Outlander (edit title)

Shelfari edited the summary of Outlander 5 hours ago.

• Outlander (published in the UK as Cross Stitch) is the first in a series of novels (currently seven) by Diana Gabaldon. The book focuses on two main characters, Claire Randall (née Beauchamp) and Jamie Fraser, and takes place in eighteenth and twentieth-century Scotland.

  The novel is not easily classified by genre. On one level, the work is a romance novel with a focus on the romantic relationship between the two main characters. However, the book breaks certain romance genre conventions—the heroine, for instance, is slightly older and more experienced than the hero. The book could be described as a work of historical fiction with a detailed account of eighteenth century Scottish clan life. The novel could also be considered science fiction with a plot propelled by time travel when Claire journeys from the 1940s to the eighteenth century.

  Claire Randall is a practical woman, a nurse in the British Army during World War II. She and her husband Frank, who were separated during the war, have recently reunited and are enjoying a second honeymoon in Inverness, Scotland. They married there and they believe, the war did not scar so much as it had England. Frank also combined their holiday with some research into his family tree, investigating an ancestor named "Black Jack""Black Jack" Randall, who was a Captain in the Army in the 18th century.

  After seeing some obligatory Scottish sites, such as Loch Ness, Claire goes to a nearby site of standing stones to collect plants with a local amateur botanist. He shows her a group of standing stones on the hill of Craigh na Dun. When Claire tells Frank about them, he decides that he wants to see them in hopes of observing a Druid. When they arrive, they witness a group of local women enacting an old pagan ritual. As a history professor, Frank is fascinated; Claire, a budding amateur botanist, is particularly captivated by the flowers and herbs she finds, although the unusual ritual is of interest to her.

  After a strange stormy night, when Frank sees what he thinks is a ghost, clad in highland dress including kilt and sporran, staring up at Claire through their window, Claire returns to the stones to collect a specimen she saw the day before. She realizes that she can hear a buzzing noise coming from the stones. The buzzing gets louder as she gets closer and placing her hand on one of the stones, becomes disoriented and blacks out. She wakes up to the sound of a battle off in the distance. Thinking it is a re-enactment or a movie set of some sort, she thinks nothing of it until she tries to find her way home. Things have changed inexplicably, including the fact that her ride is gone. Struggling to find her way back and make sense of her surroundings, she is detained by Captain "Black Jack""Black Jack" Randall, who is, incidentally, the six times great-grandfather of her husband, Frank. To add to her confusion, he is her husband's doppelganger. Unfortunately for Claire, Randall has earned the "Black""Black" in spades and proceeds to attempt to assault Claire, asking her why she is travelling alone in a "state"state of undress"undress" and concludes that she is a prostitute. She is saved by a short, gnarly Scotsman named Murtagh, who knocks Randall unconscious and takes her to the other Scotsmen of his party who have been rustling cattle.

  Still befuddled, Claire cannot understand the situation, and is further puzzled by the men's reaction to her short dress, which everyone thinks is a "shift,""shift," and that her legs are bare. Forced to travel with them through the Scottish countryside, Claire sees the lack of modern technology and roadways. She begins to wonder what exactly has happened as the "costumes""costumes" and weapons are very realistic. Claire rides with one of the younger Scots, Jamie, whom she met and fixed his dislocated shoulder, after he was wounded during an altercation with the English under "Black Jack's""Black Jack's" command.

  The Scots are returning to their home, Castle Leoch, seat of the Clan MacKenzie. When questioned by the laird, Callum ban Campbell MacKenzie, Claire claims she was sailing to France to visit relatives and that she lost her gown, luggage and servant when they were attacked. The Scots are very suspicious of her, wondering exactly who she is. Unfortunately nothing can be proved one way or the other and after seeing a letter Callum is writing and figures out when she is for the first time: 1743. The Scots do not trust Claire, viewing her as a "Sassenach"--an"Sassenach"--an outsider to Scottish Highland culture and an Englishwoman to boot--though she gradually earns their acceptance due to her work as a healer. However, throughout the novel, the Scots think she is an English or French spy.

