An Appreciation of Sir Walter Scott

Part IV – The Waverley Novels continued

Tales of My Landlord

The Tales of My Landlord series was not advertised as “by the author of Waverley” but these novels are always included in The Waverley Novels Collections.

Tales of My Landlord, 1st series

The Black Dwarf

Sir Edward Mauley is The Black Dwarf, a character based on a very real man of Scott’s acquaintance. Mauley becomes involved in the quarrel of a friend — and, when imprisoned for his actions in that quarrel, finds himself betrayed by the very man in whose cause he lost his liberty. When free, he goes to Mucklestane Moor, where his extraordinary strength, knowledge of medicine, and ready wealth lead the local people to regard him as a supernatural being — a servant of the Devil. . . .

The Tale of Old Mortality

Describes the lives – and often violent deaths – the hopes, and the struggles, of the Covenanters in late seventeenth-century Scotland. A tale of extremism, bigotry and cruelty, it is redeemed by its characters’ courage and loyalty, and their passionate belief in religious and civil liberty. Considered to be one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century, its influence pervades European writing from Stendhal to Tolstoy. A swift-moving historical romance that places an anachronistically liberal hero against the forces of fanaticism in 17th-century Scotland in the period infamous as the “killing time”. Henry Morton is torn between his love for a royalist’s granddaughter and his loyalty to his downtrodden countrymen.

Tales of My Landlord, 2nd series

Heart of Midlothian

Precisely focused on the trials for murder of John Porteous and of Effie Deans in 1736 and 1737. Yet it is a chronicle which spans the eighty years of the life of David Deans, whose death takes place in 1751. The most complex of all Scott’s narratives, it is also the most challenging in that it raises in an acute fashion the problem of a judicial system that does not produce justice. Scott places this fundamental issue in its immediate political context, in history as represented by the life of Deans, and alongside the justice of Providence as perceived by his daughter Jeanie, the greatest of Scott’s heroines.

Tales of My Landlord, 3rd series

The Bride of Lammermoor

The most haunting and Shakespearean of Scott’s novels, The Bride of Lammermoor is a fast-paced tragedy set on the eve of the 1707 Union. The proud young Master of Ravenswood sees his estate pass to the astute Sir William Ashton. When Ravenswood falls in love with Ashton’s daughter, her diabolical mother takes extreme measures to thwart the match – with tragic results. A story of immense gloomy power, infused by the unforgiving spirit of the North Sea.

A Legend of Montrose

Against the background of Montrose’s campaign of 1644–5, this spirited novel centres on one of Scott’s most memorable creations – Sir Dugald Dalgetty of Drumthwacket. This hard-headed Aberdonian contrasts tellingly with the weird and passionate Highland feud in which he becomes perilously entangled, as the narrative moves from Dalgetty’s unflinching encounter with the Duke of Argyll, to his dramatic escape from Inveraray Castle, to the battle of Inverlochy.

An Appreciation of Sir Walter Scott in Ten Parts
Part I – Walter Scott, A Short Biography
Part II – Scott The Poet.
Part III – The Waverley Novels, Introduction and The First Four Novels
Part IV- The Waverley Novels continued (The Black Dwarf, Old Mortality, Heart of Midlothian, Bride of Lammermoor, Legend of Montrose)
Part V – The Waverley Novels continued (Ivanhoe, The Monastery, The Abbot, Kenilworth)
Part VI – The Waverley Novels cont. (The Pirate, The Fortunes of Nigel, Peveril of the Peak, Quentin Durward )
Parts VII-VIII – The Waverley Novels. (Coming Soon)
Part IX – Locations Associated with Sir Walter Scott. (Coming Soon)
Part X – Short Bibliography including Editions of The Waverley Novels. (Coming Soon)

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An Appreciation of Sir Walter Scott

Part III – The Waverley Novels, Introduction and The First Four Novels

Introduction

The Waverley Novels are a long series of books by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). For nearly a century they were among the most popular and widely-read novels in all of Europe. Because he did not publicly acknowledge authorship until 1827, they take their name from Waverley (1814), which was the first. The later books bore the words “by the author of Waverley” on their title pages. More loosely, the term is used to refer to all of his novels. The Tales of my Landlord series was not advertised as “by the author of Waverley” but they are generally part of the collected editions.
Scott’s work shows the influence of the 18th century Enlightenment. He believed every human was basically decent regardless of class, religion, politics, or ancestry. Tolerance is a major theme in his historical works. The Waverley Novels express his belief in the need for social progress that does not reject the traditions of the past. He was the first novelist to portray peasant characters sympathetically and realistically, and was equally just to merchants, soldiers, and even kings.

