Dragonfly in Amber (novel)

infobox Book |
name = Dragonfly in Amber
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Diana Gabaldon
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = "Outlander" series (book 2)
genre = Historical novel
publisher = Delacorte Press
release_date = July 1, 1992
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 752 pp (mass market paperback)
isbn = ISBN 0-385-33597-0
preceded_by = "Outlander"
followed_by = "Voyager"

"Dragonfly in Amber", the second book in the best-selling Outlander series, is written by Diana Gabaldon.

Her books are difficult to classify by genre, since they contain elements of romantic fiction, historical fiction, and science fiction. The stories center around a time-travelling 20th-century nurse (Claire Randall) and her 18th-century Scottish husband (Jamie Fraser), and are located in Scotland, France, the West Indies, and America.

Plot summary

cotland, 1968

"Dragonfly in Amber" opens when Claire returns to Scotland with her twenty-year old daughter, Brianna, hoping to find a way to break the news of the girl's true paternity to her, with the help of historian Roger Wakefield.

The story then flashes back in time (literally and figuratively) to when Claire and Jamie lived in Paris after their escape at the end of "Outlander". As the story develops, we learn about Claire and Jamie Fraser's fight to stop the 1745 Jacobite rebellion and the bloody battle of Culloden -- and also how and why Claire returned to the future.

Paris, 1744

At the end of "Outlander", Claire convinced Jamie that they should do everything they could to stop the coming Jacobite Rising and the slaughter that would follow. After learning that Charles Stuart is trying to get money from the French King, Louis XV, they travel to Paris. In Paris, Jamie agrees to work in his uncle Jared's wine business and, since many of his French relatives are Jacobites and are very well placed in society, secures meetings with Charles Edward Stuart (also known as Bonnie Prince Charlie) and many well-to-do members of the French aristocracy and bourgeoisie. So, while running Jared Fraser's wine business, Jamie and Claire begin to plot against the Bonnie Prince.

However, their lives are soon interrupted by the arrival of Jack Randall, a character that Jamie and Claire believed had died at Wentworth Prison. Jamie, in spite of promising to Claire that he would spare Randall's life in order to spare Claire's previous husband, Frank, challenges Randall to a duel in the Bois de Boulogne. Though he doesn't kill the man, he does wound him and renders him impotent. And, after she witnesses the duel, Claire loses the child she was carrying and is taken away to "l'Hôpital des Anges", where they believe she won't recover. Jamie is sent to the Bastille for the crime of dueling.

cotland, 1745 and the Rising

After recovering from her illness, Claire manages to free Jamie from prison. One of the conditions of his release is that they must leave France, so they take ship for Scotland. (Fortunately, Jamie is also pardoned for his crimes and won't be arrested by the English.) Once in Scotland, Claire and Jamie settle in to farm life at Jamie's home at Lallybroch, with his sister Jenny and her family. However, Jamie receives a copy of a letter from Charles Stuart announcing his attempt to retake the throne of Scotland. There is no escape, as Charles has had Jamie's signature forged on the letter as one his supporters. The Rising has begun.

Seeing no option but to go and fight for the Stuarts, Jamie gathers some of the men of Lallybroch to join the Stuart army. They fight and win at the battle of Prestonpans, but the tide soon turns against the Jacobites. The Rising culminates in the disastrous battle of Culloden. Jamie, knowing that the Scots won't win at Culloden, takes Claire and heads for Craig na Dun, where he forces her to travel back to her own time, to spare her the battle's aftermath. Before she goes, however, Jamie tells Claire that he knows she is pregnant again. After sending her through the stones, Jamie heads back to Culloden Field, intending to die.

1968, again

The lengthy flashback ends and the reader learns that the child Claire was carrying through the stones is Brianna. The novel ends with Roger informing Claire that Jamie didn't die at Culloden. And the reason why Claire wanted Roger to be present while revealing to Briana her true parentage.

"Dragonfly in Amber" is a poignant tale of two lovers struggling to stop the tide of history through politics, spying, letter-stealing, dinner parties, and unlikely friendships. As the second in what is now a six-book series (according to the author there will be a Book 7, possibly a Book 8) of Claire Randall Fraser and her Highlander husband Jamie, the story is an integral step in a bestselling and surprisingly rich tale spanning the time from the Scottish Rising of 1745, to the American Revolution.