the world.
The story captivated me right from the beginning; I did find it to get a bit cumbersome towards the latter 3/4 of the book, but not for long. It picked right back up and captivated me again up until the end.
It's a book of love and friendship, loyalties and betrayals. I loved most of the connections and characters that Cashel had throughout his life. It all felt so real, the character development is wonderful, and the way the book really came full circle at the end was something I really appreciated.
August 22, 2022
William Boyd is in familiar territory as he relates the long life of the good hearted and well meaning Cashel Greville Ross, lived through the extraordinary changes and turbulence of the 19th century. As Cashel is to recognise later on in life there are patterns that mark his personal history, such as following the romantic path of life, of adventures and love, adaptable, entirely comfortable with moving on, whilst leaving his family and loved ones behind. Through a life of challenges, of fortune and misfortune, he travels around the world, including Europe, India, Ceylon, Massachusetts in America, and Africa. It begins with him growing up in County Cork in Ireland, then living in Oxford with his 'Aunt', governess Elspeth Souter, the birth of his chalk and cheese twin brothers, Hogan and Buckley. The contents of a Pandora's box of a locked drawer is to reveal truths about himself that have him reeling as he runs away to become a drummer boy and a soldier who ends up injured at the Battle of Waterloo, an experience that will go on to open doors for him later on.
He is to become a commissioned army officer in the East India Company in Madras, but taking a moral stand in Ceylon has him return to explore Europe, and to write about his travels. In Pisa and Lerici, he meets and gets to know Mary and Percy Shelley, Lord 'Albe' Byron and Claire Clairemont, becoming privy to the tangle of intrigue and rivalries within the group. He encounters the love of his life in Ravenna, unavailable, a passionate love which will endure, despite barely seeing each other through the years once he leaves Italy. Whilst becoming a successful author, he is swindled by his publisher, which lands him in debtor's prison, only to embark on a new life in America on release, then go on a expedition to find the source of the Nile, there he meets Richard Burton. He is to get caught up in a Greek antiquities scandal as the Nicaraguan Consul in Trieste, this puts hims in such danger that he goes in hiding in Venice.
Cashel lives a remarkable life across the century as a soldier, a lover, a prisoner, a farmer, a family man and father, explorer, addict and consul, with some constant figures in his life, such as his brothers, Ben Smart, and later Burton himself. He is haunted by his one true love, although given the nature of his character, it perhaps survived because it never had to endure the ordinary every day pressures of marriage and family. Boyd writes a gripping story with wit and charm, vibrant and richly descriptive, with a charismatic central protagonist in Cashel, far from perfect, having to deal with the dramas of the ups and downs that occur, accompanied by his able, loyal and faithful servant, Ignatz. I recommend this to fans of William Boyd and those readers interested in the human story of a thrilling and adventurous life lived across this historical period. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
He is to become a commissioned army officer in the East India Company in Madras, but taking a moral stand in Ceylon has him return to explore Europe, and to write about his travels. In Pisa and Lerici, he meets and gets to know Mary and Percy Shelley, Lord 'Albe' Byron and Claire Clairemont, becoming privy to the tangle of intrigue and rivalries within the group. He encounters the love of his life in Ravenna, unavailable, a passionate love which will endure, despite barely seeing each other through the years once he leaves Italy. Whilst becoming a successful author, he is swindled by his publisher, which lands him in debtor's prison, only to embark on a new life in America on release, then go on a expedition to find the source of the Nile, there he meets Richard Burton. He is to get caught up in a Greek antiquities scandal as the Nicaraguan Consul in Trieste, this puts hims in such danger that he goes in hiding in Venice.
