The Romany Rye
by George Borrow 1803–1881
The book, and the century it came out of.
Borrow leaves the dingle where Lavengro ended, shoes horses, buys a fine mare, drinks ale with a Hungarian, argues with a postillion, and keeps company with Romany people who are neither picturesque nor grateful. He mastered a dozen languages and tramped across Spain selling Bibles for a missionary society; nobody has ever been quite sure how much of this is autobiography, which is exactly the effect he wanted. Illustrated with 55 full-page plates — paintings by Barenger, Constable and Haudebourt-Lescot among them.
The Making of the Linch-pin—The Sound Sleeper—Breakfast—The Postillion’s Departure.
The Romany Rye, by George Borrow, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.
It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.
- Series
- Literary Classics
- Format
- Ebook
- Extent
- about 480 pages
- Reading time
- about 10 hours
- Illustrations
- Full-page plates, credited
- Text
- Complete, unabridged
- Language
- en
- This edition
- 2026
- ISBN
- 9785486934797
55 paintings are bound into this edition
Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.
A page from this edition
Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.
Both photographed from the finished volume.
The Romany Rye, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Literary Classics shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.
Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486934797, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.
Questions readers ask
- Is this the whole of The Romany Rye?
- Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
- What exactly did you change?
- The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. George Borrow's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
- Are the pictures really in the book?
- Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
- How long is it?
- About 480 pages, which is roughly about 10 hours of reading.
- What do I actually get?
- An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