  In a grave error of judgment, the war chieftain (think executive officer) of the clan, Dougal MacKenzie, takes Claire to the English for questioning, putting her in the hands of none other than "Black Jack""Black Jack" Randall. After delivering a gut punch, thinking this will make her tell him the truth as he is equally suspicious of her, he demands she be brought back at a later date so that he can interrogate her further about who she is and where she's come from. In order to save Claire from this, Dougal realises the only way to make sure he doesn't have to hand her over to Randall is to make her a Scotswoman legally. He decides she should wed Jamie, solving two problems: "Black Jack"'s"Black Jack"'s demand she be handed over and solving the problem of Jamie being a threat to Callum's son, Hamish, taking over as chief of Clan MacKenzie after Callum's death. As Jamie says a bit later, "Being"Being half MacKenzie is one thing...being half MacKenzie wi' an English wife is quite another"another" (p. 300, mass market edition). Dougal suggests this to Claire -for her, the quintessential rock-and-a-hard-place with bigamy thrown in for good measure. Claire, after a few stiff drinks, eventually agrees and marries Jamie in the same church - much to Claire's horror - in which she married Frank.

  Now by this time, in the best of an arranged-marriage tale, Claire finds that she and Jamie are falling in love, despite her loving Frank and is filled with guilt. Claire's healing skills as a 20th century nurse have saved Jamie several times by now. But as the story progresses, her underlying motive is still to find a way back to the mysterious stone circle. She wants to return to her own time and to her husband, who she is convinced must be worried sick. As life continues at Castle Leoch, Claire's knowledge of the future, her marrying Jamie, and a healthy dose of bad luck, and jealousy, lead to a charge of witchcraft. Thrown into a dismal hole with another accused witch, Geilie Duncan, to await trial, she is rescued in the nick of time by Jamie. During her escape, she realizes that Geilie Duncan has a vaccination scar and must be from the future as well. After they escape, Claire is finally forced to confide the truth to Jamie ...about who she really is and where she is from. Out of love for Claire, Jamie takes her to Craigh na Dun, so she can return to her own time, but Claire decides to stay.

  They head for Jamie's home, Lallybroch, but their happiness doesn't last. Jamie has a price on his head and is betrayed by Ronald McNab, a crofter, who is angry with Jamie for insisting that his son becomes a stable-boy after Jamie realizes Ronald has been mistreating the boy. Jamie is taken to Wentworth Prison and sentenced to hang. Sadistic Jack Randall is also transferred to the prison to deal with Jamie's arrest and takes the opportunity to torture Jamie. Claire and Murtagh track Jamie down, and with the help of Jamie's MacKenzie clansmen, they free him from Wentworth Prison. Unfortunately, Jamie promised Jack Randall that he'd sleep with him if he let Claire go. Jack had had other plans for Claire but in revenge, Claire told Jack that she was a witch and cursed him by telling him the date of his death.

  Aided by a former suitor of Jamie's mother, Ellen MacKenzie Fraser, Claire patches Jamie up and they escape to France with Jamie's godfather, Murtagh. Arriving in France, they head for the Abbey of Ste. Anne de Beaupre in France, where Jamie's paternal uncle is stationed as Abbot. At Ste. Anne's, Claire tries to heal Jamie, but discovers that broken bones and stitching guts is simple compared to repairing the damage done to his mind. One night, determined to reclaim Jamie from Jack Randall, Claire summons and confronts his demons. As he recovers, Jamie tells Claire that his life is hers, that she should decide, will they go "to&quot;to France, Italy, or even back to Scotland?"Scotland?&quot; for "<they'll>&quot;<they'll> need a place to go, soon."soon.&quot; But his Uncle, Abbot Alexander, has provided a direction...a letter of introduction for Jamie, "an&quot;an efficient linguist and translator",translator&quot;, to none other than King James of Scotland, living in Rome with his sons Bonnie Prince Charlie and Henry Stuart. Claire and Jamie decide Rome it will be, "to&quot;to do what they can"(quotescan&quot;(quotes from this paragraph, p 620, Dell Trade Paperback).

  And at the last, as they emerge from the healing waters of a sacred hot spring under the Abbey, Claire reveals that she is pregnant with their first child.

  As the first in what is now at least an eight-book series (Book 7, An Echo in the Bone, was first published in September 2009, and promises at least one more book) of Claire Fraser and her Highlander husband Jamie, the story is an integral step in a bestselling and surprisingly rich tale spanning the time from the Scottish Rising of 1745, to the American Revolution.

Timothy Gray approved Patsy M’s request to combine 45 books, including Outlander, 5 hours ago.