48 Volume Edition

The first full collection of works is referred to as “The Magnum Opus” Edition, published 1829-1833, and consisted of the following 48 volumes;

I Waverley I

II Waverley II

III Guy Mannering I

IV Guy Mannering II

V The Antiquary I

VI The Antiquary II

VII Rob Roy I

VIII Rob Roy II

IX Old Mortality I

Vol X Old Mortality II

XI Heart of Mid-Lothian I

XII Heart of Mid-Lothian II

XIII Bride of Lammermoor I

XIV Bride of Lammermoor II

XV A Legend of Montrose

XVI Ivanhoe I

XVII Ivanhoe II

XVIII The Monastery I

XIX The Monastery II

XX The Abbott I

XXI The Abbot II

XXII Kennilworth I

XXIII Kennilworth II

XXIV The Pirate I

XXV The Pirate II

XXVI The Fortunes of Nigel I

XXVII The Fortunes of Nigel II

XXVII Peveril of the Peak I

XXIX Peveril of the Peak II

XXX Peveril of the Peak III

XXXI Quentin Durward I

XXXII Quentin Durward II

XXXIII St Ronan’s Well I

XXXIV St Ronan’s Well II

XXXV Red Gauntlet I

XXXVI Red Gauntlet II

XXXVII The Betrothed

XXXVIII The Talisman

XXXIX Woodstock I

XLWoodstock II

XLI The Highland Widow

XLII Fair Maid of Perth I

XLIII Fair Maid of Perth II

XLIV Anne of Geierstein I

XLV Anne of Geierstein II

XLVI Count Robert of Paris I

XLVII Count Robert of Paris II, Castle Dangerous

XLVIII Castle Dangerous, The Surgeon’s Daughter

Subsequent editions were published in 48 and 24/25 volume editions.

24/25 Volume Editions

The 24/25 volume editions are generally as follows;

I Waverley

II Guy Mannering

III The Antiquary

IV Rob Roy

V Old Mortality

VI Heart Of Midlothian

VII Montrose /Blackdwarf

VIII The Bride Of Lammermoor

IX Ivanhoe

X The Monastery

XI The Abbot

XII Kenilworth

XIII The Pirate

XIV The Fortunes Of Nigel

XV Peveril Of The Peak

XVI Quentin Durward

XVII St. Ronan’s Well

XVIII Red Gauntlet

XIX The Betrothed/Talisman

XX Woodstock

XXI Fair Maid of Perth

XXII Anne Of Geierstein

XXIII Count Robert Of Paris/The Surgeon’s Daughter

XXIV Castle Dangerous /Chronicles etc.

The differences between the 24 and 25 volume editions is marginal and is due to the way the publishers collated the shorter novels, from volume XIX onwards. The overall content for the works is unchanged.

There may also be a uniformly bound autobiography of Sir Walter Scott, normally in two volumes. The Life of Sir Walter Scott by J G Lockhart.

The First Four Waverley Novels

The first four Waverley Novels were;
Waverley(1814), Guy Mannering(1815), The Antiquary(1816) and Rob Roy(1817).

Waverley, or, Tis Sixty Years Since

The period is 1745-1746 and the main setting is Perthshire, Scotland. Waverley is an historical novel by Sir Walter Scott. Initially published anonymously in 1814 as Scott’s first venture into prose fiction, Waverley is often regarded as the first historical novel.
Waverley is set during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, which sought to restore the Stuart dynasty in the person of Charles Edward Stuart (or ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’). It relates the story of a young dreamer and English soldier, Edward Waverley, who was sent to Scotland in 1745. He journeys North from his aristocratic family home, Waverley-Honour, in the south of England first to the Scottish Lowlands and the home of family friend Baron Bradwardine, then into the Highlands and the heart of the 1745 Jacobite uprising and aftermath.
Upon publication, Waverley was an astonishing success, the first edition of one thousand copies sold out within two days of publication, and by November a fourth edition was at the presses.
Guy Mannering or The Astrologer

Guy Mannering, or The Astrologer, was Walter Scott’s second novel, first published anonymously in 1815. According to an introduction that Scott wrote in 1829, he had originally intended to write a story of the supernatural, but changed his mind soon after starting. The book was a huge success, selling out the day after its first edition.
Guy Mannering is set in the 1760s to 1780s, mostly in the Galloway area of southwest Scotland, but with episodes in Cumberland, Holland, and India. It tells the story of Harry Bertram, the son of the Laird of Ellangowan, who is kidnapped at the age of five by smugglers after witnessing the murder of a customs officer. It follows the fortunes and adventures of Henry and his family in subsequent years and the struggle over the inheritance of Ellangowan. The novel also depicts the lawlessness that existed at the time, when smugglers operated along the coast and thieves frequented the country roads.
The Antiquary

