Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor

Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor is a novel by English author Richard Doddridge Blackmore, published in 1869. It is a romance based on a group of historical characters and set in the late 17th century in Devon and Somerset, particularly around the East Lyn Valley area of Exmoor. In 2003, the novel was listed on the BBC's survey The Big Read. Illustrated with two hundred drawings. It received acclaim from Blackmore's contemporary, Margaret Oliphant, and as well from later Victorian writers including Robert Louis Stevenson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Thomas Hardy. Set in Exmoor, England. John Ridd is the son of a respectable farmer who was murdered in cold blood by one of the notorious Doone clan, a once noble family, now outlaws, in the isolated Doone Valley. Battling his desire for revenge. He falls hopelessly in love with Lorna, who turns out to be not only the granddaughter of Sir Ensor Doone, but destined to marry, the impetuous, menacing, heir of the Doone Valley, Carver Doone.