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

Terrible narrator. Either that or the punctuation was rubbish. Shame. I finished it but towards the end my patience with the halting narration was stretched.