Kenilworth: A Romance (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Scott, Walter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140436545 ISBN 13: 9780140436549

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1999

Synopsis

In the court of Elizabeth I, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, is favoured above all the noblemen of England. It is rumoured that the Queen may chose him for her husband, but Leicester has secretly married the beautiful Amy Robsart. Fearing ruin if this were known, he keeps his lovely young wife a virtual prisoner in an old country house. Meanwhile Leicester's manservant Varney has sinister designs on Amy, and enlists an alchemist to help him further his evil ambitions. Brilliantly recreating the splendour and pageantry of Elizabethan England, with Shakespeare, Walter Ralegh and Elizabeth herself among its characters, Kenilworth (1821) is a compelling depiction of intrigue, power struggles and superstition in a bygone age.

About this title

Review:

The Edinburgh Edition respects Scott the artist by 'restoring' versions of the novels that are not quite what his first readers saw. Indeed, it returns to manuscripts that the printers never handled, as Scott's fiction before 1827 was transcribed before it reached the printshop. Each volume of the Edinburgh edition presents an uncluttered text of one work, followed by an Essay on the Text by the editor of the work, a list of the emendations that have been made to the first edition, explanatory notes and a glossary! The editorial essays are histories of the respective texts. Some of them are almost 100 pages long; when they are put together they constitute a fascinating and lucid account of Scott's methods of composition and his financial manoeuvres. This edition is for anyone who takes Scott seriously. The Edinburgh Edition respects Scott the artist by 'restoring' versions of the novels that are not quite what his first readers saw. Indeed, it returns to manuscripts that the printers never handled, as Scott's fiction before 1827 was transcribed before it reached the printshop. Each volume of the Edinburgh edition presents an uncluttered text of one work, followed by an Essay on the Text by the editor of the work, a list of the emendations that have been made to the first edition, explanatory notes and a glossary! The editorial essays are histories of the respective texts. Some of them are almost 100 pages long; when they are put together they constitute a fascinating and lucid account of Scott's methods of composition and his financial manoeuvres. This edition is for anyone who takes Scott seriously.

From the Back Cover:

EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY J. H. ALEXANDER
-- Based on the acclaimed Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels
-- The first authoritative edition drawn from Scott's original texts
-- With a special introduction for the Penguin Classic edition

'No historian's Queen Elizabeth was ever so perfectly a woman as the fictitious Elizabeth of Kenilworth, ' wrote Thomas Hardy. Scott's magnificent novel re-creates the drama, and the strange mixture of assurance and profound unease of the Age of Elizabeth through the story of Amy Robsart. A woman of great beauty and integrity, Amy is married to the Earl of Leicester, one of the Queen's favourites, who must keep Amy confined to Cumnor Place and the marriage a secret, or incur royal displeasure.

Rich in character, melodrama and romance, Kenilworth (1821) is rivalled only by the great Elizabethan dramas. Scott amply justified V. S. Pritchett's accolade: 'the single Shakespearean talent of the English novel'.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0140436545
• ISBN 13: 9780140436549
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 528
• Editor: Alexander J.