A Scots Quair: The Mearns Trilogy

By Lewis Grassic Gibbon

Book Overview

A Scots Quair is revolutionary - innovative in its form, deft and humorous in its use of the Scots language, courageous in its characterisation and politics. Central to the trilogy is Chris Guthrie, one of the most remarkable female characters in modern literature. In Sunset song, Gibbon's finest achievement, the reader follows Chris through her girlhood in a tight-knit Scottish farming community: the seasons, the weddings, the funerals, the grind of work, the gossip. As the Great War takes its toll, machines repalce the old way of life.

Cloud Howe and Grey Granite take Chris from her rural homeland to life in an industrial Scotland and the desperate years of the Depression. The triology as a whole is a major achievment, a picture of society undergoing traumatic and far-reaching transformation. Always readable, never sentimental, A Scots Quair is one of the most important works of Scottish literature.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 190459882X
• ISBN13: 9781904598824
• Release Date: December 2006
• Publisher: Birlinn
• Length: 696 Pages
• Weight: 1.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 4.9" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

don't let it pass you by

unjustly overlooked, this book (really comprised of three novellas, all together a trilogy) deserves to be mentioned in the same breath with other modernist works, such as "Dubliners" or "Sons and Lovers." at its time, the books were important, both politically and socially, because they present scottish language and scottish history as things separate from - though no less equal to - the larger "English" culture. beyond this, gibbon's lyricism is a wonder to behold; he can manipulate language in ways that may bring a tear to your eye (and the story, mournful as it is, just may add to it)."Scottish Quaire" is a work that many have never heard of, and that is unfortunate. it offers a unique voice to the human condition, and, perhaps more importantly, the scottish condition. i tell you to buy it, or at least check it out of your library (lord knows there'll be copies available).

A superb account of Scotland earlier this century

A marvellous trilogy with each novel depicting that particular era superbly. My personal favourite was Sunset Song because it was saluting the end of an era for the Scottish crofter who will always be part of Scotland's great heritage.

Wonderful,timeless. A masterpiece

It is rare to find a book written on Scotland at the beginning of the 20th century to be so powerful and moving. The book heroine, Chris Guthrie is one of the most realistic and brilliant characters in modern literature. To have a book that merges elements of the Kailyard and the counter-Kailyard movement so effectively is an brilliant idea, difficult, but brilliant. Quite simply the greatest book ever written.

Wonderful. Timeless. A marvelous read, esp. for Scots.

For Americans of Scottish descent, "A Scots Quair" (a trilogy) will teach you how Scots in Kindardineshire spoke, what life was like, how the air might have felt against your cheek. It's like looking into the hearts and minds of our ancestors and finding that life's basics have not changed at all.