Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1147646 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
"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

From the Author
Of John Penrose, J. C. Tregarthen wrote: ‘My hope is that the book will appeal to every son of Penzance, and to the solitary dwellers in the western parishes, and - may I add? - on remote ranches and lone mine settlements beyond the seas. I have tried to hold aloft the torch of local patriotism, and to hand down my recollections of my beloved land. It is my legacy to Cornwall.’

About the Author
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.

Customer Reviews

An engrossing tale of a farmer's boy.
The book is set in the early part of the 19th century and the author was born in 1854 which I note because many of the little details in the narrative (such as stories of farm men hiding from the press gang) have the flavour of anecdotes that he heard when he was young. These details and the references to nature and the farming year give the story a depth and veracity which make the tale of gypsies, feuds and smugglers seem more plausible. The narrative is in the slightly formal style of the early 20th century, but it's not so stilted that it can't be read easily in the current day.

John Coulson Tregarthen is better known for his books about nature (his "The Life Story of an Otter" is said to have inspired Henry Williamson's "Tarka the Otter") and I presumed that this book would have extensive descriptions of nature. However his technique is to weave nature into the background of his story; a farmer pauses in his work to look at a skein of migrating birds, a courting couple watch fish rising in a pool, stopping fox earths in preparation for a hunt sets the scene for a later section of the plot. Since we follow the hero from when he was a young boy we see how he learns the techniques of farming. At one point he sings a few verses of "The Farmer's Boy", and the song comes alive as a real commentary on life for farm labourers before mechanisation. The experience of reading the book is to enter fully into the world of this farming community in West Cornwall, and I left it behind with some regret when I finished the book.