Patsy M submitted a request to combine 45 books, including Outlander, 5 hours ago.

Dana A edited the characters of Outlander 11 hours ago.

• Edited the description of Claire BeauchampBeauchamp Randall Fraser: Our main character and the Point of View theThe story's told from. She wasprotagonist, a British combatnurse in WWII who is jettisoned backfinds herself in time from 1945the Scottish Highlands circa the mid-1700s. In the twentieth century, she was married to 1743 while onFrank Randall, but in the eighteenth century, she marries Jamie Fraser. Claire is a gifted natural physician, and her second honeymoon in Scotland.personality is warm, practical, and independent.
• Edited the description of James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser, AKA JamieMacKenzie Fraser (Jamie): Protagonist #2;Claire's husband in the eighteenth century. A strapping young Scot who protects Claire.Scottish redhead with a complicated past and a disarming sense of humor. Jamie is intelligent, principled, and by eighteenth century standards, educated and worldly. In The Outlandish Companion Gabaldon says he is partly based on the character of Jamie McCrimmon from Doctor Who.
• Edited the description of CaptainJonathan Randall: The very Villain-y Villain. He'sprimary villain of the story. He is Frank's ancestor and a British army officer. He is also known as "Black Jack." According to Jamie Fraser, the black refers to the colour of his soul. "...and a sadist andbloody, filthy, nasty pervert he was!", born Sept. 3, 1705, Claire knows that bodes ill for both Jamie and Claire.he will die April 16, 1746 at Culloden.
• Edited the description of Colum MacKenzie: The Laird of the MacKenzie clan. He is also Jamie's Maternal Uncle,maternal uncle, and he shelters Jamie and Claire from the chieftain of the Mackenzie Clan.English threat. He suffers from Toulouse-Lautrec Syndrome.
• Edited the description of Dougal MacKenzie: Jamie's Maternal Uncle, Handles all things physicalColum's brother, who serves as the literal and figurative "body" of the pair, since Colum's health meant he is unable to lead the clan into battle. A Jacobite; biological father of Colum's son, Hamish; took Jamie on as a foster son for the Clan MacKenziea year as a teen; has four daughters. He also fathered another son with Geillis Duncan.
• Edited the description of Frank Randall: Claire's Husbandhusband in the 1940s; a history professor with a deep interest in 1945his genealogy and heritage
• Added the description of Geillis/Gaily Duncan: Wife of the procurator fiscal; a time-traveler from the 1960s; thought to be a witch; has knowledge of herbs and plants. Mother of Dougal MacKenzie's son and murdered her husband, Arthur Duncan.
• marked the description of Geillis/Gaily Duncan as not a spoiler

Dana A edited the summary of Outlander 12 hours ago.

• Outlander (published in the UK as Cross Stitch) is the first in a series of novels (currently seven) by Diana Gabaldon. The book focuses on two main characters, Claire Randall (née Beauchamp) and Jamie Fraser, and takes place in eighteenth and twentieth-century Scotland.

  The novel is not easily classified by genre. On one level, the work is a romance novel with a focus on the romantic relationship between the two main characters. However, the book breaks certain romance genre conventions—the heroine, for instance, is slightly older and more experienced than the hero. The book could be described as a work of historical fiction with a detailed account of eighteenth century Scottish clan life. The novel could also be considered science fiction with a plot propelled by time travel when Claire journeys from the 1940s to the eighteenth century.

  Claire Randall is a practical woman, a nurse in the British Army during World War II. She and her husband Frank, who were separated during the war, have recently reunited and are enjoying a second honeymoon in Inverness, Scotland. They married there and they believe, the war did not scar so much as it had England. Frank also combined their holiday with some research into his family tree, investigating an ancestor named "Black Jack" Randall, who was a Captain in the Army in the 18th century.

  After seeing some obligatory Scottish sites, such as Loch Ness, Claire goes to a nearby site of standing stones to collect plants with a local amateur botanist. He shows her a group of standing stones on the hill of Craigh na Dun. When Claire tells Frank about them, he decides that he wants to see them in hopes of observing a Druid. When they arrive, they witness a group of local women enacting an old pagan ritual. As a history professor, Frank is fascinated; Claire, a budding amateur botanist, is particularly captivated by the flowers and herbs she finds, although the unusual ritual is of interest to her.