Cashel lives a remarkable life across the century as a soldier, a lover, a prisoner, a farmer, a family man and father, explorer, addict and consul, with some constant figures in his life, such as his brothers, Ben Smart, and later Burton himself. He is haunted by his one true love, although given the nature of his character, it perhaps survived because it never had to endure the ordinary every day pressures of marriage and family. Boyd writes a gripping story with wit and charm, vibrant and richly descriptive, with a charismatic central protagonist in Cashel, far from perfect, having to deal with the dramas of the ups and downs that occur, accompanied by his able, loyal and faithful servant, Ignatz. I recommend this to fans of William Boyd and those readers interested in the human story of a thrilling and adventurous life lived across this historical period. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
October 4, 2022
The first William Boyd book that I read - and still my favourite - was Any Human Heart, which was the autobiography of Logan Montstuart, a fictional character whose life unfolded over - and reflected the events of - much of the 20th century. (Later he revisited this concept with Sweet Caress). The Romantic has a similar premise but a different timeframe: it focuses on Cashel Ross, who is born in 1799 and lives until the 1880s. I've been going through something of a reading slump lately and this was absolutely the book to get me out of it. I tore through it in two days and while it's not quite as masterful as Any Human Heart, it is very, very good.
Cashel's life begins in County Cork, Ireland. He lives with his aunt who works for the local landowner. Later when he and his aunt move to England he gradually comes to understand that his upbringing wasn't quite what he thought and this prompts him to leave home early and join the army. From here his life is a series of non-stop adventures: he is a soldier in Waterloo and India, a farmer in the US, a smuggler in Trieste, an explorer in East Africa, a prisoner in the Marshalsea in London, a writer who befriends Byron and Shelley. He is a man who follows his gut instinct wherever it takes him and who never gets over his first great love. At times I thought things were going to take a different direction and if anything it highlights the way that impulsive decisions shape your life and that there are always multiple ways that things could unspool.
It's terrifically entertaining. I received an ARC from Net Galley (thank you Penguin) but this is a book that I will be buying to keep.
Cashel's life begins in County Cork, Ireland. He lives with his aunt who works for the local landowner. Later when he and his aunt move to England he gradually comes to understand that his upbringing wasn't quite what he thought and this prompts him to leave home early and join the army. From here his life is a series of non-stop adventures: he is a soldier in Waterloo and India, a farmer in the US, a smuggler in Trieste, an explorer in East Africa, a prisoner in the Marshalsea in London, a writer who befriends Byron and Shelley. He is a man who follows his gut instinct wherever it takes him and who never gets over his first great love. At times I thought things were going to take a different direction and if anything it highlights the way that impulsive decisions shape your life and that there are always multiple ways that things could unspool.
It's terrifically entertaining. I received an ARC from Net Galley (thank you Penguin) but this is a book that I will be buying to keep.
October 11, 2022
Ok, so don't call me out because i actually didn't finish this book, i simply couldn't. I don't actually know how anybody managed to get through this turgid piece of onanism (onanism, and revelling in the act, is a grand theme of this novel which is fitting for this self-indulgent piece of nonsense)
also pls don't call me out for reading and loving Knausgaard who, yes I know, could be accused of doing the same things I am about to lambast Boyd for here, but I love Knausgaard's writing, for his generous, beautiful way of transforming the mundane into magic, and I do not love this one bit, so sue me, what are you gonna do about it.
this is a man's book, about a man, and primarily about a man's concern about what a man can leave behind in the world.
who will remember me? what is left? where do i go when i die? it whines incessantly.
DON'T LET ME DISAPPEAR...WHAT ABOUT MY LIFE AS A MAN? this novel asks
and i truly could not care less. this is the book equivalent of a man compulsively having babies in order to replicate himself and ensure endless survival. are women as concerned with posterity, with making/leaving their mark in this desperate craven way? I don't think so, I think it's just men that have this need to stamp their stubby hands over everything and i don't have time for it.
also pls don't call me out for reading and loving Knausgaard who, yes I know, could be accused of doing the same things I am about to lambast Boyd for here, but I love Knausgaard's writing, for his generous, beautiful way of transforming the mundane into magic, and I do not love this one bit, so sue me, what are you gonna do about it.
this is a man's book, about a man, and primarily about a man's concern about what a man can leave behind in the world.
who will remember me? what is left? where do i go when i die? it whines incessantly.
DON'T LET ME DISAPPEAR...WHAT ABOUT MY LIFE AS A MAN? this novel asks
and i truly could not care less. this is the book equivalent of a man compulsively having babies in order to replicate himself and ensure endless survival. are women as concerned with posterity, with making/leaving their mark in this desperate craven way? I don't think so, I think it's just men that have this need to stamp their stubby hands over everything and i don't have time for it.
