Doctor Syn

Doctor Syn #1

by Russell Thorndike

Posing as a respectable vicar in Dymchurch at the turn of the 18th century, Dr. Syn is actually the retired pirate Captain Clegg. Clegg, believed hanged in Rye, is no longer being sought by the authorities. However, country life proves too tame for the good "Dr. Syn," and his attention turns to smuggling. He takes on a secret identity, "The Scarecrow," and leads a gang of smugglers known as the Marsh Men. They travel Romney Marsh by night on horseback, sometimes using mounts painted with phosphorus to give them a spectral appearance, spreading legends of supernatural evil and menace. Although a criminal, Syn's appeal is almost Robin Hoodlike. He uses his ill-gotten gains to help his parish, and the King's Men sent to ferret out him and his men are hardly a sympathetic lot, even though they represent the forces of law. It's little wonder that the Doctor Syn proved a hit among readers of its day.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Adventure, Classics, Mystery, Pulp, Historical

206 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1915

About the author

Arthur Russell Thorndike was a British actor and novelist, best known for the Doctor Syn of Romney Marsh novels. Lesser known than his sister Dame Sybil Thorndike but just as versatile, Russell Thorndike's first love was for the pen and, following service in World War I, he devoted himself to writing.

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

The book that span off a series of pulp novels about the parson smuggler Doctor Syn because it was so popular. It is absolutely impossible to see why because this is awful. The pacing is terrible, the plot is random gibbering, the author is clearly just making it up as he goes, there's endless passages of comic dialogue that are slightly less entertaining than herpes, it's horribly racist and startlingly violent at points in a weirdly jarring way, and to conclude, what the fuck.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 5 out of 5]

An early "anti-hero" a clergyman (quiet and respectable) whose wife cheats on him and leaves him sending our hero, Dr. Syn off into a violent life as an avenger, terrorist (of his fleeing wife and her lover), pirate, smuggler, etc., etc., etc. following him till he became a Vicar and a smuggler at the same time (sporting the disguise of the "evil" Scarecrow)and was finally killed, (after defeating his enemy, having his ex-wife die in his arms raising their child and providing for her, heroically caring for his friends, the local people) by someone from his past.

The first book (I read it all in one volume when I was 13) was published in 1915...and they seem to hold up very well. Well, I liked them.

By the way, if you don't recognize the title as some I've talked to didn't...Disney's The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh was based on the "center" of the story.

Also "by the way", these seem to be totally out of print. I've seen a few used and I believe they may be available for The Kindle (I don't have one). Frustrating.

[Sam Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think half the reason I find this book so fascinating is that it is based in my home village and I grew up in one of the houses mentioned in the book

[Stephen Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful stuff. I loved the old Hammer films with Peter Cushing in the title role. It's all a bit fanciful but I'm such a lover of spooky, mysterious, smuggling adventures that I can't help but give it top marks.

There are some excellent descriptive phrases and laugh out loud funny bits too. Also, being a Norfolk man the descriptions of the flat, bare and empty marshes resonated with me strongly (I know this is set in Kent, but I'm sure the feeling is similar).

I've downloaded the entire series and can't wait to read the next one.

[Meg Mims · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know who wrote this: "In this thrilling masterpiece, Imogene and Denis, star-crossed lovers, find themselves caught between deadly forces and turn for help to the vicar, Doctor Syn" but that isn't quite the way the story goes that I just read! While I still enjoyed Doctor Syn, more than I expected given the love I have for the Disney movie 'The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh,' the best thing about the writing is the dialogue. If you need a sample of lower class English dialect in the Napoleonic era, here you go. The plot slowly draws out at a snail's pace but near the end it does quicken up a bit. Entertaining, yes. Old-fashioned, quite. Still fun, very. The movie probably took liberties, but I haven't seen it in years and it's not out on DVD as of yet. Rats. I loved seeing the Scarecrow on horseback - shiver me timbers!

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Close to a 3*, but not quite. I liked all the smuggling stuff, and the irony of a pirate masquerading as a minister (especially with a name like Dr. Syn), it went a little over the top for me, though - a little pulpy. Which is not a bad thing, necessarily - but I need to be in the mood for it. I guess I wasn't this time. However, I've downloaded 3 other Dr. Syn titles, so!

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can only dimly recall the Disney-fied version of this series (starring Patrick McGoohan, no less) back in the 1960's, but when someone mentioned these tales when I was visiting Rye, on the south coast of England, I was intrigued, for at the time smugglers and pirates had captured my imagination. Rye, in particular, had been a hotbed of smuggling, but virtually every town I visited along the south coast seemed to have its own historical set of local ne'er-do-wells that had operated in the area. On the whole they were regarded with some fondness and admiration.

