Chronicles of the Canongate (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Scott, Walter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140439897 ISBN 13: 9780140439892

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2003

Synopsis

Set within a framing narrative told by Chrystal Croftangry, these three stories are set in the years following the Jacobite defeat and all feature characters who are leaving Scotland to seek their fortunes elsewhere. In 'The Highland Widow' and 'The Two Drovers', two young men find themselves torn between traditional Scottish loyalties and the opportunities offered by England. And 'The Surgeon's Daughter' follows three young Scots to India during the first phase years of the British Empire.

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 compostion and his financial manoeuvres. This edition is for anyone who takes Scott seriously. With a judicious mixture of historical fact, seductive legend and a vivid imagination, [Scott] invented an entire country, complete with custom, tradition, genealogy, even national dress. It was a country called Scotland and, for better or for worse, we are still living in it. The great gain to literary studies of the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels comes ... from those volumes which make available reliable and scrupulously annotated texts of novels long out of print and consequently little read. Editors deserve high praise for the vast amount of completley original research which has gone into them .. These are splendid and timely editions which will and should drive renewed critical work on Scott and his literary and historical contexts. 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 compostion and his financial manoeuvres. This edition is for anyone who takes Scott seriously. With a judicious mixture of historical fact, seductive legend and a vivid imagination, [Scott] invented an entire country, complete with custom, tradition, genealogy, even national dress. It was a country called Scotland and, for better or for worse, we are still living in it. The great gain to literary studies of the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels comes ... from those volumes which make available reliable and scrupulously annotated texts of novels long out of print and consequently little read. Editors deserve high praise for the vast amount of completley original research which has gone into them .. These are splendid and timely editions which will and should drive renewed critical work on Scott and his literary and historical contexts.

About the Author

Born and educated in Edinburgh, Walter Scott (1771-1832) is credited with establishing the form of the historical novel.
Claire Lamont is Professor of English Romantic Literature at University of Newcastle and series editor for Walter Scott in Penguin Classics.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0140439897
• ISBN 13: 9780140439892
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 480
• Editor: Lamont Claire