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1896 The Lost Pibroch and Other Sheiling Stories
1898 John Splendid
1899 Gilian the Dreamer
1901 Doom Castle
1901 The Shoes of Fortune
1903 Children of the Tempest
1904 Erchie, My Droll Friend
1906 The Vital Spark
1907 The Daft Days
1907 The Clyde, River and Firth
1910 Fancy Farm
1911 In Highland Harbours
1912 Ayrshire Idylls
1914 The New Road
1917 Jimmy Swan, The Joy Traveller
1918 Jaunty Jock and Other Stories
1923 Hurricane Jack of the Vital Spark
1928 History of the Royal Bank of Scotland
1931 Poems
The Lost Pibroch and Other Sheiling Stories
A completely innovative collection.
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John Splendid
The first truly authentic Highland novel. Like most of Munro's novels it is set in a period of major social change. It deals with the sack of Inveraray by Montrose and his subsequent victory at the battle of Inverlochy in 1645. It also explores the Highland character under stress, particularly in the persons of Gillesbeg Gruamach, the marquis of Argyll, who is anxious to move on from clan warfare to the more peaceful ways of commerce and the rule of law, and his clansman Iain Alainn, John Splendid himself, a swaggering miles gloriosus figure whose loyalty permits him to humour his chief and yield to his whims until, finally convinced of his cowardice, he rebels.
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Gilian the Dreamer
Set in Inveraray at a time of social change - the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars - the story tells of a young boy, Gilian, who has creative gifts which in an earlier Highland society might have been nurtured to enable him to become a bard, but the old Gaelic tradition has been broken and Gilian's gifts merely manifest themselves in excessive sensibility and self-indulgent dreaming which impede his maturity and his ability to act effectively.
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Doom Castle
On one level it is a Gothic tale of intrigue and romance, but at a deeper level it shows the hopelessness of the Jacobite cause in the face of the new Hanoverian order - a hopelessness symbolised by the decaying castle of the Baron of Doom compared with the fine Enlightenment castle of the Duke of Argyll in Inveraray.
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The Shoes of Fortune
It is set in Lowland Scotland and in France. It deals with the death throes of the Jacobite movement as it makes a final bid to join the French in an invasion of Britain. The hero, Paul Greig, having seen the antics of the dissolute and broken Prince Charles Edward, renounces his jacobitism and warns Pitt, thus preventing the invasion.
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Children of the Tempest
It is set on South Uist and deals with the Loch Arkaig treasure, French money which had been intended to support the Rising but had mysteriously been moved to a cave on the island of Mingulay. This becomes an object of greed and leads to the kidnapping of the heroine and the death of the villain and his incubus in a dramatic scene on the cliffs of Mingulay.
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Erchie, My Droll Friend
The humorous sketches about Erchi MacPherson, the beadle and waiter who had comments on everything from prohibition to The Glasgow girls.
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The Vital Spark
First collection of the famous stories of the master mariner.
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The Daft Days
It is the story of a little American girl, Bud, who has lost her parents and comes to stay with her relatives in a small Scottish town (clearly based on Inveraray). She progresses, thanks to her enlightened but only semi-liberated Aunt Ailie, to become a Shakespearean actress in London's West End - in spite of the negativity of the Scottish education system and the background of social and religious attitudes which regarded the theatre as unsuitable and rather sinful. It is especially interesting because it confronts the problem of the female creative artist in a society whose mores inhibit the expression of her talent.
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The Clyde, River and Firth
A beautiful travelogue with painted illustrations by Mary Y. and J. Young Hunter.
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Fancy Farm
A novel of ideas. A satire on the political philosophy of its hero, the Laird of Schawfield, who appears to be at one with nature and attempts to run his estate on egalitarian lines - only to find that a young lady of whom he thinks he is enamoured can run it better.
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In Highland Harbours
Second Para Handy collection.
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Ayrshire Idylls
The short story collection with, among other interesting items, four stories which reconstruct incidents from the life of Burns and two which effectively depict Covenanting tales.
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The New Road
This is the story of the young Aeneas MacMaster's quest for knowledge about the mysterious death of his Jacobite father, Paul. We are kept in suspense until the last page before the mystery is fully unfoldefd and we learn all the treachery and double-dealing of Sandy Duncanson, the factor who had murdered Paul and made himself owner of Aeneas' rightful inheritance. But it is much more than an eighteenth century whodunnit. Like Walter Scott's Waverley this novel deals with the gradual disillusionment of the hero with the romantic glamour of the Highlands. He is made to see through the romantic reputation of Highland chiefs like Barisdale and Lovat and gets to know them for the scoundrels that they are. Like his merchant uncle, he comes to believe that only by trade and commerce will the Highlands ultimately be civilised and the means of achieving this will be the New Road which Wade is building between Stirling and Inverness. This road becomes a symbol of a more civilised and prosperous way of life for the Highlands, but, at the same time, things will be utterly changed by it and it will mean the loss of the whole ancient Gaelic way of life. This is a powerful novel about the forces which shape the destinies of individuals. It is great historical fiction!
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Jimmy Swan, The Joy Traveller
The big hearted commercial traveller.
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Jaunty Jock and Other Stories
An urbane and witty short story collection.
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Hurricane Jack of the Vital Spark
Third Para Handy collection.
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History of the Royal Bank of Scotland
Just what it says!
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