History Literature / Outlander

Absolutely nothing to do with [[Film/Outlander2008 that film.]] Also not to be confused with Johji Manabe's manga series from the '80s (and the subsequent anime adaptation) titled ''Manga/{{Outlanders}}''. Don't confuse it with the 2011 game ''VideoGame/{{Outland}}'' or the 1992 game ''{{VideoGame/Outlander|1992}}, either.

Absolutely nothing to do with [[Film/{{Outlander}} that film.]] Also not to be confused with Johji Manabe's manga series from the '80s (and the subsequent anime adaptation) titled ''Manga/{{Outlanders}}''. Don't confuse it with the 2011 game ''VideoGame/{{Outland}}'' either.

* BloodBrothers: Jamie and Ian Mor (Ian Murray Senior) became this when they were boys after Jamie's mother died in childbirth with her new son. They remain close through the decades, and Ian actually speaks his last words to Jamie ("On your right", meaning that he would be standing at Jamie's weak side).

* BigScrewedUpFamily: The [=MacKenzie=] siblings (Ellen, Colum, Dougal, and Jocasta). The [=MacKenzie=]'s as a whole are said to be "charming as larks in the field, and sly as foxes with it". Colum is an extremely smart laird who favors keeping the clan's options open; Dougal is openly charming (when it suits him) but also has HonorBeforeReason BloodKnight tendencies; Jocasta is manipulative and autocratic. Even Jamie's mother Ellen had her moments: she didn't want to marry the man her father was thinking of, so her solution was to sleep with Brian Fraser and intentionally get pregnant outside of matrimony, so that her family would be forced to accept their marriage or take a hit to their social reputation from her actions.

%%* BadassPreacher: Roger.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: The Mackenzie siblings (Ellen, Colum, Dougal, and Jocasta).

* DeathOfAChild: Multiple babies die over the course of the series, including the supposed changling, Faith, Petronella Mueller's newborn, and several other babies on the Ridge.

* OpenHeartDentistry: Claire is a former combat nurse and later a trained surgeon, so her medical knowledge is pretty broad. That said, things like making her own penicillin and pulling teeth weren't exactly part of her formal training. But she makes due.

* EternalSexualFreedom: Averted, for the most part. Claire and Brianna are certainly more liberal than most in the eighteenth century, but even their views on things like John's sexuality seem conservative to a modern audience.
** When Claire finds out Brianna and Roger slept together before marriage, she's primarily concerned about Brianna's pregnancy. Jamie, on the other hand, is furious, even though he knows Brianna was raped by Bonnet not long afterward, making the question of Brianna's virginity something of a moot point. As Brianna's due date grows closer, both she and Claire are blase about Brianna being an unmarried mother, while Jamie and Jocasta go to great lengths to find her a new husband.

* GoingCommando: TruthInTelevision, as what we call "underwear" didn't really exist in the 1700's. Given a saucy twist when Roger and Brianna go back to the 1970's and she tells him that, having gotten out of the habit during their sojourn in the past, she now only wears underwear if she's planning to seduce him, i.e. for him to take off.
** Lampshaded at one point when Brianna makes a joke to several women on the Ridge about an uptight male character having a secret collection of women's underwear, leading them to ask confusedly if she means "shifts and stays." Realizing she's misstepped, Brianna hastily talks about lacey French things.

** Claire in the past, especially her second sojourn, into the 1760's. She's 49 at that point and with the benefits of modern nutrition and health care, looks younger than many women of that time who are in their twenties or thirties.
** Lampshaded at one point when Roger mentions that Hiram Crombie's elderly mother-in-law had died in her sleep, and comments that she must have been at least 80. Claire dryly tells Roger that "Old Mrs. Wilson" was only five years older than Claire herself.
* {{Omniglot}}: Practically a running gag with the number of people who know multiple languages. Jamie and Lord John are both fluent in English, French, German, Ancient Greek, and Ancient Latin, though Jamie outdoes him with additional fluency in Gaelic, proficiency in Spanish, and being conversational in Cherokee. Roger is fluent in English, Gaelic, Ancient Greek and Ancient Latin; Ian in English, Gaelic, Mohawk and a few other Indian languages; Jenny in English, Gaelic and French; and Claire in English, French, and limited Gaelic(she understands more than she can speak). Fergus, Marsali and their children are implied to be fluent in English, French(from Fergus) and Gaelic(from Marsali). Inverted with Brianna, who apart from English only speaks Gaelic and what is referred to as "bastard" (basic) French.

%%* SettlingTheFrontier: The Ridge

* StatuesqueStunner: Brianna, who is described as being beautiful, and is just a bit under Jamie's height(being about 6' 1" to Jamie's 6' 4"). She's tall even in her own time, and in the 18th century surrounded by malnourished people, she's practically a ''giantess''. When she gets into a confrontation with Laoghaire at Lallybroch, she manages to interrupt the argument simply by getting to her feet, with the prose observing that she "was as tall as any of the men, and towered over the women."

* SurprisinglyHappyEnding: After all the fighting and death in ''Written In My Own Heart's Blood'', the end sees Jamie, Claire and family(Jenny, Ian, Rachel, Germain and new addition Fanny) ensconced contentedly back at Fraser's Ridge, with the assorted families left behind(the Higgenses, the Beardsleys, and the Weymess') all doing quite well. Then as a literal last scene, Jamie and Claire are sitting outside and down the road come [[spoiler: Brianna, Roger, Jem and Mandy]].
* TemptingFate:[[spoiler:In ''Bees'', when Claire finds out about Brianna's health problem (the latest experience of time travel damaged her heart) she inquires whether Bree could be pregnant, to Bree's vociferous denial. By the end of the book, Bree has in fact conceived and borne a third child.]]

** Jem seems to vacillate between past and present tense when referring to his grandparents.
%%* TrappedInThePast: Donner believes he is.

%%* WoodenShipsAndIronMen: Setting of ''Voyager''.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Done several times in the series: by Brianna when pregnant and staying at River Run, by Claire late at night after making love with Jamie (he initially thinks it's because he didn't satisfy her, but she reassures him it was just because she woke up aroused due to the hormonal fluctuations of menopause) and on another occasion, Claire goads Jamie into them ''both'' doing it in front of each other.

!!Tropes Used:

* TriangRelations: Jamie, Claire, and Laoghaire form a type 4 triangle, with Laoghaire as Alice and Jamie as Bob. [[spoiler: Later, Lord John takes up the mantle as a much less bitchy Alice.]]

* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: Do they ever. And sometimes, they have less-than-good sex, though Jamie does usually feel bad about it.