The Romance of War or the Highlanders in Spain

"...by far the most important nineteenth-century novel of the Peninsular War is James Grant's The Romance of War, or, The Highlanders in Spain, published in 1845 (London, George Routledge). James Grant (1822-1877), "the novelist of war", was the son of a captain in the 92nd Gordon Highlanders who had served with distinction in the Peninsular campaigns and whose recollections formed the basis of The Romance of War. James Grant entered the Army as an ensign but resigned his commission at the age of twenty one to devote himself to writing historical novels. His novels, all meticulously researched, dealt mainly with military episodes and characters, frequently taken from Scottish history. Grant, a partisan of the Stuarts, considered Scottish history "romantic". The Scotland he recreates is one of brutal chieftains, superstition, blood feuds, and treachery. Apart from the frequent references to the Scottish risings of 1745 and their heavy-handed repression, the history covered in The Romance of War parallels that of the military service of Grant's father during the Napoleonic War. Ronald Stuart. with a regiment of the Gordon Highlanders, arrives in Portugal in the spring of 1812; he is stationed in Alburquerque and serves with Sir Rowland Hill's division at the capture of Mérida and in the subsequent campaigns in central and western Spain. Between 1813 and 1815, he takes part in the Battle of Vitoria, the campaigns of the Pyrenees, and the Battles of the Nive, Orthez, Toulouse, and Waterloo." From, The Romance of War, or, the Highlanders in Spain: The Peninsular War and the British Novel, by Brian J. Dendle.