El siglo XIX digerido y puesto en bandeja para todo tipo de lector. Si te suenan personajes como Livingston, Dickens, Byron, Shelley y muchos otros, todos desfilan por sus páginas porque el protagonista, Cashel Greville Ross, está metido en todos los fregados importantes del siglo, empezando por la batalla de Waterloo. Y cómo se mueve el condenado: desde una hacienda en Irlanda a Oxford, Venecia, Pisa, Rávena, Boston, ndia, Zanzíbar, las cataratas Victoria, Londres, Trieste y un sinfín de lugare...

"I mean, we have to accept the lives we’ve lived. Not imagine lives we might have lived." This is not the first time William Boyd has written a 'cradle-to-grave' novel - Any Human Heart was a rollicking tale of a fictional man of letters named Logan Mountstuart, which took in many of the important events of the 20th century. The Romantic examines the fortunes of a very different kind of character, an adventurer by the name of Cashel Greville Ross.Ross is initially raised in Ireland by an aunt...

I was a little disappointed in this book. It's described in the preface as a novel based on the true story of a late eighteenth/early nineteenth century adventurer, Cashel Greville Ross. He certainly led an interesting life, traveling the world, managing to get into a few scrapes and rising up the ladder of success only to fall back down a few rungs.My gripe is the lack of depth in terms of the writing. As this is a fictional account, there was enough leeway for the author to show a bit more emo...

R(possibly)TC

Romanticism in its pure quintessential form: “Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!Bird thou never wert,That from Heaven, or near it,Pourest thy full heartIn profuse strains of unpremeditated art.”Percy Bysshe Shelley – To a SkylarkOn the plot side The Romantic is smartly stylized to the Victorian novel but it is written the modern explicit manner.The hero of the novel spends his early childhood in Ireland and his birth is surrounded with mystery… Now he is in England and goes to school there… He runs aw...

William Boyd on top form, returning to the epic biographical fiction he has written so well in the past. The life of Cashel spanning 80 years in the 19th Century tales in both real and fictional drama, woven together expertly.

The fictional biography is my favourite genre. I suppose that's why I somewhat surprisingly enjoyed reading Daniel Defoe. And it's good to see the genre is now getting some popular traction; The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a whole life novel. But the first modern example I read was Boyd's Any Human Heart, a book which must be in my lifetime top ten. If I hadn't been so excited about Boyd writing another, set this time in the 19th century, I wouldn't be so disappointed now.This is a perfectl...

A longtime fan of William Boyd's novels and this one didn't disappoint. . A fictional autobiography centered around the likeable character Cashew Greville Ross and how his life links through to historical events of the 19th century. Well written, wonderful story and interesting characters throughout. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance readers copy

Well that's more like a William Boyd. Or rather, the sort of Boyd that I enjoy. I've been disappointed with some of his more recent books but this takes me back to wonderful saga style that he is so brilliant at. In The Romantic we follow the life of Cashel Greville Ross who, you might be forgiven for thinking, was a real person, such is the mastery of Boyd's work. Ross begins life ignominiously enough but he makes the most of the opportunities that come his way. Although I can't help thinking t...

Cashel Greville Ross was born somewhere in Scotland on 14th December 1799, the same day George Washington died. He was to be relocated to County Cork, Ireland, not long into his life and, in due course, learned of a tragedy that had befallen his parents at that time. The story - a fictional autobiography - picks up his life from this point and follows it all the way through. And what a life it is. If I felt I’d trodden this path with Boyd before then that’s because I have: Any Human Heart and Th...