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John Penrose: A Romance of the Land's End

John Penrose: A Romance of the Land's End

by JohnCoulsonTregarthen (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2004

    $5.16
Synopsis

Set in the countryside near Penzance in the early nineteenth century, this engaging novel chronicles the fortunes of the narrator, John Penrose, a farm labourer's son. Peopled with a gallery of deftly drawn characters - squires, sextons, vengeful gypsies and gamekeepers - it tells of young Jack's adventures, from poaching on the moors and falling in with smugglers to hiding in a cave and a near-fatal skirmish. Throughout, the author's intimate knowledge and love of his native Cornwall shine through, in lyrical evocations of the countryside and coast and in vivid descriptions of wildlife - foxes, badgers, seals and a host of other creatures. A thoroughly entertaining read, John Penrose offers a fascinating and memorable portrait of life in rural Cornwall.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 288
 Edition: New edition
 Publisher: Cornwall Editions Limited
Published: 09 Sep 2004
ISBN 10: 1904880029
ISBN 13: 9781904880028

Media Reviews
John Penrose was first published in 1923 by John Murray and copies can occasionally be found in antiquarian bookshops and auction houses. Cornwall Editions, a relatively new company based in Fowey, is to be congratulated on bringing out this edition, together with an attractive selection of other items of interest to lovers of Cornwall, its history and its literature. John Penrose is J.C. Tregarthen's first novel and this edition contains a fascinating introduction written by Bert Biscoe. Bert Biscoe is a Bard of the Cornish Gorsedh and is described as a poet, songwriter, Cornish politician and champion of Cornish literature . He regards Tregarthen's work as a tremendous literary treasure and the book as an intelligent insight into a natural world of which man is but a creature part . Readers of early twentieth-century Cornish literature that included the Penhale Trilogy of Crosbie Garstin and the works of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (Q), will fully support Biscoe's verdict. This is a delightful story, beautifully crafted, containing rare insights into the human habitat of Penwith in the nineteenth century. The landscape is acutely observed and described in sharp detail, the sounds of Cornish dialect emerge pleasantly from the words and phrases: above all a picture is drawn and an atmosphere created of the essential nature of early nineteenth-century Cornwall. The story itself chronicles the adventures of John Penrose, the son of a farm labourer, born in the parish of Madron, near Penzance in 1829. Described as A Romance of the Land's End on the front cover, the story has, as all romances should, a happy ending with John's marriage to Loveday. But a near fatal fight threatens to wreck any prospect of happiness, as does the sour relationship between John's Master and the local squire. Poaching on the moors, smuggling, vivid descriptions of animal and bird life provide wonderful colour throughout the journey to the Church, to the rapprochement between Sir Rose Tresillian and John's Master, and to the Squire's generous and kind tribute to the groom, who promptly promised never to poach again with either rod or gun on the Squire's preserve. John Baxter in St Minver Link
Author Bio
John Coulson Tregarthen (1854-1933) was a gifted field naturalist, described as 'the best loved Cornishman of his time ... the man who enshrined the spirit of his county'. After a career as a teacher, he was encouraged to take up writing by the romantic novelist Marie Corelli. All his books are rooted in the area known as the Land's End and exhibit an unrivalled knowledge of the local countryside, its people, customs, flora and fauna. J.C. Tregarthen was President of the Royal Institution of Cornwall (1927-29), a Fellow of the Zoological Society, a county councillor and JP, and was made a bard at the Cornish Gorsedd in 1928. He is buried at St Columb Major.