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![Outlander: A Novel (Outlander, Book 1) by [Diana Gabaldon]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51PrW27sXWL._SY346_.jpg)
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Outlander: A Novel (Outlander, Book 1) Kindle Edition
Diana Gabaldon
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LanguageEnglish
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PublisherDell
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Publication dateOctober 26, 2004
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File size3880 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Marvelous and fantastic adventures, romance, sex . . . perfect escape reading.”—San Francisco Chronicle, on Outlander
“History comes deliciously alive on the page.”—New York Daily News, on Outlander
“Gabaldon is a born storyteller. . . . The pages practically turn themselves.”—The Arizona Republic, on Dragonfly in Amber
“Triumphant . . . Her use of historical detail and a truly adult love story confirm Gabaldon as a superior writer.”—Publishers Weekly, on Voyager
“Unforgettable characters . . . richly embroidered with historical detail.”—The Cincinnati Post, on Drums of Autumn
“A grand adventure written on a canvas that probes the heart, weighs the soul and measures the human spirit across [centuries].”—CNN, on The Fiery Cross
“The large scope of the novel allows Gabaldon to do what she does best, paint in exquisite detail the lives of her characters.”—Booklist, on A Breath of Snow and Ashes
“Features all the passion and swashbuckling that fans of this historical fantasy series have come to expect.”—People, on Written in My Own Heart’s Blood
Amazon.com Review
While on her second honeymoon in the British Isles, Claire touches a boulder that hurls her back in time to the forbidden Castle Leoch with the MacKenzie clan. Not understanding the forces that brought her there, she becomes ensnared in life-threatening situations with a Scots warrior named James Fraser. But it isn't all spies and drudgery that she must endure. For amid her new surroundings and the terrors she faces, she is lured into love and passion like she's never known before.
I was lame and sore in every muscle when I woke next morning. I shuffled to the privy closet, then to the wash basin. My innards felt like churned butter. It felt as though I had been beaten with a blunt object, I reflected, then thought that that was very near the truth. The blunt object in question was visible as I came back to bed, looking now relatively harmless. Its possessor [Jamie] woke as I sat next to him, and examined me with something that looked very much like male smugness."Gabaldon creates characters that you'll remember, laugh with, cry with, and cheer for long after you've finished the book. --Candy Paape --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
About the Author
From the Hardcover edition. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
From AudioFile
From the Back Cover
In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon -- when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach -- an "outlander" -- in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord...1743.
Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire's destiny is soon inextricably intertwined with Clan MacKenzie and the forbidding Castle Leoch. She is catapulted without warning into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life...and shatter her heart. For here, James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
From the Inside Flap
In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon--when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach--an "outlander"--in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord...1743.
Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire's destiny in soon inextricably intertwined with Clan MacKenzie and the forbidden Castle Leoch. She is catapulted without warning into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life ...and shatter her heart. For here, James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
From the Publisher
--Publishers Weekly
"Stunning!"
--Los Angeles Daily News
"It is a large canvas that Gabaldon paints, filled with strong passions and derring-do. Strong willed and sensual, Claire is an engaging modern heroine plopped down in a simpler, more primitive time.... Great fun ...marvelous and fantastic adventures, romance, sex ...perfect escape reading!"
--San Francisco Chronicle
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
From Kirkus Reviews
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
He sat staring into the fire for a long time. Finally he looked up at me, hands clasped around his knees.
"I said before that I'd not ask ye things ye had no wish to tell me. And I'd not ask ye now; but I must know, for your safety as well as mine." He paused, hesitating.
"Claire, if you've never been honest wi' me, be so now, for I must know the truth. Claire, are ye a witch?"
I gaped at him. "A witch? You — you can really ask that?" I thought he must be joking. He wasn't.
He took me by the shoulders and gripped me hard, staring into my eyes as though willing me to answer him.
"I must ask it, Claire! And you must tell me!"
"And if I were?" I asked through dry lips. "If you had thought I were a witch? Would you still have fought for me?"
"I would have gone to the stake with you!" he said violently. "And to hell beyond, if I must. But may the Lord Jesus have mercy on my soul and on yours, tell me the truth!"
The strain of it all caught up with me. I tore myself out of his grasp and ran across the clearing. Not far, only to the edge of the trees; I could not bear the exposure of the open space. I clutched a tree; put my arms around it and dug my fingers hard into the bark, pressed my face to it and shrieked with hysterical laughter.
Jamie's face, white and shocked, loomed up on the other side of the tree. With the dim realization that what I was doing must sound unnervingly like cackling, I made a terrific effort and stopped. Panting, I stared at him for a moment.
"Yes," I said, backing away, still heaving with gasps of unhinged laughter. "Yes, I am a witch! To you, I must be. I've never had smallpox, but I can walk through a room full of dying men and never catch it. I can nurse the sick and breathe their air and touch their bodies, and the sickness can't touch me. I can't catch cholera, either, or lockjaw, or the morbid sore throat. And you must think it's an enchantment, because you've never heard of vaccine, and there's no other way you can explain it."
