Sir Walter Scott

Waverley

Rob Roy (Penguin Classics)

Ivanhoe

'It was early in a fine summer's day, near the end of the eighteenth century, when a young man, of genteel appearance, having occasion to go towards the north-east of Scotland, provided himself with a ticket in one of those public carriages which travel between Edinburgh and the Queensferry...' So begins Scott's personal favourite among his novels, in characteristically wry and urbane style, as a mysterious young man calling himself 'Lovel' travels idly but fatefully toward the Scottish seaside town of Fairport. Here he is befriended by the antiquary Jonathan Oldbuck, who has taken refuge from his own personal disappointments in the obsessive study of miscellaneous history. Their slow unravelling of Lovel's true identity will unearth and redeem the secrets and lies which have devastated the guilt-haunted Earl of Glenallan, and will reinstate the tottering fortunes of Sir Arthur Wardour and his daughter Isabella. First published in 1816 in the aftermath of Waterloo, The Antiquary deals with the problem of how to understand the past so as to enable the future. Set in the tense times of the wars with revolutionary France, it displays Scott's matchless skill at painting the social panorama and in creating vivid characters, from the earthy beggar Edie Ochiltree to the loqacious and shrewdly humorous Antiquary himself. The text is based on Scott's own final, authorized version, the 'Magnum Opus' edition of 1829.

The Antiquary

Guy Mannering is an astrologer who only half-believes in his art. Instead he places his faith in patriarchal power, wealth and social position. But the Scotland of this novel is a nation in which the old hierarchies are breaking down and Guy must learn the limits of the nabob's authority in a society in which each social group - from gypsies and smugglers, to Edinburgh lawyers, landowners and Border store farmers - lives by its own laws.

Guy Mannering

The Monastery

The Pirate

The Black Dwarf

Quentin Durward

Ana Paula da Silva Santos Miraldo

The Works Of Sir Walter Scott

St. Ronan's Well

Rob Roy

Selected Poems (Fyfield Books)

Ivanhoé

A Tale of Flodden Field

Marmion

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (1771-1832) was a prolific Scottish historical novelist and poet popular throughout Europe during his time. In some ways Scott was the first author to have a truly international career in his lifetime, with many contemporary readers all over 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 specifically Scottish literature. Famous titles include: Ivanhoe, The Lady of the Lake and Waverley. At the age of 25 he began dabbling in writing, translating works from German, his first publication being rhymed versions of ballads by Burger in 1796. He then published a three-volume set of collected Scottish ballads, The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. This was the first sign of his interest in Scottish history from a literary standpoint. Amongst his other works are Marmion (1808), The Heart of Mid-Lothian (1818), Rob Roy (1818), The Bride of Lammermoor (1819), The Fortunes of Nigel (1822), St. Ronan's Well (1823), The Betrothed (1825), Kenilworth (1821), The Mirror and Quentin Durward.

D.F. Adams

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