I’ve enjoyed a couple of William Boyd’s previous books and, inevitably, the cover of this one attracted me. Our man Cashel has a lot of living and a lot of travelling to do before he sees a balloon rise from the Giardini Reali in Venice, though. Introduced as a fictional expansion on the real Cashel’s autobiography, The Romantic tells the story of his whole life, from County Cork to Oxford, India and the US (and quite a few more). Along the way, he encounters famous people (including Byron and the Shelleys) and finds himself caught up in major events (Waterloo, the quest for the source of the Nile), a little like a nineteenth century Forrest Gump. It was tempting to look up every character to see who was real and find out more about them, but instead I let myself be swept along by the story.
Despite the repeated changes of scene, I didn’t find it too much of a whirlwind. Cashel is sometimes self-aware enough to see his flaws and at other times very short-sighted; this makes him engaging company. Balanced with the improbable coincidences are the missed opportunities, not least relating to his big love affair, and in places there are shadows of what might have been. Now and again it’s a bit telegraphed but I enjoyed picking it up each evening to see where Cashel’s fate might take him next. I liked the glimpse of life in the Shelley household and the unvarnished depiction of Byron; he must have been quite exhausting to be around. Inconsistent, charming and all too human, Cashel is indeed a romantic. And we could all do with an Ignatz in our life.

Loved it! The Romantic did not disappoint. Born in 1799, the hero Cashel Ross begins his story in County Cork and we follow his many lives from scholar to soldier, fugitive to farmer, explorer to expert. Like Any Human Heart. Cashel Ross’s own life story is woven through with some of the greatest and most significant historical events of the period but it is his own story and his own loves and losses that move the reader the most. Boyd does not shy away from Ross’s shortcomings as a man but, we learn, that it his fallibility and his heart that makes him such a beguiling lead character. This is a really enjoyable novel and draws on the richness of the nineteenth century world to highlight the dramatic changes and opportunities for adventure that Cavel Ross enjoyed. A great read for summer with a central character that stays with you when the novel ends.
Top marks!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this advanced copy.

Wow what an encompassing and epic life. I loved reading about the events in Cashel’s life through this fictional biography. There is so much adventure and enjoyment in this epic novel. This was my first book by William Boyd but I can now understand why he is such a well known and respected author.
Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys historical fiction or biographies!

This novel encompasses the whole life of Cashel Greville Ross a fictional character placed perfectly among 19th century society. William Boyd weaves a glorious story around myriad real life events and people so successfully that I found myself at times, thinking it was a biography. I became so engrossed in the life and adventures of Cashel that I began to wish he did in fact live this wonderfully eventful life.
Other reviewers have likened this book to perhaps William Boyd’s most famous novel “Any Human Heart”, a book I have not read, but am very much looking forward to having enjoyed this novel so much.

A fictional biography, of a fictional man, but what a life well lived! Full of experiences that cause pain, many regrets and the holding close of family secrets.
The story flows, the character of Cashel really gets under the skin of this reader, an account of episodic contentment, that Cashel manages to destroy by acting impetuously, recklessly, act in haste and repent at leisure is a constant theme throughout. Legacy is also important, and causes great despair, when the last person to have known you dies, you are also forgotten.
Cashel’s parents have died at sea and he is brought up by his Aunt. Then, family truths and secrets emerge, a common fact in most family trees of this time, 1800’s, show that your Sister/ Aunt are in fact your mother. Cashel is then confronted by evidence of bigamous relationships, which cause him to not quite know his place in the world.
As we follow Cashel through his schooldays, a family discovery causes him to act rashly and join the Army. Waterloo beckons, then the East India Company, where he joins the 5th Madras company on a bought commission and travels to Ceylon.
Later on , foreign travels lead him to meeting the love of his life, but, he later abandons her, to his everlasting sorrow and deep regret.
Cashel, is impulsive, tries to help his friends and keep to a moral code, but as a dreamer, he falls for adventures and exploits that lead him into trouble and he sometimes has to reinvent himself. The Romantic man always regrets his lost love, and this influences his future relationships with women.
I found Cashel to be a warm hearted person, capable of great deeds, but frequently being led astray, due to wanting to please others. A flawed character, but a very enjoyable companion on his many travels and travails.
A fantastic story and an absolute joy to read.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers, Penguin General UK, for my advance digital copy, in return for my honest review. A five star read.

