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Lorna Doone - Background Information
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He published several volumes of poetry and 14 novels. The novels are pastoral and considered ill constructed with slightly grotesque humor. However, they have an intricacy in the description of the environment. Lorna Doone was his 3rd novel.
Blackmore was considered sincere and kindly as well as reserved and eccentric. As a fruit grower he was know to experiment in technique.
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He had a difficult childhood - losing his mother to typhus only a few months after his birth. An aunt, and later his father, raised him. In 1853 he married Lucy. While the marriage was happy, hardship occurred once again in long-term health issues for Lucy. He was also plagued by illness (himself) and financial worries. Blackmore suffered from cancer late in life, but died of the flu in 1900.
He was a dedicated horticulturist - especially known for his experimental cultivation of pears and peaches.
This book became so popular travel guides included tours of the area. Also many items were named for the book, including China patterns, paddle steamers, cross-stitch kits, cigarette cards, a floribunda rose, a lake and park in Orlando, Florida, and yes, the cookie.
Thank you so much for this valuable information! Before finding this group, I've never heard of the author or the book - it's exciting to learn all about it!
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Biography
Richard Doddridge Blackmore (June 7, 1825 – January 20, 1900), known as R. D. Blackmore, was one of the most famous English novelists of the second half of the nineteenth century. He won acclaim for vivid descriptions and personification of the countryside, sharing with Thomas Hardy a Western England background and a strong sense of regional setting in his works.
Blackmore often referred to as the "Last Victorian", was a pioneer of the movement in fiction that continued with Robert Louis Stevenson and others. He has been described as "proud, shy, reticent, strong-willed, sweet-tempered, and self-centered." Apart from his novel Lorna Doone, which has enjoyed continuing popularity, his work has gone out of print.
Richard Doddridge Blackmore was born at Longworth in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire), one year after his elder brother Henry (1824–1875), where his father, John Blackmore, was Curate-in-charge of the parish. His mother died a few months after his birth – the victim of an outbreak of typhus which had occurred in the village. After this loss, John Blackmore moved to his native Devon. Richard, however, was taken by his aunt, Mary Frances Knight, and after her marriage to the Rev. Richard Gordon, moved with her to Elsfield rectory, near Oxford. His father married again in 1831, whereupon Richard returned to live with him. Having spent much of his childhood in the lush and pastoral "Doone Country" of Exmoor, and along the Badgworthy Water (where there is now a memorial stone in Blackmore's honor), Blackmore came to love the very countryside he immortalized in Lorna Doone.
In 1837, Blackmore entered Blundell's School in Tiverton. He excelled in classical studies and later won a scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1847. During a university vacation, he made his first attempt at writing a novel. This was the beginning of The Maid of Sker – not, in fact, completed until many years later, and eventually published in 1872 - which he himself would come to consider his finest novel.
After leaving Oxford and spending some time as a private tutor, Blackmore decided on a career in law. He entered the Middle Temple in 1849 and was called to the Bar in 1852. Ill-health, however, prevented him from continuing legal work as a full-time occupation and in 1854, he took the post of classics master at Wellesley House Grammar School, Hampton Road, Twickenham. Soon after accepting this position, he moved from London where he lived until he moved to his new home in Teddington.
Blackmore was married on November 8, 1853 to Lucy Maguire. She was 26, a Roman Catholic and somewhat delicate, which is assumed to be the reason that they never had any children. They were both fond of her sister Agnes' four children and often had them to stay. As well as helping with their education, the Blackmores seem to have adopted Eva when she was 7. Theirs was described by Blackmore's sister as a "happy marriage."
In September 1857, Blackmore's uncle, the Rev. H.H. Knight, died and left his nephew a sum of money which enabled him to realize a long-held ambition of possessing a house in the country encompassed by a large garden.
The land selected was a 16-acre plot at Teddington which Blackmore had seen and admired for some time. Here he built his new house – completed in 1860 – in which he lived for the rest of his life. He called it Gomer House after one of his favorite dogs, a Gordon Spaniel. On the extensive grounds he created an 11-acre market garden specializing in the cultivation of fruit. The grounds were surrounded by high walls which served to keep out thieves and to aid the ripening of tender fruit. His knowledge of horticulture was extensive, but through competition and other factors, the business was not a very lucrative enterprise except in his supply of pears to Covent Garden. However, he is believed to have held the view that he preferred to be remembered as the winner of first prize for swedes (turnips) than as the author of Lorna Doone.
At the time Blackmore came to Teddington, the railway had not yet disturbed its quiet rural atmosphere. Before long, however, plans were in hand for the purchase of land and the construction of lines. In 1868, Blackmore won a fight against the claims made on his property by the London and South Western Railway Company, but he was unable to prevent the building of the railway station almost directly opposite his house.
Blackmore began a career as a writer by publishing collections of poetry, before turning to novel-writing. His third novel, which became his best known and most successful, Lorna Doone (1869), established him in the front rank of British novelists of that time. With it, he pioneered a new romantic movement in English fiction. The novel's overwhelming popularity was only secured when it appeared as a one-volume edition, as distinct from the unsuccessful three-volume form in which it was originally published. However, Blackmore was of the view that it had become popular quite by accident when a book reviewer had incorrectly stated that the book was about the forefathers of Lord Lorne who had recently married Princess Louise. Various attempts were made to dramatise Lorna Doone, but Blackmore only authorised one and that was from the pen of Horace Newte.
His wife's health began to deteriorate and became critical by the beginning of January 1888, and she died at the end of that month. After her death, Blackmore was looked after by her nieces, Eva and Adalgisa Pinto-Leite. Blackmore died at Teddington on January 20, 1900, after a long and painful illness, and was buried next to his wife, as per his request. His final letter was to his sister Ellen, who likewise was suffering a terminal illness.
Blackmore's two nieces continued to live in Gomer House; Amelia died in 1911 and was also buried in the Blackmore grave. Then in October 1938 there was an auction of all its contents, which included Blackmore's own library containing first editions of his works. The house itself was later demolished and Doone Close, Blackmore's Grove and Gomer Gardens were built, referencing the novelist's associations with Teddington.
General Overview
Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor is a novel by English author Richard Doddridge Blackmore, 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.
Blackmore experienced difficulty in finding a publisher, and the novel was first published anonymously in 1869, in a limited three-volume edition of just 500 copies, of which only 300 sold. The following year it was republished in an inexpensive one-volume edition and became a huge critical and financial success. It has never been out of print.
Critical Reception
Lorna Doone received acclaim from Blackmore's contemporary, Margaret Oliphant, and as well from later Victorian writers including Robert Louis Stevenson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Thomas Hardy. George Gissing wrote in a letter to his brother Algernon that the novel was "quite admirable, approaching Scott as closely as anything since the latter". A favorite among females, it is also popular among male readers and was chosen by male students at Yale in 1906 as their favorite novel.
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Looking forward to Having you join us
I am continuing, but I am a bit behind. It is fine with me if we adjust the reading schedule.
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I’m usually behind when I participate. It’s not a problem. Charlotte, I was lucky enough to be in your country last year. I immediately fell in love. The Danes are amazing people. Stay safe.
Excellent info! Gem, I particularly enjoyed author info. Looks like he used bits of his life in Lorna Doone.
If you want to get an idea of the countryside in this book, here is a nice video:https://youtu.be/aDhxiYqj-1o
by ExmoorNP
Exmoor National Park
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Charlotte wrote: "If you want to get an idea of the countryside in this book, here is a nice video:https://youtu.be/aDhxiYqj-1o
by ExmoorNP
Exmoor National Park"
This is beautiful. Thanks for sharing
