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Scott enjoyed taking trips into the Scottish countryside. These
trips gave him profound
knowledge of the life of rural people, and provided material for his first major publication,
“Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border” (1802-1803). This book was a collection
of popular songs
and ballads and consisted of three volumes.
At the suggestion of his father, Scott became a lawyer and practiced for fourteen years. During
his business trips he visited the places of famous battles and collected old ballads. Like many
writers belonging
to the Romantic trend, Scott, too, felt that all the good days were gone. He
wished to record all the historical facts he knew before they were forgotten.
At the age of 26 Scott married, and bought a large estate not far from Edinburgh. There Scott
built a fine house in the style of a castle. His house became a sort of museum of Scottish history
and culture.
In 1805 he began to publish his own romantic poems, which attracted the attention of the reading
public. The best were “The Lay of the Last Minstrel” (1805), “Marmion” (1808) and “The Lady
of the Lake” (1810). These poems reproduce old legends and combine
them with historical
material. They were written with great poetic skill and poet became very famous. But when
Byron’s wonderful poems appeared, Scott, to quote his own words, “left the field of poetry to his
rival” who by that time was already a friend of his. He took to writing novels. It marked a new
period in Scott’s creative work. He declined the honor of poet-laureate in 1813 because he
understood that writing official verses and odes on the birthdays of members of the royal family
would interfere with his creative work.
In 1814 Scott published his “Waverley, or ‘The Sixty Years Since”.
This novel describes a
Scottish rebel against England in 1745. As he had an established reputation as a poet, Scott
decided to print his first novel anonymously.
The book was a great success, and everybody
wanted to know who the author was. Scott published many of his novels under the name of “The
Author of Waverley”. During the next seventeen years (1815 - 1832) Scott wrote more than 27
other novels, four plays and many stories and tales besides. All of his novels were referred to as
part of the Waverley series, because the author was identified on the title page as “The Author of
Waverley”. Scott’s authorship was officially revealed in 1827, but it had been known for years.
Despite his success and fame, Scott’s last years were sad. They
were marked by illness and
financial difficulties brought on by the failure of a publishing company in which he had an
interest. At that time his health was broken down. His doctors sent him to Italy; but it was too
late. Before reaching Italy he had
to turn back, and on his arrival at his estate he died.
Literary critics divide Scott’s works into three groups:
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