Readers for whom no literary thrill is greater than a spirited, multidecade saga about an eventful life will love The Romantic, a historical novel by William Boyd (Waiting for Sunrise). In an author's note, a certain W.B. claims to possess the "unfinished, disordered, somewhat baffling autobiography of Cashel Greville Ross," who was born in 1799, along with Ross's letters and other items, "a fragmentary history of the time he had spent on this small planet." What follows is a boisterous, entertainingly episodic trip through Ross's peripatetic life, starting with his years as an orphan in Ireland on the estate of Sir Guy Stillwell and being raised by Aunt Elspeth, the governess who cares for Sir Guy's teenage daughters.
Except that's not quite accurate, and that's part of the fun of The Romantic: events aren't always as they appear. This novel is jam-packed with events, with Ross ricocheting like a pinball through the 19th century from one memorable encounter to the next: tutelage at an Oxford academy where a Bible is a required school supply; combat at the Battle of Waterloo; a postwar spell hanging out with Percy Shelley and Lord Byron in Italy, where he has an affair with Mary Shelley's sister; and, most enduringly, his romance with Contessa Raphaella Rezzo, who may or may not be the love of Ross's life. The Romantic may be overstuffed with incident, but the incidents are never dull. Romantics are trusting souls, sometimes to their detriment, as Boyd makes clear in this enjoyable adventure. --Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer