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The Romantic
- Narrated by: Kobna Holbrook-Smith
- Length: 17 hrs and 21 mins
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The Romantic
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
Soldier. Farmer. Felon. Writer. Father. Lover.
One man, many lives.
Born in 1799, Cashel Greville Ross experiences myriad lives: joyous and devastating, years of luck and unexpected loss. Moving from County Cork to London, from Waterloo to Zanzibar, Cashel seeks his fortune across continents in war and in peace. He faces a terrible moral choice in a village in Sri Lanka as part of the East Indian Army. He enters the world of the Romantic Poets in Pisa. In Ravenna he meets a woman who will live in his heart for the rest of his days. As he travels the world as a soldier, a farmer, a felon, a writer, a father, a lover, he experiences all the vicissitudes of life and, through the accelerating turbulence of the nineteenth century, he discovers who he truly is. This is the romance of life itself, and the beating heart of The Romantic.
From one of Britain's best-loved and bestselling writers comes an intimate yet panoramic novel set across the nineteenth century.
Critic reviews
"The Romantic by William Boyd was the novel I enjoyed most this year. It's incredibly ambitious, its hero moving from Co Cork to London, then from Waterloo to Zanzibar, and at one point even joining the East Indian Army, but it was such an easy, indulgent read." (Sathnam Sanghera)
"[One of the] most enjoyable new novels I read this year...it] offers deep pleasure to those who love novels, instruction to anyone setting out to write one." (Allan Massie)
"William Boyd's The Romantic is disguised a an historical biography - The Real Life of Cashel Greville Ross - but is actually an utterly engrossing adventure story...Cashel, we understand, is searching for himself, but in the process he provides romance, entertainment and enlightenment for his readers. How better to spend the relaxed days around Xmas than following his footsteps." (Antonia Fraser)
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What listeners say about The Romantic
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ed Switzerland
- 07-03-23
Up there with Any Human Heart
William Boyd on brilliant form. Highly entertaining story, excellent narration including multiple accents. Can only recommend.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 10-04-23
Interesting life
I very much enjoyed this book. The story of a true romantic.
Definitely recommend this book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Helen
- 16-12-22
A great romp across the century
I am a big fan of William Boyd and feverishly wait for the next novel. I listen when I am running and love a book where I can lose myself. This certainly met the brief, as I was transported back to the 19th Cenury to many adventures with our hero.
The narration was brilliant and ideally suited to Cashel and his contempories. Overall my listening was a very satisfying experience.
Whilst 'Any Human Heart' remains my favourite Boyd novel, I have listened to it too many times now. The Romantic is up there with the best of them and a repeat listen in a year or so will no doubt add to my enjoyment of this story.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 02-06-23
AMAZING
That was the most tremendous novel. Wonderfully narrated. I am so sad that it came to an end.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Kindle Customer
- 06-02-24
“What do we leave behind us when we die?”
Boyd excels in his ability to maintain a narrative; never better than when the back-bone is the life of an individual. So it is here with the life of Cashel Greville Ross. This is a novel of adventures, incidents, glories and disappointments. So much doing in one person’s life. There is a question that haunts the listener (or reader) in how far to rely on the main character’s views and interpretation of events. He is certainly a character that is prone and likely to follow his heart, not necessarily to his benefit or credit. But this is not a novel about a ‘hero’, but a man that is energetic, passionate, adventurous, and fallible. There is significant room to wonder about other people’s motives. The narratives pulls like a train. This is also a novel where the main character finds himself in significant events in history, or in the company of several famous people. The closing pages of this novel, then, do pose the general question that Boyd raises himself, “What do we leave behind us when we die?” Our hearts go out to Cashel Greville Ross and there is a something of a chill which might cause the listener’s own introspection. Can a life well lived, following the heart be adequate substitute to a known legacy? Character and narrative with Boyd are well honed and there will be no concerns in this novel. As often the case, Boyd may use a word or phrase that makes you wonder or to look it up. All to the good. The performance of this audio-book by Kobna Holbrook-Smith I wonderful, sympathetic, touching and so good. When some performers make a hash of deal with foreign pronunciations, here there is simple wonder as to how he achieves such confident authenticity. One of the several benefits from keeping to hand the hard-copy or electronic version of a book when listening to an audio-book is being able to glance back, or to see something that the audio-book omits. Sometimes the omission deprives the listener of that they might have wanted to hear. So is the case with ‘The Romantic’. The audio-book does not include the ‘author’s note of the hard-copy I had to hand and this is a loss. None the less, a wonderful book that with engage, maintain the listener's attention and intrigue. Try it.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 03-04-24
Fascinating
It took a while to ‘get into’ this William Boyd but then I found the adventures of Cashel Ross quite fascinating and exciting. Quite a long story but then it did cover 75 years of this man’s life. He visited and lived in so many different places in the 19th Century world, I needed to look them up on an atlas so a good geography lesson as well as a good listen.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Kevin H.
- 19-01-23
Compelling story badly accented
Excellent story and well told…..EXCEPT for the dreadful Irish accent. Poor choice of role for a good narrator I’m afraid.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Gillian
- 03-11-22
Not his best
Ooooh… my favourite author read by my favourite narrator. I thought I’d be in for a double treat. But in the end, neither of them was on top form. This story is a reworking of the Any Human Heart concept… one hero with a load of adventures through a long life. But somehow I never felt the emotional connection to Cashel that I did to Logan. It was an enjoyable enough tale, but just didn’t have the same impact. And Kobna… I thought you could do ANYTHING… but it turns out you can’t really do Irish… and that’s kind of central to the whole thing here! So… it’s a good book, and it is very well read… but it’s not the real treat I was looking forward to. If you read this before Any Human Heart, you’d be less disappointed.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- S Davies
- 05-11-22
Amazing
Fabulous book. William Boyd at his best. Narration absolutely outstanding. Great accents, flawless narration. Thank you Kobna Holbrook-Smith. Please read more books!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 03-02-23
What a life he lived
Thoroughly enjoyed this epic historic rollercoaster of a tale. I knew this author would tell a wonderful story crammed full of likeable rogues and heroes. The Irish protagonist has one of the most fascinating and eventful lives one could imagine. It was a privilege to join him on the journey. Sensitive and artful narration.
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