Classics Narrated

Lorna explains her circumstances: isolated, frightened, and mystified about how she came to be among the cruel, violent Doones. She also tells John about a young cousin who came to bring her to her respectable family, and his murder.

John's hopes of Lorna are cast down by his interview with Mother Melldrum. Undaunted, he keeps his feelings for Lorna secret, returns to visit her with a gift of fresh eggs, and wins her confidence by his self-control.

John returns to Glen Doone on St. Valentine's Day, where he meets Lorna again. He falls in love, can't concentrate, loses himself in work, and seeks advice of a "wise woman" about when he should venture to see Lorna next.

Uncle Reuben vents his resentment over being robbed on his relatives and their guests. Mollified by their hospitality, he goes with John to the local squire, for justice. Humiliated there, they scout the Doones' stronghold to plan future action.

John tells of his cousin, a popular highway robber, and uncle, a prosperous merchant, who falls in with a different sort of thief.

A dashing kinsman rescues an animal, allows John to try to ride his fine horse, and ingratiates himself with the family.

Fourteen year-old John meets eight year-old Lorna, who helps him escape the Doones' stronghold. He returns to the family farm, never forgetting her.

We learn more about the Ridd household, John's preparation for defense, and a fishing trip that leads him astray, into danger.

Young John learns his father's fate, his mother pleads for justice, and we learn how the Doones came to Exmoor.

John Fry and young John Ridd encounter two very different groups of travelers on their way home.

"...a simple tale told simply..." begins the story of John Ridd, in his maturity, looking back at his schoolboy days, before he met the lovely and mysterious Lorna.

Continuously in print since its publication (though not an immediate bestseller), here are a few of R.D. Blackmore's prefaces, still of interest, at least to the scholar.

Owen Johnson tells how an unlikely hero achieved schoolboy immortality.

Hapless kidnappers find the limit of parental affection.

Edward Everett Hale's story of a U.S. Army officer in the early 19th century. Caught up in Aaron Burr's conspiracy, when court-martialled, he wishes he might never hear of the United States again. That becomes his sentence.

Conclusion: Kim and the lama return to the plains, both ill. Rest and healing at the house of the virtuous (and garrulous) old woman of Kulu. The lama and Mahbub discuss Kim's future, and the transfigured lama brings Kim to the end of the Search.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's parable of holiness and humility in the White Mountain valleys that look up to New Hampshire's now fallen Old Man of the Mountain.

After crisis, the Lama and Kim are welcomed in a small mountain village. There the lama teaches, meditates, and changes direction, though weak. Kim meets the woman of the village, and negotiates badly needed help.

The lama finds rejuvenation in the Hills, and crisis, when he and Kim encounter a team of foreign spies.

Lama and disciple take to the Road to visit the hospitable and sharp-tongued lady they met before. At her place, they encounter a hakim or healer, and arrange to return to the lama's beloved Hills.