“The Romantic” by William Boyd
A new novel from William Boyd is always something his devoted readers look forward to and they will not be disappointed by “The Romantic” which boldly declares it is by the author of “Any Human Heart”. The comparison is very valid as the story follows the life of an individual across his life-span of some 80 years.
Cashel Greville Ross, born in 1799 is introduced to the reader as a boy growing up in County Cork, in rural Ireland, an orphan, being bought up by his Aunt, Elspeth Soutar, governess to the two daughters of the Stilwell’s local gentry. A happy childhood which is then uprooted to Oxford when Elspeth’s situation changes and finances improve. Here again Cashel seems content until he starts his lifetime of roving the world. Much happens in this section which the reader will want to discover.
His travels see him involved in the Battle of Waterloo; then out in India and Sri Lanka with the East Indian Army before returning to Europe and time spent mainly in Italy where he meets the love of his life, Raphaella. In Pisa he spends time socialising with Byron and Shelley before moving on to France becoming a writer himself, with some success, then returning to live in London and to reconnect with Elspeth and their Oxford roots.
Alongside his travels he meets a myriad of interesting people who enter the story some of whom return later in his life to much alter his circumstances and well-being. Cashel farms, eventually successfully, in America where he settles down and marries a local girl of Irish origins and becomes a father. However, his life always seems to have something to unsettle the equilibrium of the life he has established wherever he has settled forcing him always to move on to yet another experience or adventure. His trip to Zanzibar with a fellow officer from his time in India another example of an itinerant life.
Much happens in this novel and to Cashel and his family, his loves and losses; Raphaella always somewhere in his thoughts, his travails drive the book forward to the next section of his life, sometimes sequentially, elsewhere jumping a number of years but always relentlessly onward to the next episode. Cashel is hardly ever alone after his time in America, he has constant company, Ignatz, who worked on the farm and becomes a faithful companion and servant. They share the good times and the bad they are many ups and downs.
I enjoyed “The Romantic” as ever William Boyd has written a book which reads well and is well written. He is recounting a story which the author informs us is based on some papers that came into his possession making his audience consider that all might not be fiction. Boyd’s Nat Tate duping of his readership came to mind!. Here we witness the events of the 19th century be it alongside Cashel or as historic background to the setting of that part of his life. A good holiday read with the paperback nicely timed for April publication.