What a joy a new William Boyd is – and particularly when he returns to the familiar territory of the fictional biography which is the MO of his greatest novel Any Human Heart and also of the tremendous The New Confessions.

The Romantic covers the life of Chashel Greville Ross, from Ireland at the very end of the 18th century across Europe, India and the US, into Africa and then back to Europe in the 19th century. It is quite a ride, taking in all manner of disappointment, tragedy and schemes as well as fortunes lost and found.

Once again, Boyd weaves in real historical characters and real events and this is done deftly which no doubt skims over a massive amount of research that forms the foundations of the novel. Also, the huge changes brought by the Industrial Revolution and the wider acceleration of society are all there (the railways are introduced after descriptions of torturous coach journeys, and characters start sending telegrams after waiting months to receive letters sent from abroad, and they move from candles, to gas light to electricity), but this is all done with a light touch yet does not leave the reader without the sense of how strange, exciting or threatending these times must have felt to the people who lived through them.

I won’t try and give a summary of the plot as that would ruin the many treats in store for other readers. But understand this: if you are put off by the thought that this novel is set in the 18th and 19th centuries then you will miss out. The Romantic is written in Boyd’s clear, concise style which lets you read it with the wind at your back but somehow he manages, as he so often does, to generate an emotional charge that continues to thrum inside you long after the novel’s final sentence has been read.

Unfortunately this book wasn't for me. There wasn't enough depth in it. Just as I was getting interested in one episode it ended and another started. As it was fiction, Boyd could easily have included more of less. I seem to be in the minority judging from other reviews so I am sure most people will thoroughly enjoy this book.
This is an honest review of a complementary ARC.

A whole life fictional biography peppered with real characters and events . There are a plethora of people introduced as the bookromps along across countries and activities for the lead character

Starting with the birth of Cashel Greville Ross in Cork in 1799, this follows a life's journey from Ireland to Oxford, London, India, Brussels and Zanzibar. Cashel lives a full life and is a true one-off character. Similar in 'cradle to grave' trajectory to Any Human Heart, this is a book full of humour, love and the march to death. Amusing and touching, this novel is highly recommended.

With a similar premise to Any Human Heart The Romantic covers the life of one man named Cashel Ross. Born in 1799. After a sudden shock discovery in his childhood, which prompts him to leave home suddenly, we follow his life for the next 70 odd years.
A new William Boyd book is always a treat and I couldn't wait to read this new novel. It didn't disappoint and I enjoyed it immensely.
Again Boyd captures us with another of his fictional biographical characters, that as we read of their life adventures include true life events, really blurring the lines between real life and fiction.
Wonderful characters and great adventures over different countries. A great read for fans of this author and new readers alike.

What a joy! A new William Boyd novel is always a treat to savour, but I was initially reluctant to dive into such a complex long novel at a busy time of year. But of course, I'm so glad I did! The master storyteller is at the height of his powers here and although there are many threads to follow it is not the chore it could become in the hands of a lesser writer. All the adventures are well told and one more intriguing than the next and there is no question of not finding out how it ends. Many late nights were had in that pursuit. My book of the year 2022!


Thank you, NetGalley and Penguin, for the ARC

So much happens to this novel’s hero, Cashel, the man on whose journal the novel purports to be based! In a lifetime spanning most of the ninteenth century, Cashel fortuitously experiences many key events, and meets several notable people. However, his records do not seem to have contained very much detail about some of these, and this reader was left wondering how much of his journal was exaggeration or wishful thinking.

Is Cashel called “the romantic” because of the effect women have on him - and, according to his journal, the effect he has on women - or because he is a romancer, someone makes up stories about himself and/ or who embroiders the truth? I tend to think that this novel is the about the improbable life of an unreliable narrator, a man who, having experienced fabricated truths from conception, grew up thinking it was nothing unusual. Ultimately, our shallow, fantasising hero is shown to be someone who has most likely had some questionable variety of experiences but who can commit to nobody and stick at nothing long term. A good read.

