The novel

Largely thought to be at least partly autobiographical, it follows on from Lavengro

Lavengro

Lavengro: The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest is a work by George Borrow, falling somewhere between the genres of memoir and novel, which has long been considered a classic of 19th century English literature. According to the author lav-engro is a Romany word meaning "word master". The historian...

(1851). The title can be translated from Romany

Romani language

Romani or Romany, Gypsy or Gipsy is any of several languages of the Romani people. They are Indic, sometimes classified in the "Central" or "Northwestern" zone, and sometimes treated as a branch of their own....

 as 'Gipsy Gentleman'. On October 18, 1853, Mrs. George Borrow wrote to John Murray

John Murray (publisher)

John Murray is an English publisher, renowned for the authors it has published in its history, including Jane Austen, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Byron, Charles Lyell, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Herman Melville, and Charles Darwin...

 (his publisher), and spoke of her husband's completing his work - "which he proposes to call The Romany Rye - A Sequel to Lavengro."

The story itself follows the journey of a learned young man thrown in with Gypsies. It is a philosophical adventure story of sorts.. There also used to be a pub near George Borrow Road called The Romany Rye, then The Romany Beer House and before it closed, The Romany. Wetherspoons are reintroducing the name Romany Rye to their soon to be opened (2011) pub in Dereham, Norfolk where George Borrow was born.