I've loved everything that William Boyd has written, and 'The Romantic' may just be my new favourite.
He's written fictional biographies before, and this one takes the reader on a fascinating journey - surviving Waterloo, meeting Byron etc. Brilliant

Will Boyd always writes well, but this is exceptional. Telling the story of a life lived through the nineteenth century it captures many of the famous events and personalities of the time. The hero, Cashel Ross is the child of a bigamous marriage and through various ventures he wends his way across much of the known world of the time. Ingeniously plotted, thoroughly researched it reminds us of some history as well as being an exciting action packed story.. Brilliant - Boyd at his best.

Wow! William Boyd at his rip-roaring best. The master of the fictional biography (biofic? Did I just make that up?) this is the rollicking tale of Cashel Greville Ross’s ups and downs of life and love spanning a long and varied career.

It is an adventure story, a romance, a historical world tour of the 19th century. I am not a literary critic. I am simply a reader and clearly not an unbiased one as I have been a fan of William Boyd ever since A Good Man in Africa, but in my opinionated opinion, this new novel ranks alongside his best.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an advance copy. Read it for yourself and enjoy.

I really love the more recent novels of William Boyd and their structure around a mixture of true events and fictional characters and happenings, and this novel continues in that tradition. Cashel Ross is born as the 18th Century comes to an end into a family of secrets. He lives through Waterloo and meets some of the 19th Century's luminaries, including Byron and Shelley. The novel is full of action and adventure and spans continents. Sometimes the line between fiction and truth is blurred so skillfully that I was left hoping that Cashel Ross was really and truly the inventor of the first lager in America. Boyd is brilliant at moving from the intimate to the panoramic.
A lovely book. Thanks to the publishers for the opportunity to read and review an arc.

Thank you to netgalley and to the publisher, Penguin, for the opportunity to review this book.
In this novel we follow the story if Cashel Ross from his childhood in Ireland and through his life. Boyd cleverly weaves major incidents and significant individuals into this life while keeping it entirely original.
Cashel is impetuous, following his heart, and somewhat naive, trusting everyone, even when experience teaches him not to do so.
The novel is fascinating, organised into episodes which depend upon setting as well as events and relationships.
It's so beautifully written that the reader is carried along, even when feeling mild exasperation with the trusting, romantic Ross.
A perfect novel from an author who appears to be at the height if his powers.

I have read most of William Boyd's novels and was keen to read this as well. It is another epic tale detailing the long life of Cashel Greville Ross born in 1799, very much in the vein of 'Any Human Heart', as it moves through events in both Cashel's life and events of the 19th century.
Cashel is born in Scotland but very early in his life moves to Ireland to live with his aunt after the death of his parents. Then his aunt ups and takes him to Oxford where he is introduced to his 'uncle'. When Cashel discovers his 'uncle' is really his father he is so angry that he leaves and joins the army, inadvertently ending up at the battle of Waterloo. So follows his life as he travels to India, round Europe, to America and then back to England and Europe. He meets Byron and Shelley, begins an affair with a married woman, writes a book, lands in a debtor's prison, becomes a farmer and brewer, an explorer in search of the source of the Nile, a diplomat in Trieste and finally a recluse in Venice. It is a grand life, lived on a grand scale, and Boyd cleverly interweaves the details of Cashel's life with real people and real events.
At the centre of Cashel's life, and perhaps the only thing that remains constant in his rich and varied existence, is his love of the Contessa, who seems to exist fleetingly at the edge of his reach the whole time. As he gets older and begins to reflect on his life it is her his thought return to, and his chase to find her at the end of the novel makes quite a climax for a book that moves a long at a steady pace for the most part.
I found it quite remarkable that Cashel reached the age of 82 given his impulsive and headstrong nature, and to say nothing of the amount of alcohol and laudanum he consumes. In all his interactions with others Cashel appears fair and tolerant, a man of integrity throughout.
I enjoyed this novel and would be happy to recommend it, although I'd have to say I liked 'Any Human Heart' even more. With thanks to Netgalley and Penguin General UK - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business for an arc copy in return for an honest review.