The period is the 1790’s and the main setting is Angus, Scotland. The Antiquary (1816) is a novel by Sir Walter Scott about several characters including an amateur historian, archaeologist and collector of items of dubious antiquity. Although he is the eponymous character, he is not necessarily the hero, as many of the characters around him undergo far more significant journeys or change. Instead, he provides a central figure (and location) for other more exciting characters and events – on which he provides a sardonic commentary. This is Scott’s gothic novel, redolent with family secrets, stories of hidden treasure and hopeless love, with a mysterious, handsome, young man, benighted aristocracy and a night-time funeral procession to a ruined abbey, no less. But the romance and mystery is counterpoised by some of Scott’s more down-to-earth characters, and grittily unromantic events.

The third of the Waverley Novels is dominated by two old men, Jonathan Oldbuck (the Antiquary of the title) and the beggar Edie Ochiltree. Together they apply their knowledge of the past to sort out the confusion of the present, and in doing so restore the fortunes of ancient houses. This was Scott’s favourite among his novels, and presents a quizzical and amusing view of the profession of history and, by implication, of Scott’s own practice as writer and collector.

Rob Roy

The period is the 1715-16 and the main setting is Loch Lomond, Scotland. Rob Roy (1817) is a novel by Walter Scott about Frank Osbaldistone, the son of an English merchant who goes to the Scottish Highlands to collect a debt stolen from his father. Rob Roy MacGregor, whom the book is named after, appears in the book several times but is not the lead character (in fact the narrative does not move to Scotland until half way through the book).
The story takes place at the time of the ’15 Jacobite Rising. Frank Osbaldistone, the narrator, quarrels with his father and is sent to stay with an uncle, Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone, in Northumberland. Banished from his father’s house, Frank Osbaldistone becomes involved in the conspiracy surrounding the disastrous Jacobite rising of 1715. His adventures take him to “MacGregor’s country”, across the Highland Line, where he finds cruelty, heartbreak, and some unlikely friends one of which is Robert Roy MacGregor, a famous Scottish folk hero who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. He was considered an outlaw of the early 18th century by the nobles and leaders.
The novel is a brutally realistic depiction of the social conditions in Highland and Lowland Scotland in the early 18th Century.

Coming Soon – Read Part IV More Waverley Novels.

An Appreciation of Sir Walter Scott in Ten Parts
Part I – Walter Scott, A Short Biography.
Part II – Scott The Poet.
Part III – The Waverley Novels, Introduction and The First Four Novels
Part IV – The Waverley Novels continued.
Part V – The Waverley Novels continued.
Part VI – The Waverley Novels cont. (The Pirate, The Fortunes of Nigel, Peveril of the Peak, Quentin Durward )
Parts VII-VIII – The Waverley Novels. (Coming Soon)
Part IX – Locations Associated with Sir Walter Scott. (Coming Soon)
Part X – Short Bibliography including Editions of The Waverley Novels. (Coming Soon)

Browse Walter Scott Books For Sale
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An Appreciation of Sir Walter Scott

Part II – Scott the Poet.

Sir Walter Scott entered literature through poetry and, absorbed as he was in folklore and the supernatural, he started his literary career by anonymously publishing in 1796 and adaptation of Ballads by G A Burger and in 1802-03, put out the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, an edition of old and new ballads.

It was in 1805 with the publication of The Lay of the Last Minstrel, based on an old border narrative, that his name became widely known. Supposedly recited by an aged minstrel to the Duchess of Buccleuch and her ladies at Newark Castle, the sequence of old Border scenes and incidents is elaborated with an admirable combination of antique lore, clan enthusiasm and vividly picturesque art. It became a huge success and made him the most popular author of the day.

His next poetical story, Marmion (1808), is full of heroic matter on a large scale. The culmination of the story is Flodden, and the fortunes of his faulty hero, Lord Marmion, are simply the means of approaching the great theme. The opening picture of Norham Castle in the setting sun gives the keynote, and scene after scene follows, culminating in the dramatic picture of the stress and tumult of the Flodden conflict. Some of its details are among the best known passages of Scott’s poetry.

