First published in 1930, Rogue Herries is the opening volume of Hugh Walpole's ambitious Herries Chronicle, a multi-generational portrait of an English family shaped by pride, inheritance, and moral conflict. Set against the stark and enduring landscape of England's Lake District, the novel traces the origins of the Herries family through ambition, defiance, and deeply rooted loyalties. At its center is Francis Herries, a figure driven by will and temperament, whose choices reverberate across generations. Walpole's novel is less concerned with plot than with character, atmosphere, and the slow accumulation of consequence. Drawing on regional identity and psychological realism, Rogue Herries explores how personal flaws and virtues become family legacy.
This Rediscovered Books edition presents the novel as a recovered literary work of early twentieth-century English fiction-measured, confident, and emotionally restrained-inviting modern readers to rediscover a once-celebrated author whose reputation has quietly faded despite lasting achievement.