Outlander

, #1

Paperback, 880 pages

English language

Published Sept. 1, 2020 by Arrow Books.

ISBN:
978-1-78475-137-1
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4 stars (80 reviews)

1946, and Claire Randall goes to the Scottish Highlands with her husband Frank. It’s a second honeymoon, a chance to learn how war has changed them and to re-establish their loving marriage. But one afternoon, Claire walks through a circle of standing stones and vanishes into 1743, where the first person she meets is a British army officer - her husband’s six-times great-grandfather.

Unfortunately, Black Jack Randall is not the man his descendant is, and while trying to escape him, Claire falls into the hands of a gang of Scottish outlaws, and finds herself a Sassenach - an outlander - in danger from both Jacobites and Redcoats.

Marooned amid danger, passion and violence, her only chance of safety lies in Jamie Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior. What begins in compulsion becomes urgent need, and Claire finds herself torn between two very different men, in two irreconcilable lives.

19 editions

Un coup de cœur bien évidemment.

5 stars

Alors que Claire Randall effectue sa deuxième lune de miel avec mon mari Franck en Écosse après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, elle se retrouve projetée deux ans dans le passé, au milieu des Highlands sauvages. Son but premier, retrouvé son temps et son mari, mais les épreuves seront rudes. Va-t-elle y arriver ou va-t-elle seulement le vouloir ?

Avant de devenir une fan des romans, car oui, je pense que je lui déjà devenue, je suis une immense fan de la série et quel plaisir ce fut de retrouver des personnages et des lieux si chers à mon cœur par ce nouveau prisme des mots !

J'ai tout simplement adoré, c'est un magnifique pavé de 900 pages et pourtant, j'ai été absorbée du début à la fin et j'ai été très triste en le refermant. Loin d'une répétition avec la série, on a évidemment le droit à beaucoup plus de …

reviewed Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander (1))

Review of 'Outlander' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

I can't remember when/how this made it on my to-read list but I've owned the audiobook for a while and finally listened to it. It took my a laughably long time listening to realize this was a mashup of sci-fi, historical fiction, and romance.

I found some overlooked details in the history/Sci-Fi distracting, but I mostly found the romantic aspect of the book unsettling, mostly because "women are property" and "consent isn't important" in the time period of this book. Presumably the questionable treatment of sexuality and abuse were for historical accuracy, but it eventually started to feel like it was somehow for the reader's benefit (which felt a bit gross honestly). Reading this from my perspective living in 2021 is unsettling. "No doesn't always mean no" in this book.

I did enjoy aspects of the "20th century person with medical knowledge is suddenly living 200 years ago" plot. I …

reviewed Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander (1))

Review of 'Outlander' on 'Storygraph'

2 stars

DNF about halfway through after this:


<spoiler>It's totally okay to beat your wife so long as it's because you rescued her from the evil homosexual who raped your sister and caused you, personally, such distress that you can't see her again. You can make it up to your wife by telling her about that time you almost wet yourself in public. That's definitely the worst thing that's ever happened to you, not that time that the evil homosexual nearly beat you to death in front of your dad, which caused him to have a stroke and die on the spot. This is all totally fine, especially since you ended up enjoying beating your wife and promised not to do it again.</spoiler>


For years I'd heard that this story is a fun, feminist, time-travel romance. Actually reading it made my head spin. Are y'all okay? Like, no shade, enjoy what you …

reviewed Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander (1))

Review of 'Outlander' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Let's start by saying trigger warnings for rape and domestic violence. They are contextual to the time period (1743), but if those are a problem for you, don't read this book. Secondly, definite homophobic tones to the book also; and again, while this isn't exactly inappropriate for 1743 Scotland, it was also a choice the author made to apparently equate homosexuality with the more villainous characters, cumulating in a homosexual rape. I found this a problematic choice and it makes me a bit dubious about what direction the rest of the books in the series will take.

