St. Ronan's Well [Hardcover]

NOTE: The "Saint" in SAINT RONAN'S WELL is usually, but not always, abbreviated to "St." in printed book titles. In searching amazon.com ST. RONAN'S WELL produces many hits, SAINT RONAN'S WELL very few. END NOTE.

Sir Walter Scott wrote a famous Introduction to his 1823 novel SAINT RONAN'S WELL. In it he describes the novel as "light literature." It follows "a plan different from any other that the Author has ever written."

What is so different? SAINT RONAN'S WELL is not historical in the way IVANHOE, QUENTIN DURWARD and even WAVERLEY are. These are historical in that Scott, father of the historical novel genre, had to rely entirely on reading and research for the romances farthest back in time, while for the more recent settings prior to SAINT RONAN'S WELL he could flesh out printed records with boyhood recollections of tales told him by very old men who had been active in the "risings" of 1715 and 1745.

SAINT RONAN'S WELL, by contrast, is set in Scott's own lifetime and draws on his own experiences at many country inns in Scotland and at some spas built around healing waters. The novel is set in Sir Walter's own mid-life time and is almost entirely detached from the great events of England's struggle with Napoleon.

The Wizard of the North clearly found it a relief not to have to portray accurately in a work of fiction greats of history such as Mary Queen of Scots, Saladin, Richard the Lion Heart and Bonnie Prince Charlie. Sir Walter is conscious that he is invading a genre of novel hitherto the province of perceptive ladies such as Jane Austen. All his characters are make believe. And he shapes them lovingly and memorably.

The time is summer and autumn sometime before 1815. The place is southern Scotland at a reasonably fashionable hotel very recently built thanks to the interest of an officious Lady in its nearby healing waters associated with Saint Ronan in former Roman Catholic days.

The plot is driven by two marriages a third of a century earlier by a titled Englishman, one in France, not publicized, to a titled Frenchwoman, a second later in England to a titled Englishwoman. Both unions produced sons. Both marriages ended with the death of the husband. In other words the second marriage was bigamous and its offspring illegitimate.

Trouble is that the second son inherited his father's title. As life ended, the father regretted his deception and sent the first son, Francis (Frank) Tyrrel, proof of his legitmacy. Both Frank and half-brother, Valentine Bulmer, Lord Etherington, arrive in the vicinity of Saint Ronan's village, spa and waters with their eyes out for nubile (or is she?) Miss Clara Mowbray, the ward of her impoverished noble, hothead brother John.

Does one brother get the girl? Does the Earl keep his title? The tale is avoidably tragic and I will reveal no spoilers. There are many comic characters and interludes, an absent-minded, vastly learned but kindly Presbyterian minister, a domestic spy close to Lord Etherington, a canny, unforgettable innkeeper, Meg Dods, and a cast of silly men and women who frequent the new hotel associated with the healing waters.

Keep your eye on Mr Touchwood, an immensely wealthy nabob who had once met and befriended Frank Tyrrel in Smyrna (Turkey). Several people's hells are paved with Touchwood's good intentions. -OOO-

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