Written by a contemporary of Dickens, and a favorite of mine since I was a teen. Ah, so romantic, and sometimes disarmingly funny too. So let me set it up for you. Set in Exmoor during the mid-1600s, young local wrestling champion John Ridd is Gaston, except make him responsible, kind, and with a rather snarky sense of humor, running the family’s large landholding, and caring for his widowed mother and two younger sisters. Man has his hands full.
In an isolated valley, not far away, is where the Doones hang out. They are a band of murderous thieves who keep the locals in subjugation due to their wealth, lineage and sheer ruthlessness. As a matter of fact they are the reason John’s mother is a widow. One hot day, just to get away for a bit, John scrambles up the waterfall that flows down from Doone Valley, and finds himself in a secluded garden well nestled in the valley. Which also turns out to be Lorna Doone’s secret getaway. Lorna is a beautiful young orphan and it is soon made clear that she is being groomed to become the possession of Carver Doone, the brutish head of the Doone clan. So you can see where this is all going, right?
Ah, but there is so much more. There are mysteries, and battles, and bone-chilling winters, and the nagging fact that Lorna is of gentle birth and John is not. The latter is resolved when John is forced to spend some time in London, not his favorite place, and nearly accidentally does the king a solid. The king then proceeds to knight him, which John only begrudgingly accepts on the condition that he can get back to his farm and stay the hell out of London. Oh, and did I mention that George Jeffreys, the infamous Hanging Judge, plays a role in all of this? Good times!
By the way, cookies, or “biscuits” are never mentioned once. Now you know.