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1-Page Summary of Outlander

Overall Summary

The Outlander is a novel that takes place in the wilds of Canada. It’s about a young woman who murders her husband and goes on the run, pursued by his brothers. She deals with her own inner demons, as well as physical ones. The central theme of this book is wilderness—both mental and physical—and how it affects people’s lives.

Throughout the novel, Mary remembers her childhood and her marriage. Her father was a grieving widower who worked as a lawyer and minister without having faith in either profession. She had been an unpleasant child, beautiful but lacking female graces that her grandmother wanted to see from her. She married John first chance she got; he took her out West where they were supposed to farm land together but instead gambled away most of their money while taking mistresses on the side. Their brief marriage was unhappy; she failed to please him, and he alternately ignored for long periods before berating her for being useless. When their child died and he told her that she could just have another one, she went mad. When he came home after his trip back East, which included visiting with family members of hers whom she hadn’t seen since childhood, she shot him with a rifle and buried his body in mud. In between those events there are flashbacks of the brothers looking for Mary while trying not to be found themselves by anyone else.

As the novel opens, Mary is already on the run. She’s wearing widow’s clothes and has nothing of value except a Bible she can barely read due to dyslexia. A church service startles her, but an elderly woman takes pity on her and gives her food, clothing, and shelter. The brothers with red hair catch up to her as she escapes into the night with a stolen horse and some things that she can sell for money.

She wanders for days without any idea of where she is or even what direction she’s going. She has no survival skills, and it seems like only a matter of time before she starves to death. Her horse escapes one night while being pursued by wolves, but eventually, they kill a deer that the wolf was guarding. Mary decides to roast some of the meat over a fire, which attracts the wolf back again. The wolf runs away when it sees her approaching though. William “Ridgerunner” Moreland finds her after spotting her campfire from his lookout tower in the forest he lives in alone as a fugitive from authorities because he doesn’t pay taxes on his land (he thinks that paying them would give up too much control). He brings her back with him and they become friends and lovers at first, but then one day he packs up all his things and leaves without saying anything to Mary except leaving some of her belongings behind along with an ominous note telling her to go west if she wants answers about who he really is/was.

Mary meets an Indian named Henry, mainly because he has her escaped horse. She reclaims the horse, and Henry takes her home to his wife before conducting her on to a rough mining town called Frank. On the way to Frank, she is hit in the calf by an arrow, but the injury is not serious. In town, she stays with Reverend Bonnycastle and cooks for him. One day a strange man rides into town and turns out to be a friend of Bonny’s (Bonnycastle). Arthur hears voices like Mary does when she was growing up at Dotheboys Hall School for Wayward Boys where they mistreated her terribly until one day when Mr. Squeers beat William Smike so badly that Mary had enough of their abuse and killed them both. She sees herself in this man because similar to her he is tormented and cannot go home either since he can no longer work as part of the police force due to his psychotic break from reality which causes him hear voices just like Mary did at school after being abused by Mr. Squeers who eventually died from food poisoning after eating some tainted meat pies made by Mrs. Squeer’s cookery class students who were fed up with their abusive teacher making them eat raw potatoes if they didn’t get all A+ grades on every test or quiz given during each semester which happened quite frequently especially during exam time each semester where everyone would pretty much fail miserably including Mrs Wackford-Sackville-Boldwood whose husband was also an abusive drunkard whom nobody liked except for perhaps Mrs Boldwood who may have been having marital problems with Mr Boldwood