The Romantic

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The Romantic

By: William Boyd

Narrated by: Kobna Holbrook-Smith

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

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.

20th Century

Genre Fiction

Historical

Historical Fiction

Literary Fiction

Literature & Fiction

Romance

Fiction

Comedy

Heartfelt

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Critic reviews

"The Romantic by William Boyd was the novel I enjoyed most this year. It's incredibly ambitious, its hero moving from Co Cork to London, then from Waterloo to Zanzibar, and at one point even joining the East Indian Army, but it was such an easy, indulgent read." (Sathnam Sanghera)

"[One of the] most enjoyable new novels I read this year...it] offers deep pleasure to those who love novels, instruction to anyone setting out to write one." (Allan Massie)

"William Boyd's The Romantic is disguised a an historical biography - The Real Life of Cashel Greville Ross - but is actually an utterly engrossing adventure story...Cashel, we understand, is searching for himself, but in the process he provides romance, entertainment and enlightenment for his readers. How better to spend the relaxed days around Xmas than following his footsteps." (Antonia Fraser)

Most relevant

Boyd excels in his ability to maintain a narrative; never better than when the back-bone is the life of an individual. So it is here with the life of Cashel Greville Ross. This is a novel of adventures, incidents, glories and disappointments. So much doing in one person’s life. There is a question that haunts the listener (or reader) in how far to rely on the main character’s views and interpretation of events. He is certainly a character that is prone and likely to follow his heart, not necessarily to his benefit or credit. But this is not a novel about a ‘hero’, but a man that is energetic, passionate, adventurous, and fallible. There is significant room to wonder about other people’s motives. The narratives pulls like a train. This is also a novel where the main character finds himself in significant events in history, or in the company of several famous people. The closing pages of this novel, then, do pose the general question that Boyd raises himself, “What do we leave behind us when we die?” Our hearts go out to Cashel Greville Ross and there is a something of a chill which might cause the listener’s own introspection. Can a life well lived, following the heart be adequate substitute to a known legacy? Character and narrative with Boyd are well honed and there will be no concerns in this novel. As often the case, Boyd may use a word or phrase that makes you wonder or to look it up. All to the good. The performance of this audio-book by Kobna Holbrook-Smith I wonderful, sympathetic, touching and so good. When some performers make a hash of deal with foreign pronunciations, here there is simple wonder as to how he achieves such confident authenticity. One of the several benefits from keeping to hand the hard-copy or electronic version of a book when listening to an audio-book is being able to glance back, or to see something that the audio-book omits. Sometimes the omission deprives the listener of that they might have wanted to hear. So is the case with ‘The Romantic’. The audio-book does not include the ‘author’s note of the hard-copy I had to hand and this is a loss. None the less, a wonderful book that with engage, maintain the listener's attention and intrigue. Try it.

“What do we leave behind us when we die?”