The Flight of the Heron by D. K. Broster
Aug. 22nd, 2019 05:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regshoeYou know, there are some books that really make me feel a sense of kinship with those eighteenth-century young ladies who supposedly went into emotional fits of overexcited sensibility brought on by novel-reading. Some books just put your heart through the wringer in all the most beautiful ways.
The Flight of the Heron (1925) is set in the Scottish Highlands during the Jacobite rising of 1745. It follows the fortunes of Ewen Cameron, a Highland chieftain and loyal Jacobite, and Keith Windham, an English army officer, who meet when Keith, having suffered a military defeat, is taken captive by Ewen. Some time previously Ewen's foster-father, who has prophetic second sight, had foretold their meeting and the consequences, good and ill, that it would bring. Beyond that, I don't really know how to describe it.
Okay, first of all, several good things about this book:
...but none of those are why I really love this book, or why, two days after finishing it, I'm already certain that it's going to be an all-time fave. The heart of the story, and by far the best thing about it, is the relationship between Keith and Ewen.
Keith, somewhat cynical after his sad backstory but nevertheless having a strong sense of honour and decency, is immediately taken with both Ewen's nobility of character and his good looks, despite the situation. Things after their initial meeting escalate in the intensity of both plot and emotion, and involve a lot of saving each other from deadly peril, increasingly ridiculous risks taken and sacrifices made on the other's behalf, and levels of hurt/comfort worthy of the best sort of fanfiction. From admiring an enemy's honour, they come to care for each other personally and increasingly strongly. By the end they've more than gone from enemies to friends—the book really gets about as far along the 'enemies to friends to lovers' path as it could be expected to in 1925.
I won't say very much about the ending here, because spoilers, but: ooooh, what an ending. It is utterly devastating, and very beautifully written indeed.
In conclusion, please read this book. You really won't regret it, and it greatly deserves to have more of a fandom. Absolutely stellar, 11/10, etc., I love it a lot. <3333
The Flight of the Heron (1925) is set in the Scottish Highlands during the Jacobite rising of 1745. It follows the fortunes of Ewen Cameron, a Highland chieftain and loyal Jacobite, and Keith Windham, an English army officer, who meet when Keith, having suffered a military defeat, is taken captive by Ewen. Some time previously Ewen's foster-father, who has prophetic second sight, had foretold their meeting and the consequences, good and ill, that it would bring. Beyond that, I don't really know how to describe it.
Okay, first of all, several good things about this book:
- The setting, scenery and descriptive writing are all absolutely lovely. This is a book that really lives its sense of place, and I always appreciate that.
- It's very nicely plotted, with just the right amount of dramatic twists and turns and some beautiful foreshadowing (I just read a few paragraphs of the prologue to assist in writing the summary above, and discovered another killer piece of foreshadowing that I hadn't noticed before).
- Not knowing very much about the period, I can't say how historically accurate it is (although Broster does, rather charmingly, apologise at one point for anachronistically having a historical character do something dishonourable), but it's certainly a vivid portrayal of a very vivid historical moment.
...but none of those are why I really love this book, or why, two days after finishing it, I'm already certain that it's going to be an all-time fave. The heart of the story, and by far the best thing about it, is the relationship between Keith and Ewen.
Keith, somewhat cynical after his sad backstory but nevertheless having a strong sense of honour and decency, is immediately taken with both Ewen's nobility of character and his good looks, despite the situation. Things after their initial meeting escalate in the intensity of both plot and emotion, and involve a lot of saving each other from deadly peril, increasingly ridiculous risks taken and sacrifices made on the other's behalf, and levels of hurt/comfort worthy of the best sort of fanfiction. From admiring an enemy's honour, they come to care for each other personally and increasingly strongly. By the end they've more than gone from enemies to friends—the book really gets about as far along the 'enemies to friends to lovers' path as it could be expected to in 1925.
I won't say very much about the ending here, because spoilers, but: ooooh, what an ending. It is utterly devastating, and very beautifully written indeed.
In conclusion, please read this book. You really won't regret it, and it greatly deserves to have more of a fandom. Absolutely stellar, 11/10, etc., I love it a lot. <3333
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Date: Aug. 22nd, 2019 07:38 pm (UTC)It seems to be the first of a trilogy?
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Date: Aug. 22nd, 2019 07:59 pm (UTC)It is indeed the first of a trilogy, though it stands alone perfectly well. From what I gather, the other two books are also very good, but not as much, emotionally, as the first. I will get round to reading them eventually, but I need to recover from this one before I can think of that!
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Date: Aug. 22nd, 2019 08:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Aug. 23rd, 2019 05:28 pm (UTC)