Author | Lewis Grassic Gibbon |
---|---|
Country | Scotland |
Language | English and Scots |
Series | A Scots Quair trilogy |
Genre | Novel |
Publisher | Jarrolds Publishing (UK) The Century Company (US) |
Publication date | 1932 |
Media type | Print (hardback and paperback) |
Followed by | Cloud Howe |
Sunset Song is a 1932 novel by Scottish writer Lewis Grassic Gibbon. It is considered one of the most important Scottish novels of the 20th century. It is the first part of the trilogy A Scots Quair .
There have been several adaptations, including a 1971 television series by BBC Scotland, a 2015 film version, and some stage versions.
The central character is a young woman, Chris Guthrie, growing up in a farming family in the fictional parish of Kinraddie in the Mearns at the start of the 20th century. Life is hard, and her family is dysfunctional.
Chris Guthrie's mother, broken by repeated childbirths and learning she is again pregnant, kills her baby twins and herself. Two younger children go to live with their aunt and uncle in Aberdeen, leaving Chris, her older brother Will, and her father to run the farm on their own. Will and his father have a stormy relationship; and Will emigrates to Argentina with his young bride, Mollie Douglas. Chris is left to do all the work around the house. Soon after this, her father suffers a stroke, leaving him bedridden. For a time, he tries to persuade her to commit incest with him; but, as he is badly hurt, he is not able to force her. He dies shortly afterwards. At his funeral, Chris realises what happened to her father and breaks down in tears as she never knew the hardship he has endured for them.
Chris, who has had some education, considers leaving for a job as a teacher in the towns, but realises she loves the land and cannot leave it. Instead, she marries a young farmer called Ewan Tavendale and carries on farming. For a time, they are happily married, and they have a son, whom they also call Ewan. However, when World War I breaks out, Ewan Sr. and many other young men join up. When he comes home on leave, he treats Chris badly, evidently brutalised by his experiences in the army. Ewan dies in the war; and Chris subsequently hears from Chae Strachan, who is home on leave, that Ewan was shot as a deserter but that he died thinking of her. She begins a relationship with the new minister, and she watches as he dedicates the War Memorial at the Standing Stones above her home. The Sun sets to the Flowers of the Forest , bringing an end to their way of life, forever.
The novel touches on several issues; the distinctive, not always positive character, of small rural communities in the North East of Scotland, the role of women, and the "peasant crisis" i.e. the coming of modernisation to traditional farming communities. [1] The theme of the onset of modernisation and the end of old ways is explored using many symbols, for example, violent deaths of horses (supposed to represent old, traditional farming methods) and the appearance of motorised cars representing new technologies which brush the people of the land from the road. The author also has some political opinions reflected in the characters of Chae Strachan, the Socialist, and Long Rob, the pacifist, and he shows how they react to the coming of the war. The dilemma Chris faces over whether to continue her education or commit to a life in the land is also featured. The title of the novel is a direct reference to the theme of the sunset of the old ways and traditions. By some readings Chris is "Chris Caledonia", an allegorical figure for Scotland itself. [2] [1]
When it was first published, some readers were shocked by its realistic treatment of sex and childbirth, and its sometimes negative portrayals of family life. Some wondered if it had been written by a woman using a male pseudonym. [2] [1]
The novel is written in an essentially artificial form of Scots intended to capture the colloquial speech of The Mearns peasants without being inaccessible to English speakers.
In 1971 it was adapted for television as Sunset Song .
There are also a number of adaptations for the stage. The adaptation by Alastair Cording was produced by Aberdeen Performing Arts at His Majesty's Theatre under the direction of Kenny Ireland in 2008. It was staged again on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2010. [3] An adaptation by Morna Young was staged at Dundee Rep and the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, between April and June 2024.
Jack Webster, the Scottish writer and journalist, wrote a play based on the novel and Lewis Grassic Gibbon's life which toured Scotland in 2008. The novel was also the inspiration for the Richard Thompson song "Poor Ditching Boy" on his 1972 album Henry the Human Fly. [4]
In 2015, English filmmaker Terence Davies and producer Bob Last released an adaptation of the book, titled Sunset Song, starring Agyness Deyn and Peter Mullan. [5]
Doric, the popular name for Mid Northern Scots or Northeast Scots, refers to the Scots language as spoken in the northeast of Scotland. There is an extensive body of literature, mostly poetry, ballads, and songs, written in Doric. In some literary works, Doric is used as the language of conversation while the rest of the work is in Lallans Scots or British English. A number of 20th and 21st century poets have written poetry in the Doric dialect.