The tale of Dr. Syn (originally published around 1915) is a moral romance, if you will. The hero of the tale turns to a life of crime to exact revenge and to better the lot of the common folk who are being cruelly used by the corrupt Customs men. To really follow the tale requires a bit of historical knowledge (which, admittedly, I didn't entirely have in place), but even without much knowledge of the late 1700's in England and the political and economic situation that fueled the smuggling trade, there's plenty of swashbuckling action to pull the tale along. However, it's not nearly as fast-paced as modern thrillers as there's considerable interplay between the various characters (Dr. Syn's faithful band of followers, mostly), not to mention development of the back story.

The story isn't really resolved in this book. There were several other Thorndike novels, but I had difficulty tracking them down and only found one other book in the series.

[Will Klein · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Reverend Doctor Syn, the beloved and slightly addled vicar of Dymchurch Abbey, preaches loudly against the smugglers who cross from France, baked with his sexton Mister Mipps, a salty old sea dog prone to excessive yarning while in his rum cups... meanwhile the dangerous and mysterious Scarecrow leads the smugglers of Romney Marsh, aided by his vicious sidekick Hellspite... and when the King's revenuers descend upon Dymchurch, the young boy whose only goal is to grow up to become a hangman (Jack Ketch) is torn between his loyalty to his country, and to his small town. Of course looming over all of this is the legend of Captain Clegg, a particularly vile and loathesome pirate who may have been killed some time ago- or was he?

Thorndike wasn't as good a story teller as Kipling or London, but he made up for a lack of ability in prose with lurid, sanguine tales of high adventure. This series doesn't keep up the insane energy of the first book, which is thematically similar to all adventure novels written after Dumas, but more in the pulp fashion, with two-fisted heros and passwords and countersigns and secret identities... a lot of fun, for fans of the genre.

[Bernard Norcott-mahany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Russell Thorndike wrote a half dozen or so books about Dr. Syn, AKA the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. This book, the first, comes when Clegg the Pirate, who has been living in quiet seclusion in Romney Marsh at Dymchurch as a minister, Dr. Syn, has come to the end of his career. The later books serve as earlier adventures of the Scarecrow. This book served as the basis of the 1937 film, "Dr. Syn," with the famous British actor, George Arliss (then quite an old man) in the title role. And Disney made a later film, consisting of three "adventures" of the Scarecrow for the Wonderful World of Color TV show, and later released as a feature film.
The book is quite striking for a popular boys' book of the 1920s in that it doesn't pull punches. The Scarecrow has no problem killing people in cold blood who might prove embarrassing to him later on. The townspeople both fear and love the Scarecrow and the revenue he brings to the area with his stolen goods, and they resent the incursion of the British Navy into the area with their press gangs. Much more chilling than either of the film versions, with an interesting and ambiguous hero, the book is worth reading.

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originaly written in 1915, that is the version presented here. It was re-written by an American in the 1960s, and that was what Disney based their movie (TV mini-series)on. I've not read the later version, so I can't compare the two.
The earlier review and even the blurb in this book, mentions events that do not happen in this edition - so I wonder if they've been edited out. Hmmm.
Of course, the book's main secret is widely known, so we can't judge it on that. the plot is now old, so we can't judge it on that. The writing is creaky by today's standard. It does have violence and casual racism, if that's a minus or a plus (certainly means it's not a children's book) The ending (at least of this edition) seemed rushed and and inconclusive.
It's possible that I'm judging the book on its classic standards and thus was let down by unrealistic expectations. It might warrant a 3 instead of a 2

[☆Ruth☆ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an old book, published in 1915 and should be read with that in mind. The action is based in the Kent marshes around the time of the Napoleonic wars. The narrative is 90% dialogue and the language is colloquial and old fashioned. I imagine it would have appealed to youngsters of the age, but possibly a bit too outdated for modern kids. Having said that, I enjoyed the tale - a rough & tumble smuggling yarn, told with a sense of humour, but which doesn't pull any punches with regard to bumping people off when it's expedient!

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this series. I read it after I saw the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, but I preferred the books.

[Jesse]

This was amiable, fun nonsense! The perfect lightweight novel. Genre-wise, I'd call it pirate-adjacent. Pirates are fun, erego, Dr. Syn was fun. Not great art, but it would have made a killer comic book!

