Rob Roy is an 1817 historical novel by Walter Scott, one of the Waverley novels. It is probably set in 1715, the year of the first Jacobite rising, and the social and economic background to that event are an important element in the novel, though it is not treated directly. The depiction of Rob Roy bears little relation to the historical figure: "there are two Rob Roys. One lived and breathed. The other is a good story, a lively tale set in the past. Both may be accepted as ‘valid', but they serve different needs and interests."
Frank Osbaldistone narrates the story. He is the son of an English merchant who parted from his family home in the north of England near the border with Scotland when he was a young man, being of different religion and temperament than his father or younger brother. Frank is sent by his father to live at the long unseen family home with his uncle and his male cousins, when he refuses to join his father's successful business. In exchange, his father accepts Frank's cousin Rashleigh to work in his business. Rashleigh is an intelligent young man, but he is unscrupulous, and he causes problems for the business of Osbaldistone and Tresham. To resolve the problems, Frank travels into Scotland and meets the larger-than-life title character, Rob Roy MacGregor.
Contents
Composition and sources
John Ballantyne, Scott's literary agent, drew up a contract for Rob Roy on 5 May 1817 with Archibald Constable and Longman who had published the first three Waverley novels, the author having lost confidence in the publishers of his most recent fictional work Tales of my Landlord, John Murray and William Blackwood, who had turned out to be insufficiently committed to that project. Scott seems to have begun writing the novel immediately, but it was not completed until late December, partly because of illness.
The Rob Roy of Scott's novel is largely fictitious, with an input from stories Scott had heard, handed down over the generations. As is his wont, he adjusts historical chronology freely for his narrative purposes. A number of printed sources were valuable for different components of the work. Thus, for business matters he used The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce by Malachy Postlethwayt, of which he owned the third edition published in 1766. The depiction of Justice Inglewood and his clerk draws directly on The Justice of the Peace and Parish Officer by Richard Burn, the 13th edition of 1776 being in Scott's library. Bailie Jarvie was suggested by another book he owned: The Highland Rogue: or, the Memorable Actions Of the Celebrated Robert Mac-gregor, Commonly called Rob-Roy [by Elias Brockett] (1723).
Editions
The first edition, in three volumes, dated 1818, was published in Edinburgh on 30 December 1817 by Archibald Constable and Co. and in London on 13 January 1818 by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown. As with all the Waverley novels before 1827 publication was anonymous. The print run was 10,000 and the price £1 4s. Scott was involved in only two of the subsequent editions of the novel. In 1823, he made significant changes to the text for the 18-month Novels and Tales, though that was essentially a textual dead end. At the end of 1828, he revised the text for the 'Magnum' edition somewhat sporadically and provided notes and a very long introduction; it appeared as Volumes 7 and 8 in December 1829 and January 1830.
The standard modern edition by David Hewitt was published as Volume 5 of the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels in 2008. This is based on the first edition with emendations principally from Scott's manuscript; the new Magnum material is included in Volume 25a.
Plot summary
The story takes place just before the 1715 Jacobite Rising, with much of Scotland in turmoil.
Frank Osbaldistone, the narrator, quarrels with his father and is sent to stay with an uncle, Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone, in Northumberland. Frank falls in love with Diana Vernon, Sir Hildebrand's niece, whose father has been forced to go into hiding because of his Jacobite sympathies. Frank's cousin, Rashleigh, steals important documents vital to the honour and economic solvency of Frank's father, William, and Frank pursues Rashleigh to Scotland. Several times his path crosses the mysterious and powerful figure Robert Roy MacGregor, known as Rob Roy, an associate of Diana's uncle Sir Hildebrand. There is much confusion as the action shifts to the beautiful mountains and valleys around Loch Lomond. A British army detachment is ambushed and there is bloodshed. All Sir Hildebrand's sons but Rashleigh are killed in the Jacobite Rising, and Rashleigh too meets a bloody end. Following this, Frank inherits Sir Hildebrand's property and marries Diana.
The plot has been criticised as disjointed. Robert Louis Stevenson, however, who loved it from childhood, regarded Rob Roy as the best novel of the greatest of all novelists.
The novel is a brutally realistic depiction of the social conditions in Highland and Lowland Scotland in the early 18th century. The Highlanders were compared with American Indians, as regards their primitive, isolated lifestyle. Some of the dialogue is in Scots, and the novel includes a glossary of Scottish words.
Characters
Principal characters are listed in bold.