Kincardineshire or the County of Kincardine, also known as the Mearns, is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area on the coast of northeast Scotland. It is bounded by Aberdeenshire on the north and west, and by Angus on the south.
Lewis Grassic Gibbon was the pseudonym of James Leslie Mitchell, a Scottish writer. He was best known for A Scots Quair, a trilogy set in the north-east of Scotland in the early 20th century, of which all three parts have been serialised on BBC television.
Flowers of the Forest, or The Fluuers o the Forest, is a Scottish folk tune and work of war poetry commemorating the defeat of the Scottish army, and the death of James IV, at the Battle of Flodden in September 1513. Although the original words are unknown, the melody was recorded c. 1615–1625 in the John Skene of Halyards Manuscript as "Flowres of the Forrest", although it might have been composed earlier.
Terence Davies was a British screenwriter, film director, and novelist. He is best known as the writer and director of autobiographical films, including Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), The Long Day Closes (1992) and the collage film Of Time and the City (2008), as well as the literary adaptations The Neon Bible (1995), The House of Mirth (2000), The Deep Blue Sea (2011), and Sunset Song (2015). His final two feature films were centered around influential literary figures, Emily Dickinson in A Quiet Passion (2016) and Siegfried Sassoon in Benediction (2021). Davies was considered by some critics as one of the great British directors of his period.
Anna "Nan" Shepherd was a Scottish Modernist writer and poet, best known for her seminal mountain memoir, The Living Mountain, based on experiences of hill walking in the Cairngorms. This is noted as an influence by nature writers who include Robert Macfarlane and Richard Mabey. She also wrote poetry and three novels set in small fictional communities in Northern Scotland. The landscape and weather of this area played a major role in her novels and provided a focus for her poetry. Shepherd served as a lecturer in English at the Aberdeen College of Education for most of her working life.
Laurencekirk, locally known as Lournie, is a small town in the historic county of Kincardineshire, Scotland, just off the A90 Dundee to Aberdeen main road. It is administered as part of Aberdeenshire. It is the largest settlement in the Howe o' the Mearns area and houses the local secondary school; Mearns Academy, which was established in 1895 and awarded the Charter Mark in 2003.
A Scots Quair is a trilogy by the Scottish writer Lewis Grassic Gibbon, describing the life of Chris Guthrie, a woman from the north-east of Scotland during the early 20th century.
Edith MacArthur was a Scottish actress noted for her elegant screen presence.
Arbuthnott is a hamlet and parish in the Howe of the Mearns, a low-lying agricultural district of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is located on the B967, east of Fordoun and north-west of Inverbervie. The nearest railway station is Laurencekirk.
Drumlithie is a village in the Howe of the Mearns in southern Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Situated seven miles south of Stonehaven in the parish of Glenbervie, it is affectionately known by locals as "Skite", although the origin of this name remains disputed. The name "Drumlithie" may incorporate the Gaelic word druim, meaning "ridge".
Vivien Heilbron is a Scottish actress.
Auchenblae is a village in the Kincardine and Mearns area of Aberdeenshire, formerly in Kincardineshire, Scotland. The village was known for its weavers, a whisky distillery and the annual Paldie's Fair horse market.
Cathy MacDonald is a Scottish broadcaster who is known for hosting many Scottish Gaelic-language television programmes such as Dotaman and has also presented BBC Scotland's Reporting Scotland news bulletins in the late 1980s, where she mostly presented the breakfast bulletins but occasionally presented the evening news throughout this period as well.
Moira Armstrong is a Scottish television director whose career has expanded over nearly fifty years.
This is a list of events in Scottish television from 1971.
Alan McHugh is a Scottish actor, comedian and writer. He is best known for his roles in television shows such as Taggart, Take the High Road, Limmy's Show, and Rab C. Nesbitt. He co-wrote the jukebox stage musical I Dreamed a Dream about the rise of Scottish singer Susan Boyle alongside fellow comedian Elaine C. Smith.
Sunset Song is a 2015 British drama film written and directed by Terence Davies and starring Agyness Deyn, Peter Mullan and Kevin Guthrie. It is an adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's 1932 novel of the same name. It was shown in the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the United Kingdom on 4 December 2015. The film follows Chris Guthrie, the daughter of a Scottish farmer in the early 1900s.
Victor Carin was a Scottish actor, director, and translator, who wrote for radio, television, film, and the stage.
Sunset Song is a 1971 BBC Scotland adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's novel of the same name for television.