  After a strange stormy night, when Frank sees what he thinks is a ghost, clad in highland dress including kilt and sporran, staring up at Claire through their window, Claire returns to the stones to collect a specimen she saw the day before. She realizes that she can hear a buzzing noise coming from the stones. The buzzing gets louder as she gets closer and placing her hand on one of the stones, becomes disoriented and blacks out. She wakes up to the sound of a battle off in the distance. Thinking it is a re-enactment or a movie set of some sort, she thinks nothing of it until she tries to find her way home. Things have changed inexplicably, including the fact that her ride is gone. Struggling to find her way back and make sense of her surroundings, she is detained by Captain "Black Jack" Randall, who is, incidentally, the six times great-grandfather of her husband, Frank. To add to her confusion, he is her husband's doppelganger. Unfortunately for Claire, Randall has earned the "Black" in spades and proceeds to attempt to assault Claire, asking her why she is travelling alone in a "state of undress" and concludes that she is a prostitute. She is saved by a short, gnarly Scotsman named Murtagh, who knocks Randall unconscious and takes her to the other Scotsmen of his party who have been rustling cattle.

  Still befuddled, Claire cannot understand the situation, and is further puzzled by the men's reaction to her short dress, which everyone thinks is a "shift," and that her legs are bare. Forced to travel with them through the Scottish countryside, Claire sees the lack of modern technology and roadways. She begins to wonder what exactly has happened as the "costumes" and weapons are very realistic. Claire rides with one of the younger Scots, Jamie, whom she met and fixed his dislocated shoulder, after he was wounded during an altercation with the English under "Black Jack's" command.

  The Scots are returning to their home, Castle Leoch, seat of the Clan MacKenzie. When questioned by the laird, Callum ban Campbell MacKenzie, Claire claims she was sailing to France to visit relatives and that she lost her gown, luggage and servant when they were attacked. The Scots are very suspicious of her, wondering exactly who she is. Unfortunately nothing can be proved one way or the other and after seeing a letter Callum is writing and figures out when she is for the first time: 1743. The Scots do not trust Claire, viewing her as a "Sassenach"--an outsider to Scottish Highland culture and an Englishwoman to boot--though she gradually earns their acceptance due to her work as a healer. However, throughout the novel, the Scots think she is an English or French spy.

  In a grave error of judgment, the war chieftain (think executive officer) of the clan, Dougal MacKenzie, takes Claire to the English for questioning, putting her in the hands of none other than "Black Jack" Randall. After delivering a gut punch, thinking this will make her tell him the truth as he is equally suspicious of her, he demands she be brought back at a later date so that he can interrogate her further about who she is and where she's come from. In order to save Claire from this, Dougal realises the only way to make sure he doesn't have to hand her over to Randall is to make her a Scotswoman legally. He decides she should wed Jamie, solving two problems: "Black Jack"'s demand she be handed over and solving the problem of Jamie being a threat to Callum's son, Hamish, taking over as chief of Clan MacKenzie after Callum's death. As Jamie says a bit later, "Being half MacKenzie is one thing...being half MacKenzie wi' an English wife is quite another" (p. 300, mass market edition). Dougal suggests this to Claire -for her, the quintessential rock-and-a-hard-place with bigamy thrown in for good measure. Claire, after a few stiff drinks, eventually agrees and marries Jamie in the same church - much to Claire's horror - in which she married Frank.

  Now by this time, in the best of an arranged-marriage tale, Claire finds that she and Jamie are falling in love, despite her loving Frank and is filled with guilt. Claire's healing skills as a 20th century nurse have saved Jamie several times by now. But as the story progresses, her underlying motive is still to find a way back to the mysterious stone circle. She wants to return to her own time and to her husband, who she is convinced must be worried sick. As life continues at Castle Leoch, Claire's knowledge of the future, her marrying Jamie, and a healthy dose of bad luck, and jealousy, lead to a charge of witchcraft. Thrown into a dismal hole with another accused witch, Geilie Duncan, to await trial, she is rescued in the nick of time by Jamie. During her escape, she realizes that Geilie Duncan has a vaccination scar and must be from the future as well. After they escape, Claire is finally forced to confide the truth to Jamie ...about who she really is and where she is from. Out of love for Claire, Jamie takes her to Craigh na Dun, so she can return to her own time, but Claire decides to stay.

