Classics Narrated

For listeners who may want further information on the historical background of Lorna Doone, my spouse and I offer this.

John, exhausted, wounded, and sick, believes Lorna dead. Almost, but Ruth brings her back with devoted care, and Lorna's recovery enables John's.

Lorna, in charge of herself (thanks to bribing Lord Jeffreys), returns to John and Plover's Barrows. Their wedding is tragically disrupted by Carver, who finally faces John's implacable wrath.

Local people, under John's leadership, fight to rid themselves of the murderous Doones. Much is unsettled after the battle, and the most dangerous Doone, Carver, escapes.

Sir John returns to Exmoor and finds the Doones have newly outraged their long-suffering neighbors. He tries to talk them into making amends. When they refuse with bullets, he joins the plan for a new attack.

John and Lorna see one another after long separation, and come to a clear understanding, despite her rank and wealth. John prevents her uncle from being robbed, and gains royal regard.

John is led to badly wounded rebel Tom by Winnie, Tom's mare. Tom escapes, but innocent John is captured, and threatened with death. Reprieved to wait trial in London, he hears there from Lorna.

Annie boldly obtains a truce from the Doones, freeing John to search for her husband, who rashly joined the Monmouth Rebellion. Amid carnage, John finds a sign of Tom.

Lives of ordinary people and outlaws alike change when Charles II dies. Disturbances follow, which John tries to ignore in his sorrow at Lorna's absence and silence, but he is caught up too.

In Lorna's absence, sharp tempers and hurt feelings abound. John seeks comfort from sister Annie at her new home. Getting none, and giving less, he goes to cousin Ruth in Dulverton.

John reunites Gwenny and her father. He's challenged to wrestle an even bigger man in Cornwall. While he's away, Lorna is taken by court order from the farm, to live with her guardian in London.

John reflects on a legend about Wizard's Slough, where he meets Uncle Reuben. He is shown his uncle's secret, meets a sceptical Cornishman, and breaks a big obstacle.

John visits the forlorn grave of Lorna's mother, and reunites Lorna with her nanny. Tom convinces John and Mrs. Ridd to allow his marriage to Annie. John is sent to Dulverton to buy gifts, where Uncle Reuben promises to disclose his secret.

Lorna and John's love is tested by news of her wealth, rank, and legal jeopardy. John seeks Lorna's nurse, to verify her identity.

Jeremy leads the rival militias of Devon and Somerset against the Doone stronghold. Agents of the Court of Chancery seek Lorna and her estate at the Ridd's farm.

Jeremy tells John of meeting the hostess of an inn; she came to England from Italy, in service to a noble family, and reveals the tragic end of Lorna's real parents.

Counsellor Doone visits the Ridds, intimidates, flatters, and tells Lorna and John that their fathers killed one another. Failing to split them, the Counsellor steals Lorna's precious necklace.

Lorna's presence in John's life causes a stir in the neighborhood, the household, and especially with Cousin Ruth.

John and Jeremy prepare to defend the farm from marauding Doones. Carver threatens Lorna. She wakes the weary John, and reinforced, they fight off the Doones.

Despite floods, Squire Faggus visits Plover's Barrows, and finds Lorna's necklace tremendously valuable. Jeremy Stickles makes his way there afterwards, chased by three murderous Doones.

Lorna and Gwenny are rescued by John from the Doones, despite the blizzard. The Ridds receive Lorna into their home, and spring comes, with threat of flood.

A fierce blizzard endangers all the livestock, and separates John and Lorna. His bookworm sister suggests snowshoes and sled, which bring him to Lorna and Gwenny, with chance of escape from starvation or forced marriage.

Lorna summons John Ridd for a difficult talk with her dying grandfather, patriarch of the Doones. After his funeral, perilous winter weather sets in.

John Ridd learns of plans to raid the outlaw Doones, risking Lorna's safety. Tom Faggus wins pardon for highway robbery, but a posse plans to shoot him on his way home.

John Fry neglects his farm work to help Jeremy Stickles, much to John Ridd's annoyance. John Ridd narrowly escapes murder by Doones pursuing Jeremy Stickles, who John saves from ambush.

John, desperate to hear from Lorna, makes his will and scouts Glen Doone. At risk of his life, he finds Lorna, meets Gwenny, and new signals are set.

Relationships clarify, as Mrs. Ridd learns of Annie's commitment to Tom Faggus, and John's to Lorna. Ruth's feelings are hurt, Lorna gives John a ring, and communication stops.

John has no idea why he can't see Lorna until Betty Muxworthy makes him help feed the pigs. Thanks to Betty's hint, he and Lorna reach an understanding.

Mysteries abound: an unidentified intruder, Uncle Ben visits without stating his purpose, and John Fry sees what he takes for a ghost when spying on Uncle Ben.

Lorna and John agree to spend two months apart. The harvest begins, John and his sister Annie confide in one another, and the Ridds host a harvest dance.

John's interview with the "Hanging Judge," Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys, goes surprisingly well. With difficulty, he returns home, loving it more for being away, and meets Lorna again.

John and Jeremy Stickles travel to London, avoiding highwaymen. In London, John finds a member of the bar as greedy as any knight of the road.

Lorna and John arrange a signal, and that John is not to return to the Glen for at least one month. John finds separation hard, particularly in the beauty of Spring. As the month is up, John is summoned to court in London, much against his inclination.

Lorna explains her circumstances: isolated, frightened, and mystified about how she came to be among the cruel, violent Doones. She also tells John about a young cousin who came to bring her to her respectable family, and his murder.

John's hopes of Lorna are cast down by his interview with Mother Melldrum. Undaunted, he keeps his feelings for Lorna secret, returns to visit her with a gift of fresh eggs, and wins her confidence by his self-control.

John returns to Glen Doone on St. Valentine's Day, where he meets Lorna again. He falls in love, can't concentrate, loses himself in work, and seeks advice of a "wise woman" about when he should venture to see Lorna next.

Uncle Reuben vents his resentment over being robbed on his relatives and their guests. Mollified by their hospitality, he goes with John to the local squire, for justice. Humiliated there, they scout the Doones' stronghold to plan future action.

John tells of his cousin, a popular highway robber, and uncle, a prosperous merchant, who falls in with a different sort of thief.

A dashing kinsman rescues an animal, allows John to try to ride his fine horse, and ingratiates himself with the family.

This chapter, in which fourteen year-old John kisses eight year-old Lorna, made me uncomfortable. The strangeness persisted to a certain extent as I narrated the chapter, but both John and Lorna were uncomfortable with the kiss, bashful, unselfconscious, and each innocently drawn to the other. No carnal element in the mutual interest can be discerned, only a preoccupation as John remembers. Indeed, Blackmore clearly states that John at that age found kissing in general repugnant, which makes his impulsive salute to Lorna all the more exceptional, almost an unwilling tribute to her precocious beauty.

Fourteen year-old John meets eight year-old Lorna, who helps him escape the Doones' stronghold. He returns to the family farm, never forgetting her.

We learn more about the Ridd household, John's preparation for defense, and a fishing trip that leads him astray, into danger.

Young John learns his father's fate, his mother pleads for justice, and we learn how the Doones came to Exmoor.

John Fry and young John Ridd encounter two very different groups of travelers on their way home.

"...a simple tale told simply..." begins the story of John Ridd, in his maturity, looking back at his schoolboy days, before he met the lovely and mysterious Lorna.

Continuously in print since its publication (though not an immediate bestseller), here are a few of R.D. Blackmore's prefaces, still of interest, at least to the scholar.