Book Review

The Romantic: Marvellous storytelling from a globe-trotting witness to history

The Romantic is a fictionalised biography set in the 19th century that encompasses major historical events and farflung adventures

William Boyd, author of The Romantic: Boyd constructs a narrative that Charles Dickens or Jane Austen would surely have been happy to claim as their own. Picture: Getty

If you’ve read William Boyd’s 2002 novel Any Human Heart, you’ll already know that its protagonist Logan Mountstuart recorded his life in journal entries that spanned the 20th century, taking in major historical events and set in various locales.

With The Romantic, we’re in the 19th century for a similarly fictionalised biography of Cashel Greville Ross, born on the same day George Washington died. Ross is also a globe-trotting witness to history in this marvellous, ...