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Outlander
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Outlander: Book 1

Outlander (1991) (edit title/settings)

by Diana Gabaldon (Author) (edit contributors)

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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

Summary edit see section history

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)

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 traveling 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, Colum 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 Colum 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 Colum's son, Hamish, taking over as chief of Clan MacKenzie after Colum'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.

Characters edit see section history

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Overall the library held a hushed exaltation as though the cherished volumes were all singing soundlessly within their covers.”
    Claire
  • “"All right you bloody Scottish bastard, lets see how stubborn you really are."”
    Claire
  • “"I can bear pain myself," he said softly, "but I couldna bear yours. That would take more strength than I have."”
    Jamie
  • “"Oh, aye, Sassenach. I am your master . . . and you're mine. Seems I canna possess your soul without losing my own."”
    Jamie
  • “"And I mean to hear ye groan like that again. And to moan and sob, even though you dinna wish to, for ye canna help it. I mean to make you sigh as though your heart would break, and scream with the wanting, and at last to cry out in my arms, and I shall know that I've served ye well."”
    Jamie
  • “"When I asked my da how ye knew which was the right woman, he told me when the time came, I'd have no doubt. And I didn't. When I woke in the dark under that tree on the road to Leoch, with you sitting on my chest, cursing me for bleeding to death, I said to myself 'Jamie Fraser, for all ye canna see what she looks like, and for all she weights as much as a good draft horse, this is the woman."”
    Jamie
  • “"You're tearin' my guts out, Claire."”
    Jamie
  • “If I were a horse, I'd let him ride me anywhere.”
    Claire
  • “I don't hate you, either. And there's many good marriages have started wi' less than that.”
    Jamie
  • “Does it ever stop, Claire? The wanting?”
    Jamie
  • “I only said I felt like God, Sassenach, he murmured, I never said I was.”
    Jamie
  • “Ye are blood of my blood and bone of my bone I give you my body that we two might be one I give you my spirit till your life shall be done”
    Jamie
  • “"Does it ever stop? The wanting you?" "Even when I've just left ye. I want you so much my chest feels tight and my fingers ache with wanting to touch ye again."”
    Jamie
  • “There are things ye maybe canna tell me. I willna ask ye, or force ye. But when ye do tell me something, let it be the truth. There is nothing between us now but respect, and respect has room for secrets, I think - but not for lies.”
    Jamie Fraser
  • “For where all love is, the speaking is unnecessary. It is all. It is undying. And it is enough.”
  • “knowing that everything is possible, suddenly nothing is necessary.”
  • “I had not slept with many men other than my husband, but I had noticed before that to sleep, actually sleep with someone did give this sense of intimacy, as though your dreams had flowed out of you to mingle with his and fold you both in a blanket of unconscious knowing. A throwback of some kind, I thought. In older, more primitive times (like these? asked another part of my mind), it was an act of trust to sleep in the presence of another person. If the trust was mutual, simple sleep could bring you closer together than the joining of bodies.”
    Claire
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • For where all love is, the speaking is unnecessary. It is all. It is undying. And it is enough.
    Highlighted by 472 Kindle customers
  • Life among academics had taught me that a well-expressed opinion is usually better than a badly expressed fact, so far as professional advancement goes.
    Highlighted by 312 Kindle customers
  • ‘Ye are Blood of my Blood, and Bone of my Bone. I give ye my Body, that we Two might be One. I give ye my Spirit, ’til our Life shall be Done.’ ”
    Highlighted by 288 Kindle customers
  • To stand against a crowd would take something more than ordinary courage; something that went beyond human instinct. And I feared I did not have it, and fearing, was ashamed.
    Highlighted by 277 Kindle customers
  • “As though, knowing that everything is possible, suddenly nothing is necessary.”
    Highlighted by 249 Kindle customers
  • I had not slept with many men other than my husband, but I had noticed before that to sleep, actually sleep with someone did give this sense of intimacy, as though your dreams had flowed out of you to mingle with his and fold you both in a blanket of unconscious knowing. A throwback of some kind, I thought. In older, more primitive times (like these? asked another part of my mind), it was an act of trust to sleep in the presence of another person. If the trust was mutual, simple sleep could bring you closer together than the joining of bodies.
    Highlighted by 168 Kindle customers
  • …da mi basia mille, diende centum, dein mille altera, dein secunda centum… A faint blush pinkened his earlobes as he translated: Then let amorous kisses dwell On our lips, begin and tell A Thousand and a Hundred score A Hundred, and a Thousand more.
    Highlighted by 133 Kindle customers
  • Luceo non Uro. “I shine, not burn,”
    Highlighted by 103 Kindle customers
  • “Jonathan Wolverton Randall—Wolverton for his mother’s uncle, a minor knight from Sussex. He was, however, known by the rather dashing nickname of ‘Black Jack,’ something he acquired in the army, probably during the time he was stationed here.” I flopped facedown on the bed and affected to snore. Ignoring me, Frank went on with his scholarly exegesis.
    Highlighted by 52 Kindle customers
  • potsherds long before I could have got near it with a bunch of daisies. Quentin Lambert Beauchamp. “Q” to his archaeological students and his friends. “Dr. Beauchamp” to the scholarly circles in which he moved and lectured and had his being. But always Uncle Lamb to me. My father’s only brother, and my only living relative at the time, he had been landed with me, aged five, when my parents were killed in a car crash.
    Highlighted by 25 Kindle customers
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Setting & Locations edit see section history

Organizations edit see section history

  • Jacobites: Jacobites were Scotish Rebels led by Charles Edward Stuart, Bonny Prince Charles, (the Young Pretender), who was soundly defeated at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, endeing any realistic hope of a Stuart restoration.

First Sentence edit see section history

It wasn't a very likely place for disappearances, at least at first glance.

Table of Contents edit see section history

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

Glossary edit see section history

  • Sassenach: A word used chiefly by the Scots to designate an Englishman. Jamie uses the name as a term of endearment toward Claire.
  • Tulach Ard: Highland war cry
  • Je suis prest: Clan Fraser's motto. French for "I am ready."
  • Luceo non Uro: MacKenzie motto. Latin for "I shine, not burn."

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 1 of 12 in Outlander. (standard series)

Followed by Dragonfly in Amber.

This book is in Time Travel Romances. (community list)
This is book 7 of 100 in AAR Top 100 Romances 2004. (authoritative list)
This is book 2 of 100 in AAR Top 100 Romances 2000. (authoritative list)
This is book 3 of 105 in AAR Top 100 Romances 1998. (authoritative list)
This is book 89 of 99 in National Public Radio's Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy. (authoritative list)
This book is in Older Paranormal-Fantasy Romances. (community list)
This is book 160 of 200 in BBC 'Big Read' Top 200 Novels, 2003. (authoritative list)
This is book 4 of 100 in AAR Top 100 Romances 2007. (authoritative list)
This is book 5 of 100 in AAR Top 100 Romances 2010. (authoritative list)
This book is in Big Fat Books. (community list)
This is book 33 of 145 in Whitcoulls Top 100 (2011). (authoritative list)
This is book 7 of 121 in Whitcoulls Top 100 (2012). (authoritative list)
This is book 1 of 109 in Top 109 Romance Novels (TheRomanceReader.com). (community list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Diana Gabaldon (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Century
Country: England
Publication Date: 1991
ISBN: 0712647600
Page Count: 656

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PS3557.A22 O98
  • Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Adults

Contains adult language and explicit sexual content.

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • The Outlandish Companion

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