This work follows the experiences of a young Scottish Highlander, Ronald Stuart, who enters the 92nd regiment of foot, the Gordon Highlanders as an ensign. He joins the division in Spain soon after and stays with Gordons for the rest of the Napoleonic Wars. The plot contains several amusing adventures of Stuart that include rescuing half of the noble ladies of Spain, dealing with problematic prisoners of the war, and trying to escape from his rival. Although the story is based on the Peninsular war, it is much more than a retelling of it from Stuart's perspective. Following a sentimental tone, Grant writes with energy, passion, and authority about his native country and its inhabitants. Grant's portrayal of Spain and Spaniards makes it more attractive as he presents such a balanced account of the Spanish people in the Peninsular War that not many British authors could during that time.

In the Highlands of Perthshire a deadly feud had existed, from time immemorial, between the Lisles of Inchavon and the Stuarts of Lochisla. In the days when the arm of the law was weak, the proprietors had often headed their kinsmen and followers in encounters with the sword, and for the last time during the memorable civil war of 1745-6. But between the heads of the families, towards the latter end of the last century, (the period when our tale commences,) although the era of feudal ideas and outrages had passed away, the spirit of transmitted hatred, proud rivalry and revenge, lurked behind, and a feeling of most cordial enmity existed between Stuart and Lisle, who were ever engaged in vexatious law-suits on the most frivolous pretences, and constantly endeavouring to cross each other's interests and intentions,—quarrelling at public meetings,—voting on opposite sides,—prosecuting for trespasses, and opposing each other every where, "as if the world was not wide enough for them both;" and on one occasion a duel would have ensued but for the timely interference of the sheriff. Sir Allan Lisle of Inchavon, a man of a quiet and most benevolent disposition, was heartily tired of the trouble given him by the petty jealousy of his neighbour Stuart, a proud and irritable Highlander, who would never stoop to reconciliation with a family whom his father (a grim duinhe-wassal of the old school) had ever declared to him were the hereditary foes of his race. The reader may consider it singular that such antiquated prejudices should exist so lately as the end of the last century; but it must be remembered that the march of intellect has not made such strides in the north country as it has done in the Lowlands, and many of the inhabitants of Perthshire will recognise a character well known to them, under the name of Mr. Stuart. It must also be remembered, that he was the son of a man who had beheld the standard of the Stuarts unfurled in Glenfinan, and had exercised despotic power over his own vassals when the feudal system existed in its full force, before the act of the British parliament abolished the feudal jurisdictions throughout Scotland, and absolved the unwilling Highlanders from allegiance to their chiefs.

"The Romance of War: The Highlanders in Spain" – Ronald Stuart is a young Scottish Highlander from Perthshire who joins the Gordon Highlanders as an ensign in 1811. He joins the regiment in Spain soon after and remains with them throughout the Napoleonic Wars. The story follows Stuart in the Peninsular War while he goes through many adventures between dangerous campaigns and battles, such as rescuing half of the noble ladies of Spain, dealing with troublesome prisoners-of-war, and trying to escape from his personal nemesis._x000D_ "The Romance of War: The Highlanders in France and Belgium" is a sequel to the exploits of Ronald Stuart and the Gordon Highlanders as they move from Spain, through France and Belgium, inevitably ending up in the fields of Waterloo.

Utilizing recent developments in book history and digital humanities, this book offers a cultural, economic, and literary history of the Victorian three-volume novel, the prestige format for the British novel during much of the nineteenth century. With the publication of Walter Scott’s popular novels in the 1820s, the three-volume novel became the standard format for new fiction aimed at middle-class audiences through the support of circulating libraries. Following a quantitative analysis examining who wrote and published these novels, the book investigates the success of publisher Richard Bentley in producing three-volume novels, the experiences of the W. H. Smith circulating library in distributing them, the difficulties of authors such as Robert Louis Stevenson and George Moore in writing them, and the resistance of new publishers such as Arrowsmith and Unwin to publishing them. Rather than faltering, the three-volume novel stubbornly endured until its abandonment in the 1890s.