2.2 Walter Scott's Waverley novels
The Waverley Novels, a series of more than two dozen historical novels
published by Sir Walter Scott between 1814 and 1832. Although the
novels were extremely popular and strongly promoted at the time, he did
not publicly reveal his authorship of them until 1827. Notable works in
the series include Waverley (1814), Guy Mannering (1815), Rob Roy
(1817), The Heart of Midlothian (1818), Ivanhoe (1819), Kenilworth
(1821), Quentin Durward (1823), and Redgauntlet (1824). Some of the
novels were originally published in a four-part series titled Tales of My
Landlord. All the stories were published together in a 48-volume series
called Waverley Novels (1829–33), containing Scott’s prefaces and final
revisions but completed after his death. The series influenced
generations of writers and earned Scott his reputation as the founder of
the historical novel genre.
Scott’s early Waverley books deal with several different phases of
Scottish history and were noted for their characterizations of ordinary
people and their use of regional Scottish dialect. These novels often
concern the clash between heroic traditions of the past and practical
visions of the future. Waverley, for example, treats the tensions between
the Jacobites and the Hanoverians in the mid-18th century, while The
Heart of Midlothian addresses the social conflict following the Porteous
Riots of 1736 over the execution of a smuggler. Scott set his other
novels in historical periods dating to the Middle Ages in locales such as
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England, France, Palestine, and the Orkney Islands.
Edward Waverley, an English gentleman of honour, chooses an
occupation in the army at the time just before the Jacobite uprising of
1745 on advice of his father. He has an officer's commission. On leave
from army training, he visits friends of his family in Scotland, as he is
not far from their place. He enjoys their Scottish hospitality. His head is
full of the romantic notions of his unstructured education, including
much reading, and he is startled to find himself in the midst of loyalists
who support the return of the House of Stuart and the Stuart prince,
known as Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Young Chevalier to his
supporters and as the Younger Pretender to his foes. His honour is often
challenged as others interfere to push him to the Stuart side, where he is
in battle, and he meets two women with whom he falls in love in turn,
until he chooses one. His gentlemanly actions gain him friends in this
precarious situation, on both sides of the uprising, who stand him in
good stead when he is at risk from his own government when the
uprising is put down.
Scott chose to publish his later novels as being "by the author of
Waverley". His series of works on similar themes written during the
same period have become collectively known as the "Waverley Novels".
The novel was well-received by contemporary critics, and well-liked by
those who purchased novels in the early 19th century. It has continued in
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favour with later critics.
In 1818 Scott was granted a baronetcy, becoming Sir Walter Scott. It
was an open secret that he was "the author of Waverley", and he
admitted this at a public dinner in 1827
The first edition of Waverley, in three volumes, consisting of 1000
copies, was published in Edinburgh on 7 July 1814 by Archibald
Constable and Co. and in London later in the month by Longman, Hurst,
Rees, Orme, and Brown.[6] As with all the Waverley novels before
1827, publication was anonymous. The price was one guinea (£1.05).
The first edition was followed by two further editions, together
comprising 4000 copies, in the same year, with small authorial revisions,
and by several more editions extending into the early 1820s: Scott was
involved in at least one of these, the sixth edition of 1816. In early 1826
Scott returned to Waverley, revising the text and writing an introduction
and notes for a complete edition of the Waverley Novels: this took some
time to materialise after the 1826 financial crash, but eventually the
novel appeared as the first and second volumes of the 'Magnum' edition
in June and July 1829.
The first critical edition, by Claire Lamont, was published by the
Clarendon Press, Oxford, in 1981.
The standard edition is now that edited by P. D. Garside in 2007, as the
first volume of the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels: this is
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first volume of the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels: this is
based on the first edition with emendations to restore authorial readings
from the manuscript and the second and third editions.
Twenty-five volumes of the centenary edition of the Waverley novels by
Sir Walter Scott. With an illustrated frontispiece to every volume and a
facsimile of 'The Marriage Contract of the Bride of Lammermoor' to
volume VIII. Collated, complete. The titles included are as follows:
Volume I- Waverley Volume II- Guy Mannering Volume III- Antiquary
Volume IV- Rob Roy Volume V- Old Mortality Volume VI- A Legend
of Montrose and Black Dwarf Volume VII- Heart of Mid-Lothian
Volume VIII-Bride of Lammermoor Volume IX- Ivanhoe Volume X-
Monastery Volume XI- Abbot Volume XII- Kenilworth Volume XIII-
Pirate Volume XIV- Fortunes of Nigel Volume XV- Peveril of the Peak
Volume XVI- Quentin Durward Volume XVII- St Ronan's Well Volume
XVIII- Redgauntlet Volume XIX- Betrothed and Highland Widow
Volume XX- Talisman Volume XXI- Woodstock Volume XXII- Fair
Maid of Perth Volume XXIII- Anne of Geierstein Volume XXIV- Count
Robert of Paris Volume XXV- Castle Dangerous Surgeons Daughter
The Waverley novels are a long series of novels by Sir Walter Scott.
They were the most popular and widely read novels in Europe for almost
a century. The series was titled Waverley, after the first novel of the
series, as Scott did not claim authorship until 1827. Prior to Scott's
acknowledgement of his authorship the novels were stated as 'by the
author of Waverley' to their title pages. Sir Walter Scott was a historical
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novelist, playwright and poet
Waverly, or 'tis Sixty Years Since can be an infuriating book. Even those
accustomed to the leisurely movement of 19th century prose will find its
style not only wordy but also occasionally infelicitous, its plot not only
meandering but also digressive. It takes at least a q ...more
When Waverley was published in 1814, Scott was already famous as the
author of The Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, and The Lady of the
Lake, as well as his collection of Scottish ballads and a few other poems
which were less successful. He had first begun this novel in 18 ...more
Waverley is my first Walter Scott experience. I've been meaning to read
him for a long time now and am glad to have put a step forward in that
direction. My choice of Waverley as the first read of Walter Scott is due
to the historic time period it was set in. The history and ...more
Much like Ivanhoe in Ivanhoe, the Waverley of Waverley isn't the true
hero of this story. And, much like Ivanhoe did with the Crusades, this
paints a picture of what life was like for the lesser knowns, the less
influential but no less heroic or passionate of a failed
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