Chronicles of the Canongate - Softcover

Scott, Sir Walter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1438529279 ISBN 13: 9781438529271

Publisher: Book Jungle, 2009

Synopsis

Sir Walter Scott (1771 ù 1832) was a popular Scottish historical novelist and poet. Scott was the first English language author to have international popularity during his lifetime. His novels remain popular today. His most famous works include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, The Lady of The Lake, Waverely, The Heart of Midlothian and The Bride of Lammermoor. