Bonnie Dundee by Rosemary Sutcliff
Mar. 20th, 2020 06:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regshoeSo you'll never guess who else wrote a historical novel about the Jacobites...
Bonnie Dundee (1983) is set around the events that brought Jacobitism as such into being. It's late seventeenth-century Scotland and our narrator, Hugh Herriot, is first stablehand and later regimental galloper to General John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, who, when King James VII (/II of England) is deposed by William of Orange, takes up his cause and fights for the return of the Stuarts—and Hugh follows him to the end. There's a lot of stuff about the religious divisions underlying all of the later fighting over the throne—Hugh's family are Covenanters, the Protestants who opposed the increasingly Catholic Stuarts and who Dundee was responsible for policing and suppressing, and his divided loyalties are an important part of his character development. Lady Jean, Dundee's wife, is also an important character, and there are some interesting appearances by Romany 'Tinklers', including Jean's cousin and waiting-woman Darklis Ruthven, and some contemporary art in Hugh's eventual calling as a painter.
All the things I love about Rosemary Sutcliff's writing are here: the vivid, evocative and sometimes brutal descriptions, the artfully not saying things, the attention paid to details of the natural world, the heartbreaking relationships. It's not quite as much of an emotional ordeal as Frontier Wolf—the central relationship between Hugh and Dundee is too one-sided and distant to be that compelling—but still very, very good.
One major difference between this and the Roman novels is, of course, that Bonnie Dundee is much more closely based on real history: the plot essentially is just what historically happened to Claverhouse from his time among the Covenanters of the southwest until the Battle of Killiecrankie, and apart from Hugh himself most of the major characters are real people. It was all very interesting from this historical angle—of course I'm still more interested in what happened later on in the Jacobite movement, but always good to get some more context! There's even a brief but very memorable appearance by the ubiquitous Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel. Unfortunately Hugh pulls a Bilbo Baggins at Killiecrankie and passes out for the most exciting bit of the battle, but Dundee gets his—apparently historical—death scene in full Sutcliffian detail. She really has a way of bringing history to life—one of the many things I love about the Roman novels is the way they make the distant past feel so very real and immediate—and it was great to see that in a more specific context.
I've often thought to myself how much I'd like to find an author who writes relationships between women the way Rosemary Sutcliff (and D. K. Broster, come to think of it) writes relationships between men. This book provided a sort-of instance of that, in Lady Jean and Darklis. I say sort-of—we never get a real focus on their interactions or a close view of their relationship, because it's all narrated in first person by Hugh and he's not privy to those details, but a lot is implied and there's clearly a lot there. Darklis's loyal devotion to Jean is clearly meant as a parallel to Hugh's to Dundee, and it's interesting to see how the different expectations and social roles of men and women in the period affect how that dynamic plays out. I would very much like to read a version of the book from Darklis's point of view!
Which leads me to another thought. I amresignedly inured used to the same-gender relationships I tend to find more compelling in stories taking a back seat to heterosexual romance, but in this book, it's almost the other way round. While they clearly care about each other from early on, Hugh and Darklis are kept apart by their respective loyalties to Dundee and Jean, which always and without question come first, and it's only after Dundee and Jean are both dead that Hugh and Darklis can finally be together. I say 'almost', because it is after all Hugh and Darklis who get to live and be together in the end—but the rest is historical, of course. :P
Anyway: while this wasn't my favourite Sutcliff book (that's still Frontier Wolf <33), it's still very, very good and highly recommended, especially if you're interested in this period of Scottish history.
Bonnie Dundee (1983) is set around the events that brought Jacobitism as such into being. It's late seventeenth-century Scotland and our narrator, Hugh Herriot, is first stablehand and later regimental galloper to General John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, who, when King James VII (/II of England) is deposed by William of Orange, takes up his cause and fights for the return of the Stuarts—and Hugh follows him to the end. There's a lot of stuff about the religious divisions underlying all of the later fighting over the throne—Hugh's family are Covenanters, the Protestants who opposed the increasingly Catholic Stuarts and who Dundee was responsible for policing and suppressing, and his divided loyalties are an important part of his character development. Lady Jean, Dundee's wife, is also an important character, and there are some interesting appearances by Romany 'Tinklers', including Jean's cousin and waiting-woman Darklis Ruthven, and some contemporary art in Hugh's eventual calling as a painter.
All the things I love about Rosemary Sutcliff's writing are here: the vivid, evocative and sometimes brutal descriptions, the artfully not saying things, the attention paid to details of the natural world, the heartbreaking relationships. It's not quite as much of an emotional ordeal as Frontier Wolf—the central relationship between Hugh and Dundee is too one-sided and distant to be that compelling—but still very, very good.
One major difference between this and the Roman novels is, of course, that Bonnie Dundee is much more closely based on real history: the plot essentially is just what historically happened to Claverhouse from his time among the Covenanters of the southwest until the Battle of Killiecrankie, and apart from Hugh himself most of the major characters are real people. It was all very interesting from this historical angle—of course I'm still more interested in what happened later on in the Jacobite movement, but always good to get some more context! There's even a brief but very memorable appearance by the ubiquitous Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel. Unfortunately Hugh pulls a Bilbo Baggins at Killiecrankie and passes out for the most exciting bit of the battle, but Dundee gets his—apparently historical—death scene in full Sutcliffian detail. She really has a way of bringing history to life—one of the many things I love about the Roman novels is the way they make the distant past feel so very real and immediate—and it was great to see that in a more specific context.
I've often thought to myself how much I'd like to find an author who writes relationships between women the way Rosemary Sutcliff (and D. K. Broster, come to think of it) writes relationships between men. This book provided a sort-of instance of that, in Lady Jean and Darklis. I say sort-of—we never get a real focus on their interactions or a close view of their relationship, because it's all narrated in first person by Hugh and he's not privy to those details, but a lot is implied and there's clearly a lot there. Darklis's loyal devotion to Jean is clearly meant as a parallel to Hugh's to Dundee, and it's interesting to see how the different expectations and social roles of men and women in the period affect how that dynamic plays out. I would very much like to read a version of the book from Darklis's point of view!
Which leads me to another thought. I am
Anyway: while this wasn't my favourite Sutcliff book (that's still Frontier Wolf <33), it's still very, very good and highly recommended, especially if you're interested in this period of Scottish history.
no subject
Date: Mar. 20th, 2020 07:38 pm (UTC)I've often thought to myself how much I'd like to find an author who writes relationships between women the way Rosemary Sutcliff (and D. K. Broster, come to think of it) writes relationships between men.
Hmm. How about Code Name Verity? That really has the "loyalty in wartime" thing down.
no subject
Date: Mar. 20th, 2020 07:53 pm (UTC)Hmm. How about Code Name Verity? That really has the "loyalty in wartime" thing down.
Huh, that does look good—I'm not usually into modern YA, but the plot and setting do sound highly relevant to my interests. I'll have to check it out!
no subject
Date: Mar. 20th, 2020 07:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Mar. 20th, 2020 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Mar. 20th, 2020 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Mar. 21st, 2020 06:40 am (UTC)Oh yes, those 'little mystical moments' are great—the scene with Darklis's vision, and the gradual reveal of what it meant, are chilling.