![]() ![]() First time readers might want to at least initially skip the prelude. Although written with wit and technical skill most readers will breathe a sigh of relief when just over 20 pages into the novel they reach its second part which is called ‘The song’ where we meet Chris Guthrie. ![]() Densely written, the prelude is a pastiche of a now dated style of history writing that would have been more familiar to readers in 1932 than a modern audience. It begins with a lengthy prelude 'The unforrowed field' which tells the history of Kinraddie from ancient times ‘when gryphons and such-like beasts still roamed the Scots countryside’ to 1911 when the events covered in the novel begin. ![]() In the novel Gibbon uses the rhythms and cadences of Doric, the north east Scots language to capture the land and people of Kincardineshire and in doing so helped create a new tradition of Scottish writing quite distinct from the English novel. ![]()
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