[Igenlode Wordsmith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think my main problem (somewhat ignobly) with this book is that none of the characters are very likeable. The only person whom we are unambiguously meant to applaud is the orphan Imogene, and she is very much a minor character. Dr Syn ought to be the hero, or at least the antihero, but the descriptions of him in terror or dead drunk tend to undermine any attempt to romanticise him, whilst the Scarecrow may be cunning, but he is also a coldblooded killer who has no qualms about betraying his own followers and friends for his own convenience - a plausible characterisation for a real-life pirate, but not really the stuff of swashbucklers. Jerry Jerk, who torments his teacher and has a mania for hanging, is not an attractive boy-hero, and Captain Collyer, who is a resourceful man trying to do his duty, is evidently on the 'wrong' side of the plot. It's not clear quite how much the Squire knows, but he takes no decisive action either to support the smugglers or uphold the forces of law and ends up as a bit of a nonentity, whereas his son Denis is a boastful but weak stripling who doesn't particularly appeal at the start of the book and then becomes a mere plot mechanic.

I can imagine this as a swashbuckler film with the roles of Denis and Imogene expanded to fill the positions of juvenile lead, or with Jerry as intrepid child star, and with the Scarecrow as a carefree daredevil mocking at the stodgy forces of the law with the aid of his loyal sidekick. But this book isn't it. Even the hinted supernatural elements (is there really a zombie among the Captain's crew?) aren't really played up for their full potential.

And yet I'm not sure it's really a case of deliberate moral ambiguity either. This is no "Treasure Island", with its beguilingly wicked Long John Silver. It's more a narrative of Dickensian grotesques, minus the humanity that Dickens generally manages to install in them. The plot's a promising one, but it's harder to care about what happens to the characters.

[Jack Bates · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been talking about reading this for years as it comes up quite often in discussions about various things on Twitter. There are two films - I might have seen the B&W one? Maybe? and more significantly for my own life, one of the locomotives on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway is called Doctor Syn. We went there when I was about eight or nine so the name has been in my head for forty-odd years.

When I showed my copy of this to my parents they both said they'd read it as children - so in the fifties - it was written in 1915. It reads very much like a kids' book I think - although it isn't - and exactly the sort of thing a 1950s child who liked books about 'adventure' and 'smugglers' would enjoy. It's very short, with short chapters, and there's loads of action, but it still took me ages for some reason. It's not massively engaging? Or I didn't find it massively engaging, despite it having loads of things I like. I think it's maybe just not terribly well written. It's obviously old-fashioned in lots of ways, but also, as it was written around a hundred years after it's set, it's not old-fashioned enough, if that makes sense? And it's kind of Gothic, but not Gothic enough. I don't know.

Anyway, Doctor Syn is obviously a great character (pirate! Vicar!) and I don't blame Thorndike for going back and writing loads of prequels. There's plenty of casual racisom as you might expect (one of the villains is described throughout as a 'mulatto' - although this subplot is quite weird and he's barely on the page, despite being quite pivotal). If you like mysterious marshes and tales of smuggling and such like there's plenty to enjoy and I should think writers of kids' adventures, like Enid Blyton, definitely read this.

[Jimmy Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, although first from a publication perspective, is really the last of the Scarecrow's adventures. Perhaps it sets the stage for the retrospective books to follow, but I would have preferred to read it last, myself, assuming I can find all the other books in the series.

I think most readers who pick up Thorndyke's tales are familiar with the Scarecrow, thanks to the Disney two- or three- parter we all adored in the 1960's. Of all Thorndyke's tales, this is the closest to that Disney tale: the king's men have come to Romney Marsh to search for smugglers. They are greeted by the local minister, as well as various local characters and the magistrate. A number of local tales are told to the searchers; unusual happenings occur - and a famous pirate, long thought dead, seems to be alive.

The Sabatini-like prose isn't fast moving, but the book nonetheless offers a plot twist or two. The Disney team took their liberties (there's an impossible-to-find screen2print book from that effort) to tighten up the story and make it work within the limitations of the Wonderful World of Color. So when you do pick this original up, there are a few surprises and it's worth persevering. On its own, this is an incredibly creative story, and, if I wasn't familiar with the characters, no doubt a bit frightening. You can see what inspired the Disney team. It's a pity they didn't embark (forgive the pun) on producing a few more adventures.

[Quasimode · Rating 3 out of 5]

I put this on my reading list because I'd stumbled across something I remembered from my childhood: A movie called "Scarecrow" that ran on the Wonderful World of Disney back in the '60s. I only had vague memories of it but knew it involved an upstanding 18th century gent in southern Britain who also had a clandestine smuggling operation running right under the noses of the royal bureaucracy.

This didn't really live up to that time-embellished memory, unfortunately. It's an entertaining yarn, but the character of Syn is presented as someone who's borderline insane - or at minimum a Jeckyl / Hyde persona - and the story itself is not a tale of an inspiring anti-tyranny rebel, but a tepid slice-of-life that's only interesting in its characterizations. Annnnd the ending is an inconclusive let-down.

So I consider this a loose end from long ago that I've finally tied up, albeit disappointingly. I made the mistake of buying a couple of the subsequent titles in the series - on the expectation the book would be better than it was - but fortunately they were cheap. I may go back and read them at some point, but there's not much of a draw to the series to justify the time spent.