William Osbaldistone, of the firm of Osbaldistone and Tresham
Frank, his son
Mr Owen, his head clerk
Morris, a government agent
Andrew Fairservice, Frank's servant
Sir Frederick Vernon, a Jacobite
Diana (Die) Vernon, his daughter
Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone, her maternal uncle
Archie, Perceval, Thorncliff, John, Dick, and Wilfred, six of his sons
Rashleigh, his youngest son
Anthony Syddall, his butler
Squire Inglewood, a justice of the peace
Joseph Jobson, his clerk
Dougal Gregor, jailor at the Glasgow Tolbooth
Bailie Nicol Jarvie, a Glasgow merchant
Jean MacAlpine, landlady of the inn at Aberfoil
Major Duncan Galbraith of Garschattin
Allan Stuart of Iverach and Inverashalloch, two Highlanders
Father Vaughan, a Roman Catholic priest
Chapter summary
Volume One
Chapter 1: Frank Osbaldistone, the first-person narrator, is summoned home from France by his father to discuss his letter declining to take up his destined place in the family financial business Osbaldistone and Tresham.
Chapter 2: Despite his head clerk Owen's best efforts on behalf of his son, Frank's father makes plans for one of his Northumberland nephews, the sons of Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone, to fill the place in the firm. He sends Frank north to assist in the procedure.
Chapter 3: On the road, Frank encounters a traveller (who is later identified as Morris) with a particularly heavy portmanteau and teases him by encouraging his fears that he might be intending to rob him.
Chapter 4: The travellers are joined in the inn at Darlington by a Scottish gentleman called Campbell (later identified as Rob Roy) with a shrewd manner of speaking as he declines to accompany Morris as a protector.
Chapter 5: Approaching Osbaldistone Hall, Frank encounters his spirited cousin, Die, out hunting; they ride together to the hall.
Chapter 6: At dinner, Die comments caustically on five of her surviving cousins and tells Frank that the sixth, Rashleigh, is to leave home for a career with Osbaldistone and Tresham. Escaping from the circulating bottle, Frank encounters the gardener, Andrew Fairservice, who expresses his disapproval of the family's Roman Catholicism and Jacobitism.
Chapter 7: Die tells Frank that Morris, who is a government agent, has alleged before the local justice of the peace, Squire Inglewood, that Frank has robbed him of money and dispatches. Die advises Frank to flee to Scotland, but he insists on appearing before Inglewood.
Chapter 8: Arriving at Inglewood-Place, Frank and Die encounter Rashleigh who claims to have been putting in a word for Frank. The hearing before the incompetent Inglewood and his clerk, Jobson, descends into farce.
Historical setting
The story takes place just before the Jacobite rising of 1715, with much of Scotland in turmoil. A British army detachment is ambushed and there is bloodshed. The eponymous Rob Roy is badly wounded at the Battle of Glen Shiel in 1719, in which a British army of Scots and English defeat a Jacobite and Spanish expedition that aimed to restore the Stuart monarchy.
Literary and cultural setting at time of publication
Rob Roy was written at a time when many Europeans started regretting colonialism and imperialism, as reports circulated back of horrendous atrocities towards indigenous cultures. It was also a time when debates raged about the slave trade, the working class started to demand representation, and, more relevant to the novel, the disastrous effect of the Highland Clearances. During this era, William Wordsworth wrote The Conventions of Cintra, praising Spanish and Portuguese resistance to Napoleonic forces; Lord Byron would go on to praise Amazonian women in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, inverting the "polite" norms of femininity that the modern "civilized" world placed on them; and, finally, Scott would write about similar events in The Vision of Don Roderick. The term "guerrilla" came about during this period due to the influence of the Peninsular War.
Reception
Rob Roy met with a generally enthusiastic reception from the reviewers. Only three (The Anti-Unionist, The British Critic, and The Theatrical Inquisitor), were predominantly hostile. The characters were generally admired, though a degree of caricature was sometimes detected; several reviewers pointed out that some of them bore a distinct resemblance to characters in the preceding novels (Die to Flora in Waverley, Helen to Meg Merilees in Guy Mannering, and Fairservice to Dandie Dinmont in Guy Mannering and Cuddie Headrigg in Old Mortality) but they mostly noted significant variations which meant they were not mere repetitions. Although one or two reviewers were surprised by the failure of Rob to live up to his prominence in the title, he was generally judged a success. The Highland landscape descriptions and striking individual scenes also attracted much praise. Most reviewers found the story rather weak, as usual with this author, with improbable coincidences and a hurried conclusion.
Adaptations
Although there have been several heavily fictionalised feature films featuring a heroic Robert Roy MacGregor over the years, none of them to date has been directly adapted from Walter Scott's novel, in which MacGregor plays a lesser role than Frank Osbaldistone. For example, the 1995 film Rob Roy has no other connection with the novel than the name. The same is true of the 1953 film Rob Roy: The Highland Rogue.
In 1960, the Gateway Theatre in Edinburgh presented a musical adaptation of Scott's novel by Robert Kemp, with songs by Ian Robertson.
There was a 1961 British TV version.
Beverages
A brand of blended whisky, Bailie Nicol Jarvie, is named after a character from the book.
The Rob Roy cocktail is similar to a Manhattan cocktail. It first appeared in New York City around 1890.