Those warnings aside, it IS an interesting story of a post-WWII nurse named Claire who's whisked back in time from 1945 to 1743 Scotland, where she meets fiery-haired James Fraser and is swept into the fighting and intrigue of the Scottish clans, the Jacobites, and the wars against the English, all while trying …

reviewed Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander (1))

Review of 'Outlander' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Super trashy. But very readable.

Historical inaccuracies that should have been easy to avoid, which made me nuts.

1. There wasn't such a thing as "clan tartan" in 1743-1744. That was a Victorian-era invention after tartan had been banned for 100+ years following the failure of the Jacobite Revolution in 1745.
2. Why are all the Highlanders speaking English? They would have spoken Gaelic most of the time.
3. If they're speaking English, they would have known what "fuck" meant, in the contemporary meaning, and would have said it instead of "swive", which is from an earlier period of English.

As others have reported, it's rapey. I don't know if the Jamie-Claire "marital rape" stuff is actually that "rapey" -- it's a "gentle" rape fantasy, which I guess is something that a lot of readers find super sexy. It's a symptom of stunted sexuality in a misogynistic puritanical culture, rather …

reviewed Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander (1))

Review of 'Outlander' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I really enjoyed this book. My best friend suggested me reading it but still being busy with another one, I postponed starting it. Netflix apparently knew that I was into this kind of story so it suggested the series which I started watching – without even realising the connection (I had forgotten the name of the book series). After my best friend found out and told me the connection, I immediately started reading and just could not put the book down – something that rarely happens to me except for when I find a really involving story. This was definitely one of them.
There's a lot of horrors in this book and I was shocked how well (but at the same time horrible) explained it is. Despite all the horrible things happening, I loved the book a lot – especially because of it playing in Scotland! The ending is a …

Review of 'Outlander' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Claire Randall found herself time travelling from 1945 to 1743. She was just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon but then she walks through an ancient stone circle and finds herself in the midst of a war torn Scotland being raided by the Highland clans. She finds a young Scot warrior and becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire.

Contrary to popular belief, I didn’t read this book along with the Vaginal Fantasy book club; I did it because this is my wife’s favourite series and I needed a romance novel for the Literary Exploration challenge. I’m not really a fan of romances (Wuthering Heights is still the greatest romance of all time) so I wasn’t sure what I was getting into here but be warned, even though I want to talk about all the things that didn’t work for me, it …

reviewed Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander (1))

Review of 'Outlander' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I'll never forget the day the girls in the office talked about this book, sighing "Oh Jamie ...." and all the guys had big question marks in their eyes. Repeat this scene everytime women talk about this book ;) This book made me even like Jamie Lannister (for those SoIaF fans out there)

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Subjects

  • Man-woman relationships
  • Historical fiction
  • Culloden, Battle of, Scotland, 1746
  • Jacobite Rebellion, 1745-1746 in fiction
  • History
  • Scotland in fiction
  • Fiction
  • Jacobite Rebellion, 1745-1746
  • Culloden, Battle of Scotland, 1746
  • Time travel in fiction
  • Culloden, Battle of, Scotland, 1746 in fiction
  • Man-woman relationships in fiction
  • Love stories
  • Time travel
  • Jacobite Rebellion (1745-1746) fast (OCoLC)fst00981043
  • War stories
  • Historical
  • Culloden, Battle of (Scotland : 1746) fast (OCoLC)fst00884970
  • Fantastic fiction
  • FICTION
  • Romance
  • Fantasy
  • Space and time
  • Time Travel
  • Fantasy fiction
  • Fiction, romance, time travel
  • Fraser, claire (fictitious character), fiction
  • Fiction, romance, historical
  • Fiction, historical
  • Fraser, jamie (fictitious character), fiction
  • Jacobite rebellion, 1745-1746, fiction
  • Scotland, fiction
  • nyt:combined-print-and-e-book-fiction=2014-01-19
  • New York Times bestseller

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