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![Outlander: A Novel (Outlander, Book 1) by [Diana Gabaldon]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51PrW27sXWL._SY346_.jpg)
Outlander: A Novel (Outlander, Book 1) Kindle Edition
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Unrivaled storytelling. Unforgettable characters. Rich historical detail. These are the hallmarks of Diana Gabaldon’s work. Her New York Times bestselling Outlander novels have earned the praise of critics and captured the hearts of millions of fans. Here is the story that started it all, introducing two remarkable characters, Claire Beauchamp Randall and Jamie Fraser, in a spellbinding novel of passion and history that combines exhilarating adventure with a love story for the ages.
One of the top ten best-loved novels in America, as seen on PBS’s The Great American Read!
Scottish Highlands, 1945. Claire Randall, a former British combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding clans in the year of Our Lord . . . 1743.
Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of a world that threatens her life, and may shatter her heart. Marooned amid danger, passion, and violence, Claire learns her only chance of safety lies in Jamie Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior. What begins in compulsion becomes urgent need, and Claire finds herself torn between two very different men, in two irreconcilable lives.
This eBook includes the full text of the novel plus the following additional content:
• An excerpt from Diana Gabaldon’s Dragonfly in Amber, the second novel in the Outlander series
• An interview with Diana Gabaldon
• An Outlander reader’s guide
Praise for Outlander
“Marvelous and fantastic adventures, romance, sex . . . perfect escape reading.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“History comes deliciously alive on the page.”—New York Daily News
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherDell
- Publication dateOctober 26, 2004
- File size4243 KB
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From the Publisher
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Outlander (20th Anniversary Collector's Edition) | OUTLANDER BOX SET | SEVEN STONES TO STAND OR FALL | OUTLANDER COMPANION | THE OFFICIAL OUTLANDER COLORING BOOK | THE EXILE | |
The first book in the Outlander saga, and the basis for the Starz original series. This special twentieth-anniversary edition features an original essay, a new map, and more. | Blending rich historical fiction with riveting adventure and a truly epic love story, here are the first four books of the epic Outlander series: OUTLANDER DRAGONFLY IN AMBER VOYAGER DRUMS OF AUTUMN | A magnificent collection of Outlander short fiction—including two never-before-published novellas—featuring Jamie Fraser, Lord John Grey, Master Raymond, and many more, from Diana Gabaldon | Perfect for readers of the bestselling Outlander novels—and don’t miss The Outlandish Companion Volume Two! | This spectacular adult coloring book features forty-five all-new illustrations! | This Outlander graphic novel gives readers a fresh look at the events from Jamie Fraser’s point of view, gorgeously rendered by artist Hoang Nguyen. |
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Marvelous and fantastic adventures, romance, sex . . . perfect escape reading.”—San Francisco Chronicle, on Outlander
“History comes deliciously alive on the page.”—New York Daily News, on Outlander
“Gabaldon is a born storyteller. . . . The pages practically turn themselves.”—The Arizona Republic, on Dragonfly in Amber
“Triumphant . . . Her use of historical detail and a truly adult love story confirm Gabaldon as a superior writer.”—Publishers Weekly, on Voyager
“Unforgettable characters . . . richly embroidered with historical detail.”—The Cincinnati Post, on Drums of Autumn
“A grand adventure written on a canvas that probes the heart, weighs the soul and measures the human spirit across [centuries].”—CNN, on The Fiery Cross
“The large scope of the novel allows Gabaldon to do what she does best, paint in exquisite detail the lives of her characters.”—Booklist, on A Breath of Snow and Ashes
“Features all the passion and swashbuckling that fans of this historical fantasy series have come to expect.”—People, on Written in My Own Heart’s Blood
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
From the Inside Flap
In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon--when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach--an "outlander"--in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord...1743.
Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire's destiny in soon inextricably intertwined with Clan MacKenzie and the forbidden Castle Leoch. She is catapulted without warning into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life ...and shatter her heart. For here, James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.From Library Journal
- Cynthia Johnson Whealler, Cary Memorial Lib., Lexington, Mass.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
He sat staring into the fire for a long time. Finally he looked up at me, hands clasped around his knees.
"I said before that I'd not ask ye things ye had no wish to tell me. And I'd not ask ye now; but I must know, for your safety as well as mine." He paused, hesitating.
"Claire, if you've never been honest wi' me, be so now, for I must know the truth. Claire, are ye a witch?"
I gaped at him. "A witch? You -- you can really ask that?" I thought he must be joking. He wasn't.
He took me by the shoulders and gripped me hard, staring into my eyes as though willing me to answer him.
"I must ask it, Claire! And you must tell me!"
"And if I were?" I asked through dry lips. "If you had thought I were a witch? Would you still have fought for me?"
"I would have gone to the stake with you!" he said violently. "And to hell beyond, if I must. But may the Lord Jesus have mercy on my soul and on yours, tell me the truth!"
The strain of it all caught up with me. I tore myself out of his grasp and ran across the clearing. Not far, only to the edge of the trees; I could not bear the exposure of the open space. I clutched a tree; put my arms around it and dug my fingers hard into the bark, pressed my face to it and shrieked with hysterical laughter.
Jamie's face, white and shocked, loomed up on the other side of the tree. With the dim realization that what I was doing must sound unnervingly like cackling, I made a terrific effort and stopped. Panting, I stared at him for a moment.
"Yes," I said, backing away, still heaving with gasps of unhinged laughter. "Yes, I am a witch! To you, I must be. I've never had smallpox, but I can walk through a room full of dying men and never catch it. I can nurse the sick and breathe their air and touch their bodies, and the sickness can't touch me. I can't catch cholera, either, or lockjaw, or the morbid sore throat. And you must think it's an enchantment, because you've never heard of vaccine, and there's no other way you can explain it."
"The things I know -- " I stopped backing away and stood still, breathing heavily, trying to control myself. "I know about Jonathan Randall because I was told about him. I know when he was born and when he'll die, I know about what he's done and what he'll do, I know about Sandringham because ... because Frank told me. He knew about Randall because he ... he ... oh, God!" I felt as though I might be sick, and closed my eyes to shut out the spinning stars overhead.
"And Colum ... he thinks I'm a witch, because I know Hamish isn't his own son. I know ... he can't sire children. But he thought I knew who Hamish's father is ... I thought maybe it was you, but then I knew it couldn't be, and..." I was talking faster and faster, trying to keep the vertigo at bay with the sound of my own voice.
"Everything I've ever told you about myself was true," I said, nodding madly as though to reassure myself. "Everything. I haven't any people, I haven't any history, because I haven't happened yet.
"Do you know when I was born?" I asked, looking up. I knew my hair was wild and my eyes staring, and I didn't care. "On the twentieth of October, in the Year of Our Lord nineteen hundred and eighteen. Do you hear me?" I demanded, for he was blinking at me unmoving, as though paying no attention to a word I said. "I said nineteen eighteen! Nearly two hundred years from now! Do you hear?"
I was shouting now, and he nodded slowly.
"I hear," he said softly.
"Yes, you hear!" I blazed. "And you think I'm raving mad. Don't you? Admit it! That's what you think. You have to think so, there isn't any other way you can explain me to yourself. You can't believe me, you can't dare to. Oh, Jamie..." I felt my face start to crumple. All this time spent hiding the truth, realizing that I could never tell anyone, and now I realized that I could tell Jamie, my beloved husband, the man I trusted beyond all others, and he wouldn't -- he couldn't believe me either.
"It was the rocks -- the fairy hill. The standing stones. Merlin's stones. That's where I came through." I was gasping, half-sobbing, becoming less coherent by the second. "Once upon a time, but it's really two hundred years. It's always two hundred years, in the stories. ... But in the stories, the people always get back. I couldn't get back." I turned away, staggering, grasping for support. I sank down on a rock, shoulders slumped, and put my head in my hands. There was a long silence in the wood. It went on long enough for the small night birds to recover their courage and start their noises once again, calling to each other with a thin, high zeek! as they hawked for the last insects of the summer.
I looked up at last, thinking that perhaps he had simply risen and left me, overcome by my revelations. He was still there, though, still sitting, hands braced on his knees, head bowed as though in thought.
The hairs on his arms shone stiff as copper wires in the firelight, though, and I realized that they stood erect, like the bristles on a dog. He was afraid of me.
"Jamie," I said, feeling my heart break with absolute loneliness. "Oh, Jamie."
I sat down and curled myself into a ball, trying to roll myself around the core of my pain. Nothing mattered any longer, and I sobbed my heart out.
His hands on my shoulders raised me, enough to see his face. Through the haze of tears, I saw the look he wore in battle, of struggle that had passed the point of strain and become calm certainty.
"I believe you," he said firmly. "I dinna understand it a bit -- not yet -- but I believe you. Claire, I believe you! Listen to me! There's the truth between us, you and I, and whatever ye tell me, I shall believe it." He gave me a gentle shake.
"It doesna matter what it is. You've told me. That's enough for now. Be still, mo duinne. Lay your head and rest. You'll tell me the rest of it later. And I'll believe you."
I was still sobbing, unable to grasp what he was telling me. I struggled, trying to pull away, but he gathered me up and held me tightly against himself, pushing my head into the folds of his plaid, and repeating over and over again, "I believe you."
At last, from sheer exhaustion, I grew calm enough to look up and say, "But you can't believe me."
He smiled down at me. His mouth trembled slightly, but he smiled.
"Ye'll no tell me what I canna do, Sassenach." He paused a moment. ... A long time later, he spoke.
"All right. Tell me now."
I told him. Told him everything, haltingly but coherently. I felt numb from exhaustion, but content, like a rabbit that has outrun a fox, and found temporary shelter under a log. It isn't sanctuary, but at least it is respite. And I told him about Frank.
"Frank," he said softly. "Then he isna dead, after all."
"He isn't born." I felt another small wave of hysteria break against my ribs, but managed to keep myself under control. "Neither am I."
He stroked and patted me back into silence, making his small murmuring Gaelic sounds.
"When I took ye from Randall at Fort William," he said suddenly, "you were trying to get back. Back to the stones. And ... Frank. That's why ye left the grove."
"Yes."
"And I beat you for it." His voice was soft with regret.
"You couldn't know. I couldn't tell you." I was beginning to feel very drowsy indeed.
"No, I dinna suppose ye could." He pulled the plaid closer around me, tucking it gently around my shoulders. "Do ye sleep now, mo duinne. No one shall harm ye; I'm here."
I burrowed into the warm curve of his shoulder, letting my tired mind fall through the layers of oblivion. I forced myself to the surface long enough to ask, "Do you really believe me, Jamie?"
He sighed, and smiled ruefully down at me.
"Aye, I believe ye, Sassenach. But it would ha' been a good deal easier if you'd only been a witch."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
From the Paperback edition.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.From AudioFile
Amazon.com Review
While on her second honeymoon in the British Isles, Claire touches a boulder that hurls her back in time to the forbidden Castle Leoch with the MacKenzie clan. Not understanding the forces that brought her there, she becomes ensnared in life-threatening situations with a Scots warrior named James Fraser. But it isn't all spies and drudgery that she must endure. For amid her new surroundings and the terrors she faces, she is lured into love and passion like she's never known before. I was lame and sore in every muscle when I woke next morning. I shuffled to the privy closet, then to the wash basin. My innards felt like churned butter. It felt as though I had been beaten with a blunt object, I reflected, then thought that that was very near the truth. The blunt object in question was visible as I came back to bed, looking now relatively harmless. Its possessor [Jamie] woke as I sat next to him, and examined me with something that looked very much like male smugness." Gabaldon creates characters that you'll remember, laugh with, cry with, and cheer for long after you've finished the book. --Candy Paape
--This text refers to the mass_market edition.Product details
- ASIN : B000FC2L1O
- Publisher : Dell; 1st edition (October 26, 2004)
- Publication date : October 26, 2004
- Language : English
- File size : 4243 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 642 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #4,081 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #5 in Historical Fantasy Fiction
- #10 in Time Travel Romance
- #13 in Time Travel Romances
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Diana Gabaldon is the internationally bestselling author of many historical novels including Cross Stitch, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross and A Breath of Snow Ashes. She lives with her family in Scottsdale, Arizona.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2013
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It’s funny how bestselling series drive against the current of writing “shoulds.” This book is long. It’s detailed. The protagonist is often adrift without clear “motivation” or “agency.” The prose can be highly redundant. There are countless scenes that don’t serve the spine of the plot.
But these “problems” also help make for a good read, and a good read it is. Fundamentally this is a novel about interesting, and well developed (if sometimes problematic) characters, caught in an unusual and fascinating blend of setting and situation.
Setup: It’s 1945 and Claire Randall is a happily married nurse. On holiday in Scotland with her husband, a circle of ancient stones mysteriously teleports her to 1743. Stuck there, she meets and falls in love with sexy highlander Jaime Fraser against the backdrop of the coming Jacobite rising.
This sounds fairly trite, and it is, but the historical detailing of 18th century Scotland is very well done. The author clearly did her research, and she builds a cast of interesting characters and a rather fascinating world on the edge of war. There is an intrinsic tension between Claire’s two lives. Her modern husband isn’t a bad guy at all, even if he lacks Jaime’s manly-man energy. But she finds herself in this new place and in love — so what does she do? This dilemma provides for most of the conflict during the first two thirds of the novel.
Let’s back up and discuss prose and voice. Gabaldon is a good writer. Her prose is energetic and descriptive, often erudite. The voice is completely first person from Claire’s POV. She has an engaging, if a bit overly clinical viewpoint. I had small problems with repetition. Gabaldon often repeats words a sentence later without reason of parallelism and has a tendency to elaborate on a point more than necessary. This is a book where a great deal of the subtext is in the text. Claire spells it out. Sometimes twice. Sometimes thrice. This, by the way, is another of those writing “shoulds.” You’re not supposed to “tell,” but “show” (imply). That’s “better writing.” But as far as I can tell, bestsellers don’t tend to be subtle.
There is a lot of Scottish accented dialog in this book, and it’s very well handled.
Claire’s POV is generally excellent, but it does result in a few issues. Occasionally (particularly in the later part of the novel) some events occur “off screen” (when she isn’t there). Gabaldon then results to gratuitous retellings where other characters relate the event to her in unlikely detail. Occasionally, a briefer recounting leads to some reader confusion. Claire is also hyper aware and overly clinical. As the author likes to handhold us through her thought process, it sometimes feels like exactly this, author handholding rather than genuine cognition. This leads to one of my bigger “motivational gripes” with this generally excellent novel, that Claire often feels fairly selfish and overly analytic. Particularly in the middle of the novel, Claire is nominally still plotting to head back to the future, but this tell feels incongruous with the emotions the author has her “show” toward Jaime.
As I mentioned, the historical details are good. The attitudes of the 18th century men and women are well handled and relatively free of anachronism. Things are properly grungy, sexist, and occasionally brutish. It is occasionally a little odd that Claire herself is not terribly discomforted by this. She points out plenty of good stuff, particularly having to do with justice, medicine, and punishment, but she doesn’t really seem to miss toilets, showers, medical care, comfortable clothes, or well preserved food. Perhaps her life as a nurse during WWII was grungy enough to prepare her. She occasionally mentions discomforts flipply, but less than I’d imagine. She never really complains (or seems to suffer) with regard to food, sleeping in haystacks, or walking barefoot across the chilly Scottish moors.
The time travel element is very light SciFi/Fantasy in this first novel at least, but is used to good effect. There is no mumbo-jumbo explanation to gum things up.
Being a romance, and a fairly erotic one, this is also a novel full of sex. Jaime and Claire go at it like rabbits — and things are often fairly explicit, at least in a literary way. I have no problem with most of this, as it’s actually pretty hot, and I imagine that for many women it’s insanely hot (see, word repeated deliberately for effect!). But there are aspects to the sexuality in this novel that are weird. Two huge ones (spoiler alert):
1) In the middle, after Claire disobeys him, Jaime “punishes” her by strapping her bare ass (to put it bluntly). To tell the truth, his reasoning is perfectly typical by 18th century standards, but comes off as a bit twisted by ours. And some readers will be bothered by the otherwise very spunky Claire’s fairly rapid absolution of her wife-beating lover. In fact, it’s clear that Gabaldon has a bit of a “thing” for corporal punishment as it’s a constant theme in the book. Jaime goes way overboard to emphasize how much hiding her turned him on.
2) More disturbingly, Gabaldon probably isn’t the biggest fan of Homosexuality. The novel’s villain (Black Jack) is not only gay, but she goes to great lengths to integrate his evil tendencies and his sexual proclivities. Otherwise, he’s actually a rather excellent villain, but she goes big time overboard in Jaime’s recounting of the intensely odd and twisted “final hours” between Jaime and the menacing Black Jack. It’s pretty darn nasty and twisted. This, along with a retelling of an older encounter between Jaime and a gay Duke feels like an overzealous attempt to demonize… to quote the novel: “poofters.”
Overall, this is an excellent novel. None are perfect, and it’s engaging throughout. The place/time is vividly depicted, and the characters are boldly executed. Both stay with you — which is no small feat for any author.
Andy Gavin, author of Untimed and The Darkening Dream
Claire’s story is a very different type of time travel story as it feels like a historical drama with romance and a little fantasy. While being a bit different than I thought, it’s a very absorbing story with the Scottish lore being fascinating with Claire’s having a lot of turns and her relationship with Jamie growing into something unexpected. For now, it’s a very pleasing beginning to some that’s very promising. <b>A- (91%/Excellent)</b>
The Good…:
The world Diana Gabaldon creates in her Outlander series is so rich, that I want to savor every little detail. From the characters’ clothing to Claire’s medical applications, it’s hard not to get sucked into 1743 Scotland along with Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser. Aside from the way of life during this time period, Gabaldon has created an interesting array of characters that keep you on your toes.
At the heart of the story is Claire. She’s a former trauma nurse who served during World War II, and is on a second honeymoon with her husband Frank Randall in the Scottish Highlands, when Claire unexpectedly finds herself traveling back through time 200 years into the past. While there she meets the other man in her life, James Fraser. It’s hard to see which man Claire should end up with initially since they’re both kind and loving, but as the story progresses you begin to wonder how she can ever leave Jamie.
“You’re mine, mo duinne. Mine alone, now and forever. Mine, whether ye will it or no. Aye, I mean to use ye hard, my Sassenach,” he whispered. “I want to own you, to possess you, body and soul. I mean to make ye call me ‘Master,’ Sassenach. I mean to make you mine.” – Jamie
Jamie’s family, friends, and foes also add color to this magical story. His uncles Colum and Dougal are incredibly mysterious. Sometimes they seem like uncles anyone might have in their family, yet other times they seem like they may be enemies parading as friends. Trying to figure out their motivations add an element of mystery as Jamie and Claire begin to navigate the complicated politics of this time. That in Scotland itself, and within the clan system in the Scottish Highlands.
As for enemies, Jamie and Claire seem to find them around every corner. The main villain in this story is “Black Jack” Randall, Claire’s husband Frank’s six-times great-grandfather. This British officer is a horrible, horrible person, and the fact he’s the spitting image of Frank carries complications of its own. For Claire, it means she miscalculates the horrors “Black Jack” is willing to inflict on others. For me as a reader, it means I find myself for hating Frank by association. I keep having to remind myself that they aren’t the same person.
The Bad…:
Since Outlander is set in the 18th century, many things that happen to the women in this story are fitting within the time period. When reading this novel, you must remember this fact, and that what the women go through was pretty common and accepted. However, it’s not only the women that run into a bit of violence in the book. Jamie, in particular, is a victim of violence that is quite graphic. So if you are a bit squeamish, you may want to skim those scenes. Then again, those events have lasting repercussions throughout the series, so… maybe not.
“I gave you justice, it said, as I was taught it. And I gave you mercy , too, so far as I could. While I could not spare you pain and humiliation, I make you a gift of my own pains and humiliations, that yours might be easier to bear. ” – Jamie
Another aspect of the story that may give readers pause is how homosexuality is viewed in the book by the characters. This viewpoint was also common for that time, so if you are a bit sensitive to LGBTQ issues, you may want to fortify yourself. One of the characters in the book is homosexual, and happens to be in the precarious situation of being in the British military. In the 18th century, not only would he lose his position and be ruined if his sexuality came to light, but he would also be imprisoned. This aspect to the character gives a certain light to his actions in the story which I won’t divulge due to spoilers. Sorry!
Do I Recommend?
YES! YES! YES! Outlander isn’t a world-wide best-selling novel for no reason. It’s a fantastical tale of romance that withstands time and space. It’s a mystery about a woman far from home who doesn’t know how she got where she is, or how to get back. It’s a paranormal romance of a woman in love with two different men separated by 200 years. It’s a historical fiction story set in 18th century Scotland during the Jacobite movement in the time of the clans, and witch trials. It’s and adventure story about a young man who acted rashly and nearly lost his life in lieu of his freedom. A wanted man who years to return home to his family, and be the man he was meant to be. This story has something for everyone, and will not disappoint. To date there are eight books (and counting) in the series, so now is the time to jump in and see what all the buzz is about. Since this novel is amazing, hard to put down, and somehow managed to be even more wonderful the second time around, I give it 5 out of 5 stars.
Top reviews from other countries

I saw the TV series of this last year and thought that, like most book adaptations, they would have missed a lot of interesting information out for dramatic purposes. Thus I bought the book (along with 2 and 3). I love Scotland, but was fairly ignorant of the Rising and subsequent Highland Clearances, so this book brought the history to life, without being like the boring history text books of my youth. There are a lot of elements to interest you, time travel, romance (both hetero and gay) and adventure. There is a reason that this series of books are best sellers, they are well written and keep you turning the pages. Personally speaking, I love them, and have just ordered 4,5 and 6.




The story is realistic, doesn't shy away from brutalities and everyday realities of a life in 18th century Scotland. I like the fact that the writer isn't writing vaguely about any situation, i.e. Jack Randall's twisted mind and torture of Jamie (there's quite a few surprises!), Claire & Jamie's marital life which is described just right not to be a paperback romance, etc.
Claire as a narrator is funny, amusing, intelligent and has a great overview of life.
When the book was published in 1991, it was an instant best-seller and I cannot believe I haven't stumble across it earlier.
I highly recommend this fiction not only for those who love to read about historical Scotland but for those who just simply love a good story and a good book.
Having seen the series just after I finished the book I have to say I haven't seen such a great adaptation of a book into a TV story yet. Thanks to the lenght of the series, the film makers went into a great detail of the story. Still, the book is always much better than its cinematic counterpart.