Books with title Lorna Doone

With an Introduction by Dr Pamela Knights, Department of English Studies, Durham University This is the only critical edition of this perennially popular story. Sally Shuttleworth's introduction finds, beneath the idyllic evocation of rural bliss and a tale of love and high adventure, a startling sub-text which rigidly defends Victorian values, and portrays a `manly' hero constantly having to prove his masculinity to himself.

This classic novel of farmers, outlaws, and forbidden romance beautifully evokes seventeenth-century rural life in England’s West Country.Amidst the social and religious upheaval of seventeenth-century England, the once-noble Doone family has been transformed. Now a notorious clan of outlaws, the Doones show their victims no mercy—a lesson the yeoman John Ridd learns when they murder his father. Though he longs for revenge, John must continue to provide for his mother and sister. But his life as a respectable, peace-loving farmer is turned on its head when he meets the beautiful Lorna Doone. As a member of the Doone clan, Lorna is John’s sworn enemy. Yet he cannot help loving her. In a desperate act to save her from her own family, John must risk everything—and finally confront his past in a way that will change both his and Lorna’s lives forever. First published in 1869, R. D. Blackmore’s timeless tale of star-crossed lovers combines vivid depictions of early modern England with a dramatic narrative that culminates in tragic violence.

First published in 1869, Lorna Doone is the story of John Ridd, a farmer who finds love amid the religious and social turmoil of seventeenth-century England. He is just a boy when his father is slain by the Doones, a lawless clan inhabiting wild Exmoor on the border of Somerset and Devon. Seized by curiosity and a sense of adventure, he makes his way to the valley of the Doones, where he is discovered by the beautiful Lorna. In time their childish fantasies blossom into mature love—a bond that will inspire John to rescue his beloved from the ravages of a stormy winter, rekindling a conflict with his archrival, Carver Doone, that climaxes in heartrending violence. Beloved for its portrait of star-crossed lovers and its surpassing descriptions of the English countryside, Lorna Doone is R. D. Blackmore’s enduring masterpiece.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

The story of Lorna Doone is set in the 17th century in England. John Ridd is the son of a respectable farmer who was murdered in cold blood by one of the notorious Doone clan, a once noble family, now outlaws, in the isolated Doone Valley. Battling his desire for revenge, John also grows into a respectable farmer and takes good care of his mother and two sisters. He falls hopelessly in love with Lorna, a girl he meets by accident, who turns out to be not only the granddaughter of Sir Ensor Doone (lord of the Doones), but destined to marry the impetuous, menacing, and now jealous heir of the Doone Valley, Carver Doone.

If anybody cares to read a simple tale told simply, I, John Ridd, of the parish of Oare, in the county of Somerset, yeoman and churchwarden, have seen and had a share in some doings of this neighborhood, which I will try to set down in order, God sparing my life and memory. And they who light upon this book should bear in mind not only that I write for the clearing of our parish from ill fame and calumny, but also a thing which will, I trow, appear too often in it, to wit—that I am nothing more than a plain unlettered man, not read in foreign languages, as a gentleman might be, nor gifted with long words (even in mine own tongue), save what I may have won from the Bible or Master William Shakespeare, whom, in the face of common opinion, I do value highly. In short, I am an ignoramus, but pretty well for a yeoman.My father being of good substance, at least as we reckon in Exmoor, and seized in his own right, from many generations, of one, and that the best and largest, of the three farms into which our parish is divided (or rather the cultured part thereof), he John Ridd, the elder, churchwarden, and overseer, being a great admirer of learning, and well able to write his name, sent me his only son to be schooled at Tiverton, in the county of Devon. For the chief boast of that ancient town (next to its woollen staple) is a worthy grammar-school, the largest in the west of England, founded and handsomely endowed in the year 1604 by Master Peter Blundell, of that same place, clothier.Here, by the time I was twelve years old, I had risen into the upper school, and could make bold with Eutropius and Caesar—by aid of an English version—and as much as six lines of Ovid. Some even said that I might, before manhood, rise almost to the third form, being of a perservering nature; albeit, by full consent of all (except my mother), thick-headed. But that would have been, as I now perceive, an ambition beyond a farmer's son; for there is but one form above it, and that made of masterful scholars, entitled rightly 'monitors'. So it came to pass, by the grace of God, that I was called away from learning, whilst sitting at the desk of the junior first in the upper school, and beginning the Greek verb.- Taken from "Lorna Doone" written by R. D. Blackmore

John Ridd, a farmer, is desperately in love with Lorna, a member of the Doone clan betrothed to the clan heir, Carver Doone. Ridd helps Lorna evade Carver’s clutches, but the revelation of her true birthright takes her far from Exmoor, and John, to the city of London.Part romance and part pastoral novel, Richard Doddridge Blackmore’s Lorna Doone incorporated real events and places of the author’s experience. The novel has been adapted multiple times for film and television. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.