Smouldering Fire

De: D. E. Stevenson

Narrado por: James Bryce

Despite his passionate love for Ardfalloch, Iain has been driven to let his home and estate to Mr Hetherington Smith, a wealthy London businessman, and his kindly wife (who was, truth be told, happier when they were poor). MacAslan stays on in a cottage by the loch, aided by his devoted keeper Donald and Donald’s wife, Morag. But he finds himself irresistibly drawn to Linda Medworth and her young son, invited to Ardfalloch by Mrs Hetherington Smith.

©1966 D. E. Stevenson (P)2019 Soundings

A trip to the Highlands

I love the works of D. E. Stevenson, especially those that take the reader to her native Scotland. And James Bryce does an adequate job of narrating the tale. This is one of D. E. Stevenson's more psychological stories, as she considers (from the point of view of the 1930's when the book was written) the differences between Highland and Lowland Scots and the English, along with a love story, the difficulties of divorce under the laws of the day, psychological abuse and the impact on victims and many more issues. It is important to remember this story was written at the time in which it was set: 1930's England/Scotland, and in some ways it can be a learning experience for modern readers.

My biggest disappointment in this audiobook is that Audible chose to use the abridged version of the novel Smouldering Fire, the same version used in almost all of the post - WWII reissues of the novel rather than the unabridged version published in the 1930's. And this in spite of the fact that the unabridged version is now readily available for the first time in decades in the Kindle and paperback version published by the Furrowed Middlebrow imprint of Dean Street Press. The deeper implications of the story as well as many delightful highlights can only be found in the unabridged version. If you want the rest of the story, I suggest getting the Kindle version.

However, in spite of the above weakness, I still enjoyed listening and being taken on a holiday in the Highlands of Scotland.