November 21, 2022
Lovers of William Boyd at his best will love this. I'm among them.
July 12, 2023
Epic, but not an easy read in places.
January 26, 2024
Really enjoyed this, best book i've read in a while
February 3, 2023
READ FOR BBC AUDIOBOOK - NOTES WRITTEN FOR INTERVIEW
4 stars
• Characters
o Told in a first person, fictional autobiography style which did create a greater link between the character and reader
o Quite a frustrating character – constantly making impetuous and rash decisions which makes sense in the first half of the book as he is much younger, but becomes more frustrating as he gets older and keeps making the same mistakes over and over again.
o Often felt that he was an unlikeable character – he did have some redeeming features/moments, but particularly his relationships with women, and times when you knew he was being an idiot it was difficult to like him.
o The pivotal moment of his life was meeting the woman who almost became an obsession for him. I didn’t actually ever feel that she ever loved him with the same devotion, which may have been the intention by the author. I never believed that, even if the stars had aligned, that she would actually have married him. She was a far more pragmatic character, who wanted a life of luxury and was always going to marry a man who would give her that. And yet the consequences of their affair determined the rest of his life, and in how he treated other women.
o Overall he was a well crafted character with many flaws, but I did feel an emotional connection to him and was invested in his story.
• Atmosphere
o I did feel grounded in the time period, as the author dripped in small pieces of research about day to day living as well as the larger scale landscape (ie using chamberpot, clothing, the start of electric lights and elevators etc)
• Writing
o The writing felt seamless and natural – as this is a ‘travel log’ style story there were large descriptive sections talking about the countries that he was visiting.
o You could tell that the writer did a lot of research into the time period and also people living in different countries during this time.
• Plot
o Basically a travel guide for the 19th century gentleman
o Witness to history – looking at different crucial historical events including the Battle of Waterloo, the East India Company and colonialism, immigration to the US (particularly from Ireland), the fascination of East Africa and the missionaries, the advancement of technological advancements including the railway and electricity
o I definitely enjoyed the first half more than the latter – I enjoyed seeing the younger years but it almost became more repetitive as the character made a mistake, saw the consequences, made another mistake, more consequences …and so on
o Interesting decision to include actual historical figures, including Byron, the Shelleys and John Speke (with mentions of Livingstone) – ensured that the reader felt even more grounded in the time period.
o Touched on particular themes around colonialism, particularly in Sri Lanka and Zanzibar. There was a horrific scene in Sri Lanka which was pertinent to understanding the British mentality towards the people in those countries.
• Enjoyment
o Overall I did enjoy this book, although it did diminish towards the second part as I became increasing more frustrated.
o Believe that this will be a long-lasting read, in that the story will stay with me over time
• Audiobook
o Great narrative experience – due to the travel log style this was a perfect book to listen to as it really lent a great deal to the setting.
o Also as this is a fictional autobiography it was almost like listening to the narrator discussing their own life, which helped to develop the connection to the character.
4 stars
• Characters
o Told in a first person, fictional autobiography style which did create a greater link between the character and reader
o Quite a frustrating character – constantly making impetuous and rash decisions which makes sense in the first half of the book as he is much younger, but becomes more frustrating as he gets older and keeps making the same mistakes over and over again.
o Often felt that he was an unlikeable character – he did have some redeeming features/moments, but particularly his relationships with women, and times when you knew he was being an idiot it was difficult to like him.
o The pivotal moment of his life was meeting the woman who almost became an obsession for him. I didn’t actually ever feel that she ever loved him with the same devotion, which may have been the intention by the author. I never believed that, even if the stars had aligned, that she would actually have married him. She was a far more pragmatic character, who wanted a life of luxury and was always going to marry a man who would give her that. And yet the consequences of their affair determined the rest of his life, and in how he treated other women.
o Overall he was a well crafted character with many flaws, but I did feel an emotional connection to him and was invested in his story.
• Atmosphere
o I did feel grounded in the time period, as the author dripped in small pieces of research about day to day living as well as the larger scale landscape (ie using chamberpot, clothing, the start of electric lights and elevators etc)
• Writing
o The writing felt seamless and natural – as this is a ‘travel log’ style story there were large descriptive sections talking about the countries that he was visiting.
o You could tell that the writer did a lot of research into the time period and also people living in different countries during this time.
• Plot
o Basically a travel guide for the 19th century gentleman
o Witness to history – looking at different crucial historical events including the Battle of Waterloo, the East India Company and colonialism, immigration to the US (particularly from Ireland), the fascination of East Africa and the missionaries, the advancement of technological advancements including the railway and electricity
o I definitely enjoyed the first half more than the latter – I enjoyed seeing the younger years but it almost became more repetitive as the character made a mistake, saw the consequences, made another mistake, more consequences …and so on
o Interesting decision to include actual historical figures, including Byron, the Shelleys and John Speke (with mentions of Livingstone) – ensured that the reader felt even more grounded in the time period.
o Touched on particular themes around colonialism, particularly in Sri Lanka and Zanzibar. There was a horrific scene in Sri Lanka which was pertinent to understanding the British mentality towards the people in those countries.
• Enjoyment
o Overall I did enjoy this book, although it did diminish towards the second part as I became increasing more frustrated.
o Believe that this will be a long-lasting read, in that the story will stay with me over time
• Audiobook
o Great narrative experience – due to the travel log style this was a perfect book to listen to as it really lent a great deal to the setting.
o Also as this is a fictional autobiography it was almost like listening to the narrator discussing their own life, which helped to develop the connection to the character.
September 9, 2023
I am yet to read a William Boyd that disappoints.
January 23, 2023
The second of William Boyd's 'whole life' works I have read, following on from Any Human Heart, which is one of the best books I've read in recent years.
Is this as good? Not quite, but it is still very good indeed.
Being incredibly pernickety, parts of Ross's life perhaps felt a bit rushed and gave the feeling Boyd might have been wanting to canter through to the end a little too quickly. But that probably is just me looking for a fault, thinking there must be something that could have been better.
As i finished the book, I found myself thinking at first that the end - Ross's death - felt a tad underwhelming. On reflection, though, I think the manner and location of his demise were really appropriate, reflecting the nature of his life, somewhat rootless and geographically random. It was right that he went that way.
I suspect am also probably comparing it unfairly to the end of Logan Mountstuart in Any Human Heart (which I found really moving and actually left me a bit teary).
The 'whole life' novel has become Boyd's 'thing', and of course, there is bound to be a degree of 'sameness' to the books as a result, but the fact is the format is very enjoyable - the stories have a clear trajectory, you (obviously) know how they are going to end, and the feeling of rubbernecking at someone else's life pulls you in very quickly (I finished this book much quicker than I do most books).
Boyd is also very good at developing the backing track of the march of time in these novels - in The Romantic we get Waterloo, Byron and Shelley, the introduction of the railways and the growing ease of travel, the East India Company and the British empire, the end of slavery, electricity, opium addiction and so on.
I ummed and aahed on whether to give four or five stars, but have opted for five. Highly recommended.
Is this as good? Not quite, but it is still very good indeed.
Being incredibly pernickety, parts of Ross's life perhaps felt a bit rushed and gave the feeling Boyd might have been wanting to canter through to the end a little too quickly. But that probably is just me looking for a fault, thinking there must be something that could have been better.
As i finished the book, I found myself thinking at first that the end - Ross's death - felt a tad underwhelming. On reflection, though, I think the manner and location of his demise were really appropriate, reflecting the nature of his life, somewhat rootless and geographically random. It was right that he went that way.
I suspect am also probably comparing it unfairly to the end of Logan Mountstuart in Any Human Heart (which I found really moving and actually left me a bit teary).
The 'whole life' novel has become Boyd's 'thing', and of course, there is bound to be a degree of 'sameness' to the books as a result, but the fact is the format is very enjoyable - the stories have a clear trajectory, you (obviously) know how they are going to end, and the feeling of rubbernecking at someone else's life pulls you in very quickly (I finished this book much quicker than I do most books).
Boyd is also very good at developing the backing track of the march of time in these novels - in The Romantic we get Waterloo, Byron and Shelley, the introduction of the railways and the growing ease of travel, the East India Company and the British empire, the end of slavery, electricity, opium addiction and so on.
I ummed and aahed on whether to give four or five stars, but have opted for five. Highly recommended.
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