The Broad Highway

One of Farnol’s early books showing that he was a brilliant writer and romantic from the start. The book was written in the first person and introduces some character personalities that I recognized in his later book “Heritage Perilous”. As common in some of his other stories, the main character is deep in love before he finally admits t to himself, in this book it took hundreds of pages before he finally realized the true love which is so oblivious to readers, and the identity of the woman is obvious, it makes the story longer than it needs to be. The book is full of action and interest on every page, so even though it is over 300 pages, it is never a boring read. It ends well as all Farnol’s romances must, the couple wealthy and in love’s bliss.

Young Peter Vibart, an Oxford scholar, and rather arrogant about it, finds himself a pauper at his wealthy guardian uncle's death -- unless he weds an heiress, Lady Sophia Sefton, whom he's never laid eyes on. In his quixotic and overly confident way, he deals with this by refusing to consider even trying to meet the woman, turning down an offer of employment and going on a walking tour.

He meets various interesting fellow travelers -- wonderful characterizations! -- and ultimately apprentices himself to a village blacksmith, while remaining as self-confident as ever.

Some humbleness begins to creep into his attitudes about midway, as he rescues a rather unaccountable woman, Charmian Brown, and the novel starts to turn into a love story. Unfortunately, the author's unhappy tendency toward long, slow, ruminating passages increases then, and the going becomes a bit tedious. By that point, the conclusion seems predictable, too.

Still, a few unexpected hitches occur and it's a fun read overall.

Ignore the poor exerpt chosen and read this book.

This guy was a brilliant, if slightly flowery, author.

If you like adventure, romance, and a bit of history go for it.