"The things I know — " I stopped backing away and stood still, breathing heavily, trying to control myself. "I know about Jonathan Randall because I was told about him. I know when he was born and when he'll die, I know about what he's done and what he'll do, I know about Sandringham because ... because Frank told me. He knew about Randall because he ... he ... oh, God!" I felt as though I might be sick, and closed my eyes to shut out the spinning stars overhead.
"And Colum ... he thinks I'm a witch, because I know Hamish isn't his own son. I know ... he can't sire children. But he thought I knew who Hamish's father is ... I thought maybe it was you, but then I knew it couldn't be, and..." I was talking faster and faster, trying to keep the vertigo at bay with the sound of my own voice.
"Everything I've ever told you about myself was true," I said, nodding madly as though to reassure myself. "Everything. I haven't any people, I haven't any history, because I haven't happened yet.
"Do you know when I was born?" I asked, looking up. I knew my hair was wild and my eyes staring, and I didn't care. "On the twentieth of October, in the Year of Our Lord nineteen hundred and eighteen. Do you hear me?" I demanded, for he was blinking at me unmoving, as though paying no attention to a word I said. "I said nineteen eighteen! Nearly two hundred years from now! Do you hear?"
I was shouting now, and he nodded slowly.
"I hear," he said softly.
"Yes, you hear!" I blazed. "And you think I'm raving mad. Don't you? Admit it! That's what you think. You have to think so, there isn't any other way you can explain me to yourself. You can't believe me, you can't dare to. Oh, Jamie..." I felt my face start to crumple. All this time spent hiding the truth, realizing that I could never tell anyone, and now I realized that I could tell Jamie, my beloved husband, the man I trusted beyond all others, and he wouldn't — he couldn't believe me either.
"It was the rocks — the fairy hill. The standing stones. Merlin's stones. That's where I came through." I was gasping, half-sobbing, becoming less coherent by the second. "Once upon a time, but it's really two hundred years. It's always two hundred years, in the stories. ... But in the stories, the people always get back. I couldn't get back." I turned away, staggering, grasping for support. I sank down on a rock, shoulders slumped, and put my head in my hands. There was a long silence in the wood. It went on long enough for the small night birds to recover their courage and start their noises once again, calling to each other with a thin, high zeek! as they hawked for the last insects of the summer.
I looked up at last, thinking that perhaps he had simply risen and left me, overcome by my revelations. He was still there, though, still sitting, hands braced on his knees, head bowed as though in thought.
The hairs on his arms shone stiff as copper wires in the firelight, though, and I realized that they stood erect, like the bristles on a dog. He was afraid of me.
"Jamie," I said, feeling my heart break with absolute loneliness. "Oh, Jamie."
I sat down and curled myself into a ball, trying to roll myself around the core of my pain. Nothing mattered any longer, and I sobbed my heart out.
His hands on my shoulders raised me, enough to see his face. Through the haze of tears, I saw the look he wore in battle, of struggle that had passed the point of strain and become calm certainty.
"I believe you," he said firmly. "I dinna understand it a bit — not yet — but I believe you. Claire, I believe you! Listen to me! There's the truth between us, you and I, and whatever ye tell me, I shall believe it." He gave me a gentle shake.
"It doesna matter what it is. You've told me. That's enough for now. Be still, mo duinne. Lay your head and rest. You'll tell me the rest of it later. And I'll believe you."
I was still sobbing, unable to grasp what he was telling me. I struggled, trying to pull away, but he gathered me up and held me tightly against himself, pushing my head into the folds of his plaid, and repeating over and over again, "I believe you."
At last, from sheer exhaustion, I grew calm enough to look up and say, "But you can't believe me."
He smiled down at me. His mouth trembled slightly, but he smiled.
"Ye'll no tell me what I canna do, Sassenach." He paused a moment. ... A long time later, he spoke.
"All right. Tell me now."
I told him. Told him everything, haltingly but coherently. I felt numb from exhaustion, but content, like a rabbit that has outrun a fox, and found temporary shelter under a log. It isn't sanctuary, but at least it is respite. And I told him about Frank.
"Frank," he said softly. "Then he isna dead, after all."
"He isn't born." I felt another small wave of hysteria break against my ribs, but managed to keep myself under control. "Neither am I."
He stroked and patted me back into silence, making his small murmuring Gaelic sounds.
"When I took ye from Randall at Fort William," he said suddenly, "you were trying to get back. Back to the stones. And ... Frank. That's why ye left the grove."
"Yes."
"And I beat you for it." His voice was soft with regret.
"You couldn't know. I couldn't tell you." I was beginning to feel very drowsy indeed.
"No, I dinna suppose ye could." He pulled the plaid closer around me, tucking it gently around my shoulders. "Do ye sleep now, mo duinne. No one shall harm ye; I'm here."
I burrowed into the warm curve of his shoulder, letting my tired mind fall through the layers of oblivion. I forced myself to the surface long enough to ask, "Do you really believe me, Jamie?"
He sighed, and smiled ruefully down at me.