Around the world in 80 years. Cashel Greville Ross certainly gets around. A revealing shock during his childhood takes him from Ireland to the battle of Waterloo in 1815. Other adventures include joining the East India Company, meeting Lord Byron in Pisa, being sent to a debtors' prison and trying to find the source of the Nile, not to mention finding and losing the love of his life. A rattling good read by a consummate storyteller.

The first William Boyd book that I read - and still my favourite - was Any Human Heart, which was the autobiography of Logan Montstuart, a fictional character whose life unfolded over - and reflected the events of - much of the 20th century. (Later he revisited this concept with Sweet Caress). The Romantic has a similar premise but a different timeframe: it focuses on Cashel Ross, who is born in 1799 and lives until the 1880s. I've been going through something of a reading slump lately and this was absolutely the book to get me out of it. I tore through it in two days and while it's not quite as masterful as Any Human Heart, it is very, very good.

Cashel's life begins in County Cork, Ireland. He lives with his aunt who works for the local landowner. Later when he and his aunt move to England he gradually comes to understand that his upbringing wasn't quite what he thought and this prompts him to leave home early and join the army. From here his life is a series of non-stop adventures: he is a soldier in Waterloo and India, a farmer in the US, a smuggler in Trieste, an explorer in East Africa, a prisoner in the Marshalsea in London, a writer who befriends Byron and Shelley. He is a man who follows his gut instinct wherever it takes him and who never gets over his first great love. At times I thought things were going to take a different direction and if anything it highlights the way that impulsive decisions shape your life and that there are always multiple ways that things could unspool.

It's terrifically entertaining. I received an ARC from Net Galley (thank you Penguin) but this is a book that I will be buying to keep.

In his latest novel, William Boyd returns to one of his favourite formats - the fictional biography. It's a style he's had great success with and some of his best known stories follow this template - 'Any Human Heart', 'Sweet Caress' etc. This particular 'life' story is set in the 19th century, and spans most of it. The hero, Cashel Greville Ross, moves through a life full of incident and reinvention, taking in a large proportion of the globe. Not only does Ross visit much of the world, his working life spans the careers of soldier, brewer, diplomat, pauper, novelist, and explorer.

In fact, Ross packs in so much excitement and variety into his 82 years that it stretches credibility beyond what might be acceptable for a novel. I felt he had one adventure too many. Cutting out a couple of the episodes would have made the book a bit shorter and more plausible. A less celebrated author might not even have dared to go as far as having his fictional protagonist be a friend of Shelley and Byron, the first European to discover the source of the Nile, and the first person to brew lager in the USA, to name but a few of his apparent achievements.

It's all very well written of course - you wouldn't expect anything else from William Boyd. But you can have too much of even a good thing. I found it a rather tiring book to read. I appreciate it's a novel and therefore the character needs to have a somewhat interesting life to make it readable - but it doesn't need this sheer volume of extraordinary things to befall one character.

Ross is a more likeable character than some of Boyd's protagonists, and I felt generally warm towards him. I would go as far as saying I loved the character, but he was more sympathetic than for example Logan Mountstuart in 'Any Human Heart'. Some of the sections are more enjoyable than others - as you'd expect from a novel spanning such a wide range of settings and situations. The African expedition and its aftermath was particularly interesting to me, as were the short years he spent in the Indian army. The American years, the love affair and the time he spent with the romantic poets were less enthralling.

Personally, I find it strange how Boyd pretends Ross was a real person whose miscellaneous possessions came into his possession. He writes a forward about how such a biography is necessarily full of fiction, and throughout the story he includes footnotes with references, as if it were a non-fiction account'. It is weird how a famous, award winning novelist, writing what is clearly a work of fiction, feels the need to justify it. No one picking up a novel is going to be disappointed to discover it is all made up - in fact, the reverse would be true. I don't really understand the need for the pretence - all a bit metaphysical to me. If you're going to write a novel, just write one unashamedly. It would be a better novel if it weren't falling over itself trying to hint that it might be true.

