«Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor» is a novel by English author Richard Doddridge Blackmore, firsly published in 1869. It is a romance based on a group of historical characters and set in the late 17th century in Devon and Somerset, particularly around the East Lyn Valley area of Exmoor. In 2003, the novel was listed on the BBC’s survey The Big Read.
According to the preface, the work is a romance and not a historical novel, because the author neither «dares, nor desires, to claim for it the dignity or cumber it with the difficulty of an historical novel.» As such, it combines elements of traditional romance, of Sir Walter Scott’s historical novel tradition, of the pastoral tradition, of traditional Victorian values, and of the contemporary sensation novel trend. The basis for Blackmore’s historical understanding is Macaulay’s History of England and its analysis of the Monmouth rebellion. Along with the historical aspects are folk traditions, such as the many legends based around both the Doones and Tom Faggus.
The ebook «Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor» from Animedia Company contains a preface by Katharine Hillard and an essay ‘Lorna Doone’ from ‘Essays On Modern Novelists’ by William Lyon Phelps, and also 17 colorful illustrations by Charles Edmund Brock and and Gordon Frederick Browne.
