A Daughter of Raasay: A Tale of the '45

Raine, William MacLeod, 1871-1954Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.2
Word count
375K words
Chapters
38

Tags

English Originals Historical Fiction Historical ReappraisalMilitary StrategyPortrait GalleryLegendary LivesFate and FortuneAntiheroJianghu FeudHeroismPatriotismTurbulent Era

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.A Daughter of Raasay: A Tale of the '45 by William MacLeod RaineAuthor: Raine, William MacLeod, 1871-1954,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Sep 23, 2008

Editor's review

Set against the Jacobite rising of 1745, the novel takes its title from Raasay in the Scottish Hebrides and follows a woman of that island, weaving family loyalty, political allegiance and personal fate into the upheavals of history. William MacLeod Raine, best known for his Westerns, here turns to the Scottish Highlands; the narrative moves briskly, with action and dialogue driving the plot in the manner of an adventure romance. Its value for readers lies in presenting, through popular fiction, the social mood after the '45 and the situation of Highlanders, and it will appeal to those who enjoy historical romance set in Scotland. It should be noted that this is a novel, not a historical source: historical events serve only as backdrop, and the characters and plot are largely fictional, so it should not be cited as fact about the rising.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Spend ten minutes learning the basic outline of the 1745 Jacobite rising beforehand; the characters' predicament will be clearer.
  2. Keep historical background and fictional plot separate, and do not take the novel's version of events as fact.
  3. Note the interplay of Highland family, loyalty and political choice, which is the core of the book's conflict.
  4. If reading the English original, follow the plot first, then return to the difficulties posed by dialect and place names.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38

FAQ

What does "the '45" refer to? It refers to the Jacobite rising of 1745, the series of events in which supporters of the Stuarts sought to restore the throne. The novel uses this as its historical backdrop, but its plot and characters are literary fiction.
Can this book be used as a historical source on the 1745 rising? No. It is a historical novel; the author uses the background to create dramatic conflict, and the timing of events and the characters' experiences are shaped by literary invention. For historical research, consult specialist histories and primary documents.
Wasn't Raine a writer of Westerns? Raine was indeed known for novels of the American West. This work turns to Scottish Highland historical romance—a different subject, but told in the same popular adventure style, and it can be seen as an extension of his range.
Is the English difficult to read? The text is late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century English. The prose is fairly direct, but there are many Scottish place names, family titles and historical terms; look them up as you go, or read a background introduction in Chinese first.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Raine, William MacLeod, 1871-1954 Author

William MacLeod Raine (1871–1954) was an American writer of Western fiction. He wrote prolifically, producing many popular novels set on the American frontier, and this site holds twenty-two of his works. Raine’s fiction focuses largely on life in the border regions of Texas, Montana, New Mexico, and the Yukon, often featuring rangers, sheriffs, frontiersmen, and settlers, with plots centered on frontier order, adventure, and conflict. His style is accessible and fast-paced, emphasizing storytelling and a strong sense of place. Representative works include A Texas Ranger, The Yukon Trail: A Tale of the North, Ridgway of Montana, and The Sheriff’s Son. Public information about the details of his life is limited, so no speculation is offered here.