Overall I did like the story, particularly the sections that I related to best, but it did feel like work to read at times. Maybe it's because it was constantly moving on to such different places and situations (although a central core of characters do provide continuity along with Ross himself), it felt like it had to be 'got into' again afresh every time I finished a chapter. Perhaps the best advice is to choose a time to read it when you can read in biggish chunks and aren't fitting in around lots of other jobs - if I had done that I may well have liked it a lot more.

I wasn't sure about this book to begin with, but found myself really warming to Cashel Ross' charms and enjoyed spending time time with him. He was, by his own admission, a very flawed character who treated women, apart from his beloved Raphaella, badly, and like his faithful companoin Ignatz, there were times i despaired of him. However, he made an enjoyable companion through the upheavals of the 19th century in his various guises and, as the book title suggests was, at heart a romantic.
thank you to netgalley and Penguin Books for an advance copy of this book

There's no doubt Boyd is a master story-teller - but he distinguishes himself from others by being an excellent writer to boot.
"The Romantic" is written in a style he has employed previously, being a whole-life biography, apparently gathered from historical source material, giving him the scope to use a variety of historical backdrops, while his protagonist, Cashel Greville Ross, is pulled in many different directions, both emotionally and geographically. The "source material" is fictional, but very convincing, in similar vein to Boyd's famous 1990s hoax biography of an "underrated" pop artist. In this story, however, we are transported through 19th century Europe, India, and the Americas, as Cashel's, adventures appear to be driven entirely by apparently random external events rather than by his own choosing. This calls to mind previous comparisons with some of Evelyn Waugh's heroes, but in this case perhaps more like Amis' "Lucky Jim", where despite equal shares of good and bad luck, he manages to deal with success as well as reversals of fortune, coming out, if not actually "on top", perhaps better than he might have expected.
Although Cashel is swayed by his passions for several women - and one in particular haunts him to the end - I would not entirely describe him a romantic in that way. He is a romantic in that he seizes on each unlikely opportunity that life offers with total commitment, where other men might take a "once bitten twice shy" approach. The resulting exploits are indeed romantic, covering the Battle of Waterloo, sojourns in Italy with the "romantic" poets (Shelley and Byron), a safari to find the source of the Nile, and, perhaps less romantically, an enforced period in a debtors prison in London.
Here we have a wonderful story, splendidly written, and illustrating why he has been described by some as the finest storyteller of his generation.

This is a lovely read of a book, gently written and engaging the reader in complicit amusement at the naivety of the Romantic main character of the book's title. Cashel Greville Ross lives his life through the nineteenth century and through his eyes we are told about aristocracy in Ireland, Italy and England, we meet Byron and Shelley, travel through Africa and America, all with a good humour and a sense that Cashel is at the heart of the zeitgeist, but not recognised as such by his contemporaries.

Cashel has an absorbing and barley credible set of adventures that are wonderfully told and that paint a detailed picture of the times as they pass. Less convincing are the women that he meets along the way, lovers, daughters and wives alike - even his mother is vaguely drawn and seen only through the Cashel filter that runs through the book and that seems deliberately unreliable,

I didn't want the book to end, it had told such a rollicking story all the way through, a fantastic story and well worth reading at leisure.

A story about Cashel Greville Ross, our hero, the eponymous 'Romantic'. Ross's unorthodox beginnings take him from an Irish village, to Europe, to America and back again and Boyd's brilliant writing brings us the scent of the briny Atlantic ocean, the stench of the battlefield, the lapping of the waves by the summer shore.
Highly recommended.

This is as much of a story about the nineteenth century as it is about its hero. Cashel Grenville Ross is born in Ireland in 1799 and believes himself to be an orphan, being brought up by his aunt after the tragic death of his parents. This proves to be a lie, created to conceal the scandal of his birth and he later moves with his family to Oxford. His life decisions take him to the battle of Waterloo and to India, as a soldier. He later does the European “tour”, where he meets Shelley and Byron. He encounters friends, lovers, con artists and other colourful characters on his travels, living variously in France, Italy and America. His life touches several momentous events of the nineteenth century, including the American civil war and the discovery of Lake Victoria and he embarks on numerous careers - writer, farmer, brewer and cultural attaché - during his fulfilled life. This is a highly accomplished and compelling story which was a joy to read.

With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.