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Description
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... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis
Summary
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... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Cast of Characters/Important People
- Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser: The story's protagonist, a nurse in WWII who finds herself in the Scottish Highlands circa the mid-1700s. In the twentieth century, she was married to Frank Randall, but in the eighteenth century, she marries Jamie Fraser. Claire is a gifted natural physician, and her personality is warm, practical, and independent.
- James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser (Jamie): Claire's husband in the eighteenth century. A strapping young 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.
- Jonathan Randall: The primary 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 bloody, filthy, nasty pervert he was!", born Sept. 3, 1705, Claire knows that he will die April 16, 1746 at Culloden.
- Colum MacKenzie: The Laird of the MacKenzie clan. He is also Jamie's maternal uncle, and he shelters Jamie and Claire from the English threat. He suffers from Toulouse-Lautrec Syndrome.
- Dougal MacKenzie: Colum'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 a year as a teen; has four daughters. He also fathered another son with Geillis Duncan.
- Frank Randall: Claire's husband in the 1940s; a history professor with a deep interest in his genealogy and heritage
- 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.
Memorable Quotes
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“Overall the library held a hushed exaltation as though the cherished volumes were all singing soundlessly within their covers.”
Claire
First Sentence
It wasn't a very likely place for disappearances, at least at first glance.
Table of Contents
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
Series
This is book 1 in the Outlander series.
Authors & Contributors
- Diana Gabaldon (Author)
Awards
- RITA (1992: Best Romance)
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