[CD · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is an Andrew Wyeth painting that marvelously captures the result of being Dr. Syn. It too is worth seeking out an image or print of as the original isn't available for public viewing as far as I know as of this writing.

I don't exactly remember when I first heard these particular part of Pirateology(sic) but grabbed up a copy of this the first time I saw it many years ago.

This gets one of my 'goodread' ratings.

ARggh, matey, sigh, I want to be a pirate. Only sort of really. No job security you know.

[Wreade1872 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange mystery/horror tale of smuggling, demons and pirates. Fairly good even if it does seem to go a bit too weird towards the end.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
Rufus Sewell reads the swashbuckling 18th-century pirate adventure

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a Scarecrow of Romney Marsh fan since it was first on Disney around 1964 but didn't know about the books until recently. He was a more modern Robin Hood for the English and as fictional as well but seemed so real. While seeming to be some kind of horror figure he was actually a good hearted preacher by day and roguish Robin Hood by night using the scarecrow persona to assist the villagers in simply surviving. So recently I discovered the books it was based on and picked this one up from Amazon to read. It was a much different read than I expected and was written differently than more modern books having been written in the 1910s. The writer seems to have captured quite well the era it takes place, the 1700s I believe, with his detailing of the town and marsh and definitely the conversational tone. It was a fun read from another era and gave some nice background to a pleasure from my youth. I did have a couple of issues though that some of the conversations seemed a big drawn out for some characters and that the ending really seemed to end the scarecrow himself. Obviously that is not the truth because there are more books so I will have to read them to see where it went.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This… this is a book, and if you read it and don’t question anything to hard it’s a fine classic Victorian adventure story. But if you think about it to much it’s the most wildly unhinged book ever. I fully believe if the story was shorter/ better edited it could have been really fun and good, but as it stands it’s just kind of all over the place, particularly in the second half. The end makes so little sense, and I could gaslight myself into thinking that parts of the book made sense better than it did. I would much rather recommend watching the old Disney TV show or the old movie rather than read this.

[Will Macmillan Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book I remember from my childhood, recalled reading with great pleasure, and returned to this year. An anti hero to treasure, possessed both a ruthless streak and great charm, set in a wild and desolate part of the UK that seemed (to me, growing up in an urban environment) almost another world. Ignoring the Disneyfication it has aged well, and now as an author myself, I was both intrigued and delighted to discover that, having killed off the MC at the end of the book, Thorndike had to meet the runaway success of the book by writing prequels.

Great fun for anyone.

[Lisa Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

yes it's very old fashioned and a long way from politically correct but still a lot of fun, a rollicking tale where most of the townsfolk are keeping secrets and nobody is who they seem, hard to imagine wool as being of such value that it needs to be smuggled to make a profit, but if we substitute guns, drugs booze or tobacco we would be thinking mafia types perhaps closer to pirates than we would think, being a rather dull parson on sunday morning and a smuggler during the week captured the imagination of many and even disney made a series about the scarecrow back in the 70's

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book written around 1915 I believe and i would never have had read it if it hadn’t been for my dad talking about it. So i finally go around to reading it and even though the writing and views are of its day the story itself is an adventure of smugglers, a vicar in disguise and marsh men roaming the marshes at night painted with phosphorus to give them menace to keep the residents at bay. If you like a tall tale then this is going to be for you although it is dated as i say its still fun all the same if you read it for what it is.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Peter Cushing film `The Night Creatures' reminded me of the Disney film `The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh' & led me to this book. While it starts off slowly & seems to muddle about endlessly, it does finally sort itself out into a good story of pirates & smugglers in England shortly before war with France in the time of Napoleon.

[Amanda Grace]

This is a 1915 classic yarn held dear by Kentish folk & so passed on to me for appropriate edification by a beloved. It's got: pirates, priests, ghosts, revenge, love, absolute tomfoolery, a kid bent on hanging his schoolteacher, and more. Unfortunately, it also contains a dash of era-typical patronising racism, so please do read with care.

[Michelle Wiles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found a couple of these books in a charity shop when my husband and I stayed in Dymchurch. I didn't have the first one so my husband bought it for me for Christmas. I really enjoyed this first book, full of piracy and adventure. Looking forward to starting book 2.

[Nancy Chambers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story different from the movie The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh although the same subject. Written in language of early 1900s and using British rather than American words but enjoyable to read nonetheless the less.

[Mary Borckardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Memories of the "Scarecrow of Romney Marsh" from the Walt Disney's TV show of my youth, I was able to find the Restored Edition of Russell Thorndike's "Doctor Syn". It was slow going with the start of the book, but the last 50 pages or so had me sitting on the edge of my seat.