Rose of the Wilderness (First published in 1909)
Set up high in the Galloway Hills, this novel takes Rose Gordon, a girl who declares; ‘I was seventeen and I had never seen a row of lighted shop windows,’ and sends her on quite a journey. Not only does the novel travel widely around Galloway, but Rose’s journey takes her to Paris and the South of England and Edinburgh before returning home to the Galloway Hills.
Crockett sets the harshness of nature in winter against the unscrupulous manner of landowners who hold immense power over their sheep-farming tenants. Rose gets involved in all kinds of ‘scrapes’ in an attempt to get back money they are owed and prevent her father being ruined and the family being made homeless from the little farm they eke a living from in the depths of the Galloway Hills.
There’s plenty to recommend this novel, from the remarkable descriptions of nature, especially in winter, which remind one of Turner paintings, to details about travel, particularly rail travel; from the harshness of stock rearing to the humour of sheep dogs.
If on the surface, ‘Rose of the Wildnerness’ is a love story, perhaps even a light romance, underneath there is some very strong stuff. There is love and death, humour and madness in equal measure. Crockett has written about madness before, but in ‘Rose of the Wilderness’ it is perhaps less supernaturally inspired and more seen as a consequence of the reality of the life lived by those whose lives are ‘controlled’ by nature on the one hand and powerful but unscrupulous landlords on the other. Madness may be brought about by unrequited love but the consequences are seen from the perspective of a harsh, rural reality. This provides an interesting juxtaposition to the surface story and means that ‘Rose of the Wilderness’ more than punches above its weight as a romance and has much to offer readers who are looking for that little bit more than a standard romance story.
Set up high in the Galloway Hills, this novel takes Rose Gordon, a girl who declares; ‘I was seventeen and I had never seen a row of lighted shop windows,’ and sends her on quite a journey. Not only does the novel travel widely around Galloway, but Rose’s journey takes her to Paris and the South of England and Edinburgh before returning home to the Galloway Hills.
Crockett sets the harshness of nature in winter against the unscrupulous manner of landowners who hold immense power over their sheep-farming tenants. Rose gets involved in all kinds of ‘scrapes’ in an attempt to get back money they are owed and prevent her father being ruined and the family being made homeless from the little farm they eke a living from in the depths of the Galloway Hills.
There’s plenty to recommend this novel, from the remarkable descriptions of nature, especially in winter, which remind one of Turner paintings, to details about travel, particularly rail travel; from the harshness of stock rearing to the humour of sheep dogs.
If on the surface, ‘Rose of the Wildnerness’ is a love story, perhaps even a light romance, underneath there is some very strong stuff. There is love and death, humour and madness in equal measure. Crockett has written about madness before, but in ‘Rose of the Wilderness’ it is perhaps less supernaturally inspired and more seen as a consequence of the reality of the life lived by those whose lives are ‘controlled’ by nature on the one hand and powerful but unscrupulous landlords on the other. Madness may be brought about by unrequited love but the consequences are seen from the perspective of a harsh, rural reality. This provides an interesting juxtaposition to the surface story and means that ‘Rose of the Wilderness’ more than punches above its weight as a romance and has much to offer readers who are looking for that little bit more than a standard romance story.