In the Lady of the lake (1810) the force is laid on incident. The poem sets before us an almost continuous succession of exciting occurrences, yet it lives chiefly by its enchanting descriptions of scenery. It made Loch Katrine part of everyone’s romantic geography.

In Rokeby (1813) the force is laid on character, but the poem has never been really popular because we want Scott to write more about Loch Latrine, not about Marston Moor, though it has to be admitted that in Rokeby he included two of his most delightful songs.

Scott’s last major poem, The Lord Of The Isles, was published in 1815.

Although Scott had been writing verse since his years at the High School of Edinburgh, his first original verse was not published until 1799, when the Ballantyne Press brought out a private edition of the ballad ‘The Eve of St. John’.

Scott’s true debut in the literary world, though, was marked by the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, a collection of the traditional border ballads that Scott had been collecting in yearly trips to the Borders from 1792 onwards. In many cases, Scott had not hesitated to ‘improve’ upon the original, changing words, inserting new stanzas, mending rhymes and rhythms, fusing various versions, and sometimes setting old legends to verses of his own. The first two-volume edition of the Minstrelsy (1802) also contained two previously published imitation ballads, ‘Glenfinlas’ and ‘The Eve of St John’, and a concluding ‘Third Part’ to the traditional ballad ‘Thomas the Rhymer’ of Scott’s own composition. In 1803, the second edition of the Minstrelsy was published, including a third volume of modern ballads by a number of leading writers. These included four further Scott compositions: ‘Cadyow Castle’ (illustrated, right), ‘The Gray Brother’, ‘War Song of the Royal Edinburgh Light Dragoons’, and ‘Christie’s Will’. The Minstrelsy was a commercial triumph. The first edition sold out in six months, laying the foundation for James Ballantyne’s career as a printer. It was translated into German, Danish, and Swedish, and gave Scott his first taste of North American success.

Coming Soon – Read Part III The first four Waverley Novels.

An Appreciation of Sir Walter Scott in Ten Parts
Part I – Walter Scott, A Short Biography.
Part II – Scott The Poet.
Part III – The Waverley Novels, Introduction and The First Four Novels
Part IV – The Waverley Novels continued.
Part V – The Waverley Novels continued.(Ivanhoe, The Monastery, The Abbot, Kenilworth)
Part VI – The Waverley Novels cont. (The Pirate, The Fortunes of Nigel, Peveril of the Peak, Quentin Durward )
Parts VII-VIII – The Waverley Novels. (Coming Soon)
Part IX – Locations Associated with Sir Walter Scott. (Coming Soon)
Part X – Short Bibliography including Editions of The Waverley Novels. (Coming Soon)

Browse Walter Scott Books For Sale
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An Appreciation of Sir Walter Scott

Part I – A Short Biography.

Sir Walter Scott was the first English-language author to have a truly international career in his lifetime, with many contemporary readers in Europe, Australia, and North America. His novels and poetry are still read, and many of his works remain classics of both English-Language literature and of Scottish literature. During his lifetime, he was the Most Popular Author the world had ever known, and modern scholars consider him both the inventor of the historical novel and the first best-selling novelist.

Scott was born on August 15, 1771, in Edinburgh as the son of a solicitor Walter Scott and Anne, a daughter of professor of medicine. Scott survived a childhood bout of polio in 1773 that would leave him lame in his right leg for the rest of his life. To restore his health he was sent in that year to live in the rural Borders region at his grandparents’ farm at Sandyknowe, adjacent to the ruin of Smailholm Tower, the earlier family home. Here he was taught to read by his aunt Jenny, and learned from her the speech patterns and many of the tales and legends which characterized much of his work. Scott’s interest in the old Border tales and ballads was awakened, and he devoted much of his leisure to the exploration of the Border country. His love of poetry was furthered whilst at university, where he met the blind poet Thomas Blacklock and Robert Burns.

After Scott became clerk to the Court of Session in Edinburgh, he spent his long holidays at Ashestiel, situated on the Tweed River. To increase his income he started a printing and publishing business with his friend James Ballantyne. Through Ballantyne, Scott was able to publish his first works and then his poetry began to bring him to public attention. In 1805, The Lay of the Last Minstrel captured wide public imagination, and his career as a writer was established in spectacular fashion. He published other poems over the next ten years, including the popular The Lady of the Lake, printed in 1810 and set in the Trossachs. Portions of the German translation of this work were later set to music by Franz Schubert. Scott is an early representative of the Romantic Movement in English literature. His poems relate tales of heroic adventure set in the idealized past and emphasize detailed descriptions of the poet’s Scottish homeland. This combination proved exceedingly popular in the early 1800s; the sales of his verse narratives established a new standard for British poetry and set the stage for the subsequent popularity of other Romantic poets such as Lord Byron. Scott’s appeal as a poet was followed by his overwhelming success as a fiction writer.

