Quote Originally Posted by JonathanB View Post
Merovingian – I’m sorry if I seemed to put you down. I’ve realised on this thread how much I also don’t know.

You might like to look at Walter Scott’s novel Waverley, a story of the 45 with a young Englishman caught up fighting for the Jacobites.

Before Waverley, Jacobites were often regarded as uncivilised terrorists. After Scott they were gallant, romantic and tragic. The major railway station in Edinburgh is named after the novel.

Scott’s prose is heavy going, but just skip the stodgy bits. It’s what Scott expected.
I agree that Scott is a bit heavy-going and would say that for historical insights of the period accessed through prose novels, Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped and Catriona (David Balfour in the US) although aimed at younger readers are a good point of entry (the historical nuance and detail have adult levels of sophistication), and Neil Munro's New Road and Doom Castle are excellent and aimed at a more mature reader.