Rogue Herries (The Herries Chronicle) [Paperback]

Hugh Walpole (Author), Eric Robson (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 22, 2011 | Series: The Herries Chronicle

Described on its first publication by John Buchan as the finest English novel since Jude the Obscure, Rogue Herries tells the story of the larger than life Francis Herries who uproots his family from Yorkshire and brings them to live in Borrowdale where their life is as dramatic as the landscape surrounding them. Proud, violent and impetuous he despises his first wife, sells his mistress at a county fair and forms a great love for the teenage gypsy Mirabell Starr. Alongside this turbulent story, runs that of his son David, with enemies of his own, and that of his gentle daughter Deborah with placid dreams that will not be realised in her father's house.

'As a feat both of knowledge and imagination the book is huge' Observer
'A superb work of fiction. There is not one tired listless page' J.B. Priestly The Graphic

Editorial Reviews

Review

Modern readers will empathise with the Herries' deep passion for their 'beloved' Fells, their sometimes gloomy and dangerous characters and breathtaking views. Cumberland News Fiction in glorious, sweeping measure, set against wild and beautiful scenery and crowded with fairs, balls, weddings, duels, witches, abductions, murder and romance. For those that haven't yet read Hugh Walpole there is a treat in store for you. Surely a welcome Christmas gift? Keswick Reminder Walpole's hamfisted, messy and eccentric attempt at the Great Lakeland Novel still deserves to be read. The episodes - by turns gracelessly ornate and bleakly brilliant - remain strangely enthralling and memorable, their self-indulgence a guilty pleasure for the reader too. In the Herries novels, Walpole confessed, he had allowed himself to be, for the first time in his adult life, "what I really am - a little boy telling stories in the dormitory". Times Literary Supplement

From the Back Cover

The first volume of The Herries Chronicle, which recounts the dramatic fortunes of one family from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century, in a magnificent Lake District setting. Here is fiction in glorious, sweeping measure, set against wild and beautiful scenery and crowded with fairs, balls, weddings, duels, witches, abductions, murder and romance.

Rogue Herries tells the story of the larger than life Francis Herries who uproots his family from Yorkshire and brings them to live in Borrowdale where their life is as dramatic as the landscape surrounding them. Proud, violent and impetuous, he despises his first wife, sells his mistress at a county fair and forms a great love for the teenage gypsy Mirabell Starr. Alongside this turbulent story runs that of his son David, with enemies of his own, and that of his gentle daughter Deborah, with placid dreams that will not be realised in her father's house.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 768 pages
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln; 1 edition (November 22, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0711228892
• ISBN-13: 978-0711228894
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.9 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,761,304 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Love Story Set in England's Lake District in 18th-19th Cent., January 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Rogue Herries (Hardcover)

The Herries clan is covered by Walpole, focusing on Francis Herries, who has mood swings which one would treat with drugs today, but was let loose on the Lake District in the late 1700's. His estate, family, trials and tribulations make for an interesting novel.

This was the first Walpole book I read, mostly because "Rogue Herries" was mentioned in Monty Python's Cheese Shop sketch. I was very happy with my decision to pick up the novel, however, as it made for an interesting period study of a desolate region of England. This is one of Walpole's series of novels featuring the Herries family.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rogue Herries, May 2, 2006

By 

Bomojaz (South Central PA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rogue Herries (Paperback)

This is the first volume in a series of four tracing the fictional Herries family over the period of time between the 18th and the 20th centuries. Francis Herries, called Rogue because of his wild behavior, brings his son David, his wife Margaret, and his mistress Alice Press (who is actually the family's governess) from London to the long-abandoned family estate in Cumberland County, England. Having married out of pity more than love and now growing tired of the demanding Alice, Herries lives a life of dissipation. Margaret dies, his children grow up and marry, and then he is introduced to Mirabell Starr, a beautiful woman who is living with gypsy thieves. They marry, but she is, ironically, as wild as the young Rogue Herries was, and she leaves him. He spends years searching Europe for her, and finally finds her and convinces her to return with him. She becomes pregnant and both she and Francis die on the day she delivers their newborn daughter. Walpole's high Romance is handsomely developed and he writes with great energy and imagination. The opening chapter captures the reader's interest completely, and the scene in which Herries is brought to Mirabell by the thieves is very good. It's the best of the Herries novels, and one of Walpole's most solid creations.