Lorna Doone
R. Blackmore
Oxford Bookworms LibraryLevel 4
A level 4 Oxford Bookworms Library graded readers. Retold for Learners of English by David Penn.
One winter’s day in 1673 young John Ridd is riding home from school, across the wild lonely hills of Exmoor. He has to pass Doone valley – a dangerous place, as the Doones are famous robbers and murderers. All Exmoor lives in fear of the Doones.
At home there is sad news waiting for young John, and he learns that he has good reason to hate the Doones. But in the years to come he meets Lorna Doone, with her lovely smile and big dark eyes. And soon he is deeply, hopelessly, in love…
R.В D. BLACKMORE
Lorna Doone
LORNA DOONE
The Doones are hated and feared all over Exmoor. When they ride out from Doone valley to steal and rob from the local farms, no one can stop them. They are wild, strong men, and anyone who tries to fight them will soon be murdered. Like John Ridd’s father, shot down while riding home from market. And in these lawless days only the King’s soldiers can punish the Doones, but the King is far away in London and has troubles of his own.
As John grows up, he works hard on the farm and dreams of revenge for his father’s death. But one day he meets Lorna Doone. She is the girl of his dreams – gentle, beautiful, loving – and John loses his heart to her.
But how can he marry a girl from the hated Doone family? And then there is Carver Doone, the most evil and dangerous of all the Doones, who plans to marry Lorna himself …
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ISBN 978 0 19 479177 9
Map by: Tim Slade
Word count (main text): 17,000 words
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e-Book first published 2012
– 1 —
The end of school days
I am John Ridd, a farmer of the village of Oare in Somerset, and I have a story to tell you. It is about some things that happened to me in my younger days.
On the 29th November 1673, when I was twelve years old, John Fry, a worker from our family’s farm, came to collect me from my school at Tiverton. He rode his horse up to the gate, leading my own little horse behind him. He was two