John Burnet of Barns

John Burnet of Barns
Author John Buchan
Country Scotland
Language English
Genre Novel
Publisher John Lane
Publication date
 1895
Media type Print

John Burnet of Barns is an 1898 novel by Scottish author John Buchan. It was his second novel, first published in serial form in Chambers’ Journal.[1]

Plot

The novel is set in Tweeddale in Scotland and follows the adventures of John Burnet, a relative of the 17th-century historian Gilbert Burnet.[2] The book is written as an autobiography detailing the plot from the viewpoint of the eponymous writer. Burnet is brought up as the only son of a minor landowner in Tweeddale and falls in love with a neighbour's daughter, Marjory Veitch, who was his childhood playmate. He becomes a scholar in Glasgow but returns when he hears his soldier cousin, also named Gilbert Burnet, is trying to court Marjory. They quarrel and Gilbert leaves the country, John's father dies as a result of his anger at Gilbert. John decides to travel and study in the Netherlands at the university in Leyden, there he encounters Gilbert again and they fight a duel which John wins. Gilbert returns to Scotland and John receives a mysterious letter from Marjory indicating she is in difficulty. John returns to find that Gilbert has falsely denounced him as a traitor and he is hunted around the Borders by Gilbert's soldiers. He takes Marjory to shelter with a kinsman while he takes to the hills. Gilbert finds Marjory and tricks her into accompanying him to his estate in the west of Scotland. John follows and helps her escape then confronts Gilbert. They fight again but Gilbert is shot by one of his own soldiers who has a grudge against him. King James II is deposed by William of Orange so John is pardoned and regains his land. He marries Marjory and the story ends.

Critical reception

Buchan was not entirely satisfied with the novel, and wrote to a friend, “To tell the truth I am rather ashamed of it; it is so very immature and boyish. I had no half serious interest in fiction when I wrote it and the result is a sort of hotch-potch". Early reviews were mixed, but confirmed that Buchan was a writer to watch. The Labour Leader opined that it was "a most remarkable work for so young a man".[1]

David Daniell, in The Interpreter's House (1975), states that, in spite of faults of inexperience, this is a fine book for a first long novel. Although the book is indeed a ‘hotch-potch’, it is a fascinating one in which Buchan, with evidence of a lot of thought, reworks big themes.[3] Daniell concludes that the book is “a clever, searching analysis of non–commitment done with a good deal of novelistic skill, at the fringes of a more frightening darkness".[4]

References

  1. 1 2 Lownie, Andrew (2013). John Buchan: The Presbyterian Cavalier. Thistle Publishing. pp. 38–39. ISBN 978-1-909609-99-0.
  2. ↑ Daniell, David (1975). The Interpreter's House. Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd. p. 55. ISBN 0 17 146051 0.
  3. ↑ Daniell, David (1975). The Interpreter's House. Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd. p. 58. ISBN 0 17 146051 0.
  4. ↑ Daniell, David (1975). The Interpreter's House. Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd. p. 61. ISBN 0 17 146051 0.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.