Lorna Doone [antikvár]

Introduction Loma Doom, A Romance of Exmoor is an historical novel set in the South West of England during the seventeenth century at the turbulent time of the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth (1685) when the duke, an illegitimate son of Charles II and pretender to the English throne, landed in Dorset to lead a revolt by supporters of the Protestant succession and was proclaimed king. Monmouth's army was soon defeated by forces loyal to the (Catholic) King James II, and Monmouth was captured and beheaded. The hero and frequently self-deprecating narrator of the book is the unsophisticated farmer John Ridd of the idyllically rural Plover's Barrows who, as a boy, falls into the hands of the Doones, an aristocratic but parasitic outlaw clan. His life is saved by the beautiful and spirited child, Loma Doone. On becoming a man, John sets out to find Loma, even though he is a sworn enemy of the Doones and of Carver, the cowardly murderer of his father. Eventually, John discovers the secret of Lorna's true parentage and how she came to be in the company of the Doones, and they marry in a love-match of aristocratic bride and hard-working self-advanced bridegroom - a formula much approved of in Victorian England. Other notable characters in the book are the loveable outlaw Tom Faggus, who seeks the hand of John's adored sister Annie, and the rotten aristocrat and ally of the Doones the Marwood of Whichehalse, who John frequently trounces in combat, but to whom he resolutely refuses to deliver the coup de grâce. A love story of high adventure, Loma Doone has remained continuously in print and perennially popular with a wide readership, both young and adult, for the century-and-a-quarter since its first publication. Blackmore's writing has been