Read more about Scott’s poems in An Appreciation of Sir Walter Scott Part II – Scott The Poet. (Coming Soon)

His enormous energies allowed him to engage in scholarly and journalistic activities. His edition and biography of John Dryden, the English poet and dramatist, published in 1808, remains of value. His politically motivated founding of the Quarterly Review, a literary journal, helped make Edinburgh the most influential centre of British intellectual life outside London. In these years Scott also began to create an estate, Abbotsford, near Melrose, to reflect his antiquarian interests.

Read More about Locations connected with Scott in An Appreciation of Sir Walter Scott Part IX – Locations. (Coming Soon)

When the printing press became embroiled in financial difficulties, Scott set out, in 1814, to resurrect a novel he had started in 1805. The result was Waverley, a novel which did not name its author. It was a tale of the “Forty-Five” Jacobite rising in the Kingdom of Great Britain with its English protagonist Edward Waverley, by his Tory upbringing sympathetic to Jacobitism, becoming enmeshed in events but eventually choosing Hanoverian respectability. The novel met with considerable success. There followed a succession of novels over the next five years, each with a Scottish historical setting. Mindful of his reputation as a poet, he maintained the anonymous habit he had begun with Waverley, always publishing the novels under the name Author of Waverley or attributed as “Tales of…” with no author. Even when it was clear that there would be no harm in coming out into the open he maintained the façade, apparently out of a sense of fun. Some of the pseudonyms used by Sir Walter Scott include Jebediah Cleisbotham, Captain Clutterbuck, Crystal Croftangry, Malchi Malagrowther, Lawrence Templeton, Author of Waverly. During this time the nickname The Wizard of the North was popularly applied to the mysterious best-selling writer. Although Scott’s books were sold at prices as high as 31s 6d, they found much new middle-class readers, and there was no interest in lowering the prices. In comparison, low-cost books, booklets, were offered for the “white-collar” workers at sixpence apiece, and paperbound books were sold for 5 shillings.

Read more about The Waverley Novels in An Appreciation of Sir Walter Scott Parts III-VIII – The Waverley Novels.(Coming Soon)

His identity as the author of the novels was widely rumoured, and in 1815 Scott was given the honour of dining with George, Prince Regent, who wanted to meet “the author of Waverley”, and when the King visited Edinburgh in 1822 the spectacular pageantry that Scott had concocted to portray George as a rather tubby reincarnation of Bonnie Prince Charlie made tartans and kilts fashionable and turned them into symbols of Scottish national identity. In 1820 Scott was created a baronet. A few years later he founded the Bannatyne Club, which published old Scottish documents. Scott visited France in 1826 to collect material for his Life Of Napoleon, which was published in 9 volumes in 1827. His wife, Lady Scott, died in 1826, and the author himself had a stroke in 1830. Next year Scott sailed to Italy. After his return to England in 1832, he died on September 21. Scott was buried beside his ancestors in Dryburgh Abbey.

Scott not only elevated the novel to a status equal to that of poetry but also influenced the way history has been written and understood by subsequent generations of historians and novelists. His work inspired such writers as James Fenimore Cooper, Alexandre Dumas, and Aleksander Pushkin, Bulwer-Lytton, G. Eliot, and the Brontës.

Find a Bibliography of Sir Walter Scott in An Appreciation of Sir Walter Scott Part X – Short Bibliography including Editions of The Waverley Novels. (Coming Soon)

Next Week – Read Part II about Scott The Poet and the Poetry that first made him famous.

An Appreciation of Sir Walter Scott in Ten Parts
Part I – Walter Scott, A Short Biography
Part II – Scott The Poet.
Part III – The Waverley Novels, Introduction and The First Four Novels
Part IV – The Waverley Novels continued.
Part V – The Waverley Novels continued.(Ivanhoe, The Monastery, The Abbot, Kenilworth)
Part VI – The Waverley Novels cont. (The Pirate, The Fortunes of Nigel, Peveril of the Peak, Quentin Durward )
Parts VII-VIII – The Waverley Novels. (Coming Soon)
Part IX – Locations Associated with Sir Walter Scott. (Coming Soon)
Part X – Short Bibliography including Editions of The Waverley Novels. (Coming Soon)

Browse Walter Scott Books For Sale
If you have a Set or Part Set For Sale, why not email me at; sales@hcbooksonline.com