21 h 58 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What is an honest man to do when an outlaw lives by a stronger code than the law?
Frank Osbaldistone wants to write poetry. His father wants him behind a merchant’s desk. Their quarrel sends Frank from London to Osbaldistone Hall in Northumberland, where family ties offer little comfort. His ambitious cousin Rashleigh threatens the family business, while clever, sharp-tongued Diana Vernon gives Frank reason to question whom he can trust.
Drawn into a dangerous quest to save his father’s firm, Frank crosses into Scotland before the Jacobite rising of 1715. In Glasgow, he meets the practical merchant Bailie Nicol Jarvie; in the Highlands, he encounters Rob Roy MacGregor, a cattle dealer turned outlaw. Walter Scott brings adventure and a love story into a country caught between clan loyalty and trade.
What you’ll discover
- A poet under pressure Follow Frank as family duty tests his wish to choose a life of his own.
- Diana’s sharp wit Meet a bold young woman whose secret loyalty keeps her from choosing freely.
- An outlaw’s own honour Encounter Rob Roy, proud and shrewd, and weigh his code against the claims of law.
- From desks to Highland paths Travel from London’s counting houses to Glasgow’s trade and the Highlands’ rock and bog.
- Loyalties that pull apart Explore what family, king, and personal promises demand when their claims no longer agree.
Who will love it
For readers who love historical adventure with a strong sense of place, and anyone curious about Scotland, the Jacobites, or the clash of clan loyalty with trade.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A son who would rather write verse
- Osbaldistone Hall and its six cousins
- Diana Vernon teaches Frank to distrust
- Rashleigh takes the business and the money
- A Glasgow magistrate and a cousin of the outlaw
- Into the hills with Rob Roy and Helen
- Honour, law and rebellion on the eve of 1715
- Divided loyalties and the search for identity
- How Scott tells it: voice, dialect and place
Who’s who
- Frank OsbaldistoneA young Englishman who prefers poetry to trade and tells the story, and who is drawn into a dangerous quest to save his father's firm.
- Rob Roy MacGregorA Highland cattle dealer turned outlaw, proud and shrewd, who lives by his own code of honour and defies the powerful Duke of Montrose.
- Diana VernonA bold, clever young woman living at Osbaldistone Hall, bound by a secret loyalty that keeps her from choosing freely.
- Rashleigh OsbaldistoneFrank's learned and smooth-tongued cousin, lame and ambitious, who wants power and will use any means to gain it.
- Bailie Nicol JarvieA Glasgow magistrate and merchant, practical and talkative, who is proud of his town and bound by blood to Rob Roy.
- William OsbaldistoneFrank's father, a London merchant whose good name and credit matter more to him than anything else.
- Andrew FairserviceA gardener and self-serving servant with strong religious opinions, who attaches himself to Frank and provides much of the book's comedy.
- Helen MacGregorRob Roy's fierce wife, hardened by the suffering of her clan and quick to anger against those who have wronged them.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 21 h 58 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 15 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Rob Roy
by Walter Scott · 1817
Frank Osbaldistone seeks help among Highland outlaws as a treacherous cousin brings his father's firm to ruin.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A son who would rather write verse
The story opens with Frank Osbaldistone writing about his own past, years after the events. He explains that his father, William Osbaldistone, is a London merchant who runs a house of business with trade across the seas. The father has planned his son's life. Frank will learn the ledgers, then the trade, and in time he will take over the firm.
Frank has other plans. He has been to school in France and has a taste for books, and he has begun to write poetry. To a hard-working merchant this looks like a waste of good years. The two men are not cruel to each other, but they are stiff, and each one thinks the other is being foolish.
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What is Rob Roy by Walter Scott about?
It follows Frank Osbaldistone, a young Englishman who travels from London to Northumberland and then to Scotland to save his father's business from a treacherous cousin. Along the way he meets Rob Roy MacGregor, a Highland outlaw.
Is Rob Roy based on a true story?
Partly. Rob Roy MacGregor was a real Highlander who lived from 1671 to 1734, and the Jacobite rising of 1715 is real history. Frank, Diana, and most of the plot are Scott's own invention.
Who is Diana Vernon in Rob Roy?
Diana Vernon is a spirited young woman who lives at Osbaldistone Hall. She is Frank's cousin by marriage and his guide, and she is tied by a secret loyalty to the exiled Stuart cause.
The author
Walter Scott
1771–1832 · Scottish novelist and poet
Walter Scott (1771–1832) was a Scottish novelist, poet and playwright. He was born in Edinburgh and lived in Scotland, including at Abbotsford near Melrose, where he died. He wrote Marmion (1808), The Lady of the Lake (1810), Waverley (1814), Rob Roy (1817) and Ivanhoe (1819).
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