John Splendid; the Tale of a Poor Gentleman and the Little Wars of Lorn

by Neil Munro

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Genres: Scotland

484 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1898

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Neil Munro was a Scottish journalist, newspaper editor, author and literary critic. He was born in Inveraray and worked as a journalist on various newspapers.

He was basically a serious writer, but is now mainly known for his humorous short stories, originally written under the pen name of Hugh Foulis. (It seems that he was not making a serious attempt to disguise his identity, but wanted to keep his serious and humorous writings separate.) The best known were about the fictional Clyde puffer the Vital Spark and her captain Para Handy, but they also included stories about the waiter and kirk beadle Erchie MacPherson, and the travelling drapery salesman Jimmy Swan.

Reviews

[Mr Alistair · Rating 5 out of 5]

An alternative romantic Highland tale from Scottish history

The story of two friends & cousins (& their love triangle), both proud Gaels & members of Clan Campbell in their desperate fight against the Catholic & Episcopalian MacDonalds as part of Scotland's mid 1600s civil war between Covenanters & Royalists in the wider Wars of the Three Kingdoms - one a shy, but earnestly pious young man, the other a gallus & slightly cynical former mercenary with Gustavus Adolphus in the Thirty Years' War. The enemy are truthfully presented as being no better or worse, with a couple of real historical Highlanders featuring - namely the Campbell chief himself, Argyll the politician & the worthy MacDonald adversary, the great warrior, Alasdair MacColla.

[Robin Cunninghame Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm ashamed to admit that I'd only ever read Munro's Para Handy stories, but have now put that right by reading this his first novel.

It is a good yarn about a turbulent period of Scottish history. I like how he doesn't take sides, even though his heroes are Campbells. Munro shows himself to be both a good storyteller and good historian. The only negative thing for me was his strange spellings which did nothing to add to the story. I look forward to reading some of his Jacobite novels.

[Lenaïk · Rating 4 out of 5]

D'une densité littéraire impressionnante. Parfois un peu trop, d'ailleurs. Les aventures d'Elrigmore et de Splendid ressemblent celles de Rob Roy, peut-être un soupçon d'Outlander, mais ce n'est que 1644, et les héros sont des Campbell. Leurs fameux heurts contre les MacDonald finiront à Glencoe de manière funeste, comme on le sait.

[Rog Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read the author's Para Handy tales many times over the last forty years but the only other stories I had come across by him were some short stories in an anthology so I was pleased to see this novel in the library.

It is set in the seventeenth century during the civil war and although it was first published in 1898 the author writes using many old fashioned words especially for names of places. The hero, Colin, is a good character who sometimes does not really understand what is happening and his companion Iain McIver, the John Splendid of the title, is a well drawn character for all his faults.

[Ruth Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Longwinded, but the story was enjoyable at the core, and was an interesting invocation of the highland culture in Argyle