Well researched, expertly plotted birth to death portrait of a man. Reader is never sure what is fact or fiction particularly when real life characters make an appearance. Boyd writes with the ease of warm butter slipping off a knife.
Thank you so much for the advance copy.

A wonderful " faction" story of the life of Cashel Greville Ross. This is in the same style as William Boyd's previous biographical novel Any Human Heart and I enjoyed it just as much. Boyd is a master at combining fact and fiction and manages to evoke the real feel of the era of each interlude in Cashel's life. He also manages to weave in famous people from the era which adds more colour to the story, in this case Shelley and Byron as well as the explorer Burton.
Cashel Greville Ross's story spans most of the 19th Century, during which great changes took place in the world, from his early life in Cork County as a child, to being a soldier, farmer, writer and father with adventures in India, America, Africa and Europe.
By the end of the novel the reader really feels that they "know" Cashel well. I found him to be a likeable but gullible character who unfortunately is consistently tricked by others. He is always searching for love and at heart is a true romantic - hence the title of the novel. I was willing him to stay alive and didn't want his story to end.
I have read all William Boyd's novels and enjoyed them all, this one was no exception and I thoroughly recommend it. My review copy was kindly given to me by the publisher and Netgalley.

Another excellent read from Boyd. He takes a character and we follow them, pretty much, from birth to death. We become invested in them, familiar with their foibles, aware of their strengths and their weaknesses.

I really enjoy this style of writing and the depth and breadth that Boyd gives his creations. Cashel Greville Ross became part of my life and I part of his. He was a writer first and foremost but also a war veteran from Waterloo, a farmer, an explorer and a lecturer. A men of interesting thoughts and impulsive actions which led him to the heights of success and the lows of imprisonment.

Boyd writes with humour and poignancy. Ross is vivid and bold, at times, even slightly irritating but always interesting.

I would strongly recommend that you take this journey alongside Cashel Greville Ross. I am confident you will enjoy it.

William Boyd is in familiar territory as he relates the long life of the good hearted and well meaning Cashel Greville Ross, lived through the extraordinary changes and turbulence of the 19th century. As Cashel is to recognise later on in life there are patterns that mark his personal history, such as following the romantic path of life, of adventures and love, adaptable, entirely comfortable with moving on, whilst leaving his family and loved ones behind. Through a life of challenges, of fortune and misfortune, he travels around the world, including Europe, India, Ceylon, Massachusetts in America, and Africa. It begins with him growing up in County Cork in Ireland, then living in Oxford with his 'Aunt', governess Elspeth Souter, the birth of his chalk and cheese twin brothers, Hogan and Buckley. The contents of a Pandora's box of a locked drawer is to reveal truths about himself that have him reeling as he runs away to become a drummer boy and a soldier who ends up injured at the Battle of Waterloo, an experience that will go on to open doors for him later on.

He is to become a commissioned army officer in the East India Company in Madras, but taking a moral stand in Ceylon has him return to explore Europe, and to write about his travels. In Pisa and Lerici, he meets and gets to know Mary and Percy Shelley, Lord 'Albe' Byron and Claire Clairemont, becoming privy to the tangle of intrigue and rivalries within the group. He encounters the love of his life in Ravenna, unavailable, a passionate love which will endure, despite barely seeing each other through the years once he leaves Italy. Whilst becoming a successful author, he is swindled by his publisher, which lands him in debtor's prison, only to embark on a new life in America on release, then go on a expedition to find the source of the Nile, there he meets Richard Burton. He is to get caught up in a Greek antiquities scandal as the Nicaraguan Consul in Trieste, this puts hims in such danger that he goes in hiding in Venice.

Cashel lives a remarkable life across the century as a soldier, a lover, a prisoner, a farmer, a family man and father, explorer, addict and consul, with some constant figures in his life, such as his brothers, Ben Smart, and later Burton himself. He is haunted by his one true love, although given the nature of his character, it perhaps survived because it never had to endure the ordinary every day pressures of marriage and family. Boyd writes a gripping story with wit and charm, vibrant and richly descriptive, with a charismatic central protagonist in Cashel, far from perfect, having to deal with the dramas of the ups and downs that occur, accompanied by his able, loyal and faithful servant, Ignatz. I recommend this to fans of William Boyd and those readers interested in the human story of a thrilling and adventurous life lived across this historical period. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

It took me a really long time to get into this book, and I was on the edge of giving up for probably the first third or so. Something made me stick with it, and I'm glad I did because I did ultimately find it very involving and became invested in the characters. It's a slightly ridiculous epic romp, full of drama and incident, ambitious and cinematic.