  They head for Jamie's home, Lallybroch, but their happiness doesn't last. Jamie has a price on his head and is betrayed by Ronald McNab, a crofter, who is angry with Jamie for insisting that his son becomes a stable-boy after Jamie realizes Ronald has been mistreating the boy. Jamie is taken to Wentworth Prison and sentenced to hang. Sadistic Jack Randall is also transferred to the prison to deal with Jamie's arrest and takes the opportunity to torture Jamie. Claire and Murtagh track Jamie down, and with the help of Jamie's MacKenzie clansmen, they free him from Wentworth Prison. Unfortunately, Jamie promised Jack Randall that he'd sleep with him if he let Claire go. Jack had had other plans for Claire but in revenge, Claire told Jack that she was a witch and cursed him by telling him the date of his death.

  Aided by a former suitor of Jamie's mother, Ellen MacKenzie Fraser, Claire patches Jamie up and they escape to France with Jamie's godfather, Murtagh. Arriving in France, they head for the Abbey of Ste. Anne de Beaupre in France, where Jamie's paternal uncle is stationed as Abbot. At Ste. Anne's, Claire tries to heal Jamie, but discovers that broken bones and stitching guts is simple compared to repairing the damage done to his mind. One night, determined to reclaim Jamie from Jack Randall, Claire summons and confronts his demons. As he recovers, Jamie tells Claire that his life is hers, that she should decide, will they go "to France, Italy, or even back to Scotland?" for "<they'll> need a place to go, soon." But his Uncle, Abbot Alexander, has provided a direction...a letter of introduction for Jamie, "an efficient linguist and translator", to none other than King James of Scotland, living in Rome with his sons Bonnie Prince Charlie and Henry Stuart. Claire and Jamie decide Rome it will be, "to do what they can"(quotes from this paragraph, p 620, Dell Trade Paperback).

  And at the last, as they emerge from the healing waters of a sacred hot spring under the Abbey, Claire reveals that she is pregnant with their first child.

  As the first in what is now at least an eight-book series (Book 7, An Echo in the Bone, was first published in September 2009, and promises at least one more book) of Claire Fraser and her Highlander husband Jamie, the story is an integral step in a bestselling and surprisingly rich tale spanning the time from the Scottish Rising of 1745, to the American Revolution.

Courtney R edited the table of contents of Outlander 2 days ago.

• I. Part One: Inverness, 1945
  1. A New Beginning
  2. Standing Stones
  3. The Man in the Wood
  4. I Come to the Castle
  5. The Mackenzie

  II. Part Two: Castle Leoch
  6. Colum's Hall
  7. Davie Beaton's Closet
  8. An Evening's Entertainment
  9. The Gathering
  10. The Oath-taking

  III. Part Three: On the Road
  11. Conversations with a Lawyer
  12. The Garrison Commander
  13. A Marriage is Announced
  14. A Marriage Takes Place
  15. Revelations of the Bridal Chamber
  16. One Fine Day
  17. We Meet a Beggar
  18. Raiders in the Rocks
  19. The Waterhorse
  20. Deserted Glades
  21, Un Mauvais Quart d'Heure After Another
  22. Reckonings
  23. Returning to Leoch

  IV. Part Four: A Whiff of Brimstone
  24. By the Pricking of My Thumbs
  25. Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live

  V. Part Five: Lallybroch
  26. The Laird's Return
  27. The Last Reason
  28. Kisses and Drawers
  29. More Honesty
  30. Conversations by the Hearth
  31. Quarter Day
  32. Hard Labor
  33. The Watch

  VI. Part Six: The Search
  34. Dougal's Story

  VII. Part Seven: Sanctuary
  35. Wentworth Prison
  36. MacRannoch
  37. Escape
  38. The Abbey
  39. To Ransom a Man's Soul
  40. Absolution
  41. From the Womb of the Earth

Courtney R edited the characters of Outlander 2 days ago.

• Edited the description of James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser, AKA Jamie: Protagonist #2, is#2; the young Scot who protects Claire.

Courtney R edited the ridiculously simplified synopsis of Outlander 2 days ago.

• Edited: TIme travel, romance, history of both Scotland and US, handsome man who wears a kilt,kilt-- what more could you want?

Shelfari edited the description of Outlander 11 days ago.

• Claire Randall is leading a double life. She has a husband in one century, and a lover in another... 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.

Shelfari edited the contributors of Outlander 11 days ago.

• Added a contributor: Diana Gabaldon: (Primary Author)