"Aye, I believe ye, Sassenach. But it would ha' been a good deal easier if you'd only been a witch." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
- Cynthia Johnson Whealler, Cary Memorial Lib., Lexington, Mass.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Review
"Stunning!"—Los Angeles Daily News
"It is a large canvas that Gabaldon paints, filled with strong passions and derring-do. Strong willed and sensual, Claire is an engaging modern heroine plopped down in a simpler, more primitive time.... Great fun ...marvelous and fantastic adventures, romance, sex ...perfect escape reading!"—San Francisco Chronicle --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Review
"Stunning!"—Los Angeles Daily News
"It is a large canvas that Gabaldon paints, filled with strong passions and derring-do. Strong willed and sensual, Claire is an engaging modern heroine plopped down in a simpler, more primitive time.... Great fun ...marvelous and fantastic adventures, romance, sex ...perfect escape reading!"—San Francisco Chronicle
From the Paperback edition. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Product details
- ASIN : B000FC2L1O
- Publisher : Dell; 1st edition (October 26, 2004)
- Publication date : October 26, 2004
- Language : English
- File size : 3880 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 642 pages
- Lending : Not Enabled
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Best Sellers Rank:
#1,143 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #3 in Historical Scottish Fiction
- #4 in Historical Fantasy Fiction
- #5 in Time Travel Romance
- Customer Reviews:
Customer reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Why write ANOTHER review?
First, to give author Diana Gabaldon her due. Not only did she write this long novel (plus seven more, plus some related novellas and such), and keep it endlessly entertaining with vivid characters and fresh plot twists galore. No, that was not enough. She had to write some of the most vivid sweet prose around. Over and over I found gems--dozens of them. They are the kind of verbal jewels that make any author gasp and say "I wish I wrote that." What a feast!
Second, to comment on my fellow readers. While reading OUTLANDER it seemed Gabaldon was everywhere. I recently transitioned six times through airports. EVERY airport had someone reading a Gabaldon paperback. Most readers had no idea what was going on around them because they were clearly a couple centuries back, in Scotland. I wonder how many missed their flights?
Third, to comment on copy editing (as I usually do). This is a long book. I did spot some errors in my Kindle version but, compared to many ebooks, not many errors. Room for improvement but overall pretty good--better than most, for sure.
The odds are slim that anyone will encounter this five-star review in the vast ocean of existing appreciation for this delightful book and its author. If, perchance, a live person actually reads this review, please let me know with a "helpful" vote. I'll know it's a good day to buy a lottery ticket.
Next up: Dragonfly in Amber: A Novel (Outlander)
Now, don't get me wrong: I like a good steamy romance novel, now and again. It's just that I was expecting more substance from this particular series. I love sci-fi, and time travel qualifies, but turns out that's just a cute backdrop for the romance, at least in the first half of the first book. No way am I remotely inclined to slog through 8 books to see if it breaks free of the Harlequin vibe!
The writing is not bad, so I'm giving it three stars. I'm not quite as outraged by the what others are calling misogyny and domestic abuse; I believe Jaime loves Claire and is trying to be a proper, loving husband, but the corrective spanking/beating he doles out is infantilizing, at best. Claire is a fighter and puts some hurt back on him, but the whole situation is designed to do what I mentioned at the beginning: to set up a steamy sex scene. In this case, a sex scene with strong B&D overtones that I don't find appealing at all.
So yeah, that was about halfway through and is the point at which I remembered that life is too short to waste good reading time on anything I'm not thoroughly into. Especially with the prospect of seven more books to go. Ugh. No. Time to find something else.
***SPOILERS****
I had to draw the line, though, at the "hero" beating the heroine because she "deserves it", then telling her after that he enjoyed beating her, and she is basically ok with that and falls in love with him. No, this not OK, nor is it at all romantic. It's sick. I was disgusted and disappointed by this book. It also seems homophobic because the only gay characters are creepy rapists. This book belongs in the trash.
Top reviews from other countries

I saw the TV series of this last year and thought that, like most book adaptations, they would have missed a lot of interesting information out for dramatic purposes. Thus I bought the book (along with 2 and 3). I love Scotland, but was fairly ignorant of the Rising and subsequent Highland Clearances, so this book brought the history to life, without being like the boring history text books of my youth. There are a lot of elements to interest you, time travel, romance (both hetero and gay) and adventure. There is a reason that this series of books are best sellers, they are well written and keep you turning the pages. Personally speaking, I love them, and have just ordered 4,5 and 6.



The story is realistic, doesn't shy away from brutalities and everyday realities of a life in 18th century Scotland. I like the fact that the writer isn't writing vaguely about any situation, i.e. Jack Randall's twisted mind and torture of Jamie (there's quite a few surprises!), Claire & Jamie's marital life which is described just right not to be a paperback romance, etc.
Claire as a narrator is funny, amusing, intelligent and has a great overview of life.
When the book was published in 1991, it was an instant best-seller and I cannot believe I haven't stumble across it earlier.
I highly recommend this fiction not only for those who love to read about historical Scotland but for those who just simply love a good story and a good book.
Having seen the series just after I finished the book I have to say I haven't seen such a great adaptation of a book into a TV story yet. Thanks to the lenght of the series, the film makers went into a great detail of the story. Still, the book is always much better than its cinematic counterpart.

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