William Boyd is the contemporary master of the ‘whole life novel’ – books that use a character’s entire lifetime to tell a story. He wrote about how he fell into this in The Guardian back in 2018, first writing a novel in this fashion with The New Confessions. Subsequently, he has also written Any Human Heart, Sweet Caress, Nat Tate: An American Artist, and Love is Blind. With The Romantic he returns to the form, telling the story of Cashel, who we first meet as a child living in County Cork.

Cashel is being brought up by his aunt, understanding that his parents had died, but this isn’t altogether the true story. In short order our frequently impetuous lead character has run away to join the army, finding himself at the Battle of Waterloo. That’s just the beginning of his remarkable life.

I’m slightly loathe to spoil too much some of the people he meets along the way, although they represent a mix of real and fictitious people, leading towards a life that is very full indeed. Cashel spends significant periods of time in Italy, France, America and travelling through Africa at various points in his life.

The nature of a book like this means that sometimes the story must jump forward a few years as we learn what Cashel has been up to since he settled somewhere. Invariably something then happens that causes his life to change, often meaning he must go somewhere else.

Some characters are met fleetingly – others recur. And it certainly feels like Boyd has done his homework. A section dealing with a publisher of questionable morals feels entirely factual, while a section where Cashel takes up brewing feels deeply researched too. The African adventure does recall Boyd’s earliest novels, A Good Man in Africa and The Ice Cream War, both of which borrowed from Boyd’s early years in West Africa.

The story is beautifully told and carries you along even as you realise that one person probably couldn’t have managed quite the range of adventures that our protagonist manages. As a reader, you don’t worry too deeply about such things, and just go along for the ride.

WILLIAM BOYD –THE ROMANTIC *****

I read this novel in advance of publication through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

What an extraordinary and powerful and ingenious novel this is. Purported to be “The Real Life of Cashel Greville Ross, A Novel” it is written by ‘an author’ using materials written by Cashel himself ‘plus related materials that came into my possession some years ago.’

Having finished reading the novel, and looking back, many of the fragments of his life, a brittle lock of hair tied with a faded silk ribbon, a few silver dollars, a fragment of Greek amphora, are all hints of the life about to be unfolded.

Life as a boy in Ireland is not what it seems, the people around him are not who they seem, and from there it spans the whole of his long life until his death. This takes us via England, most of Europe, Africa and America. It is brilliantly told and researched incorporating real life people and places, mixed with many people and places which sound real but are not. Because of his historical research you feel that you are in the period he is describing, whether vagabonds in the street, or horse dung, or searching for the right hops to make beer, transporting ice from America to England of a quality to be used in drinks. It is fascinating, not just as the story of Cashel, but of our history. Don’t want to give away the story, but it is full of romance, both requited and unrequited, adventures that results in death, in a period of history when it takes months rather than hours to travel across the globe.

Brilliant book, brilliant conceit, brilliantly told.

The Romantic was a really good read. I’m still not sure however if it is based on a true story?
There were great descriptions of different places and well known historical events. Waterloo, American civil war etc. Underlying it all though is all is a love story

A fictional auto-biography which incorporates most of the 1800s as we follow events and relationships in the long life of Cashel Ross. It is the study of a life fully lived, and lived during an extraordinary period of history, filled with innovation and change.
This is truly escapist fiction. It made me really want to travel again, particularly after a few years grounded with the pandemic.
I particularly enjoyed the depiction of the long friendship between Cashel and Ignatz. You find yourself cheering Cashel on as he gets into all sorts of scrapes and commits misdemeanours.
I really like a book where everything is not neatly wrapped up. The loose ends where you wonder what happened to so and so, is just like life. In particular I was left with a lingering sense of wanting to know what would happen to Frannie.
The Romantic was not a five star read as Any Human Heart was, but I enjoyed my travels with Cashel.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy.

I have read many of William Boyd”s novels and very much looked forward to reading another. This was not my favourite one and I am not really sure why, possibly the character of the ‘hero’ of the story. As always Mr Boyd is well researched and writes brilliantly.
Thank you Netgally for the ARC.

A wonderful read, totally unexpected story. This is the novel out of the life of a Cashel Greville Ross (1799-1882), a man born somewhere in Scotland, brought immediately to County Cork in Ireland, and then moved to Oxford when he was 10... The author purports to write the novel of the real life of CGR based on the material (notes, correspondence, documents...) which he acquired some years before. Like Cervantes Quixote, this is a novel of episodes which build up a life filled with surprises, left motifs, direct encounters with History... I had a ball of a (short!!) time reading this wonderfully told story of a man who is totally beguiling - honest, adventurous, with a zest for life... the narrative surprised me at every turn in such a wonderfull delighted way. There is pain, love, marvel, friendship, enmity, crime, generosity... we travel the world... but I will keep quiet. The writing (as always with Boyd) is elegant, muscular, visually rich.

I loved this bildungsroman which crosses the 19c along many paths - personal, warring, colonial, exploring, technological... in such a compelling way. The epigram which opens Boyds´ novel, by Keats, points out that ¨A man´s life of any worth is a continual allegory - and very few eyes can see the mystery." Recommended heartily.

The Romantic is very much a rewrite of Any Human Heart but set in the 19th century instead of the 20th century. It's written in the third person rather than the first person, but is largely the same format of the story a whole (long) life from school to death, with successes and failures, mistakes and brilliant inspirations along the way. At the centre of it, is a love affair which the protagonist Cashel Ross has in his 20s and which he rashly breaks off. Although he has other relationships, he regrets losing the love of his life and has opportunities to renew the relationship.

The plot is very similar to Any Human Heart with lots of meetings with writers, and artists plus passionate sexual encounters. In AHH its protagonist Logan writes a book about Shelley; in this work, he appears as a character alongside Lord Byron (and later they feature in a book written by Logan). Writing best-selling books is obligatory but the art business has been largely replaced by farming and brewing beer (in America where the art gallery was in AHH).

More adventures are a quest for the source of the Nile and the theft of antiquities in Greece. These, along with writing books, and his various business activities, mean Cashel's income rises up and down and he has spells when he is wealthy and very poor, all of which will be familiar to AHH readers.

It's an enjoyable book but my main complaint is the characters don't "feel" like people from the first half of the 19th century. They seem to be inhabitants of the 21st century catapulted back 200 years. William Boyd is brilliant at writing dialogue and I especially enjoyed the first part of this book when Cashel discovers his origin and ends up joining the army and playing a minor role in Waterloo, which he subsequently milks. After that, the book starts to stretch credibility as he goes from adventure to adventure without seemingly ageing much until the end when, of course, he has to die.

If you enjoyed Any Human Heart you are almost bound to enjoy this book, but its similarity is bound to invite comparisons, and I suspect many will prefer the earlier work.

A surprisingly delightful read. A story of adventure, travels, love and regret - the never forgotten first love.
Cashew Greville Ross was born in 1799, and he grows up with his aunt in Ireland. They move to Oxford and his true heritage is revealed. He runs away and ends up on the battlefield at Waterloo. His trust and faith in others, sometimes misplaced and sometimes well founded, leads him on many travels and adventures including to India, and then Europe - his travels around France and Italy inspire him to write a book, which does well. However, debts land him in prison in London. Later, the opportunity of a new life in America arrives, and he learns a new trade. Circumstances bring him back to England, and then onto adventures in Africa and Europe. Always in the background is the memory of his first love and his wondering ‘what if’. He wonders how differently could his life have turned out, and would he have had such adventures had things been different way back when…
I loved the references to real times, people and places, particularly Byron and Shelley in Italy. Well researched and engaging.
The book had a good ending.
I have read William Boyd before, and will continue to do so. I loved it.

Another great read from William Boyd. So clever to write a biography that is fiction. The main character is flawed, but follows his gut feelings at all times and at heart is a true romantic. He lives a full life as soldier, explorer, writer, diplomat. So many adventures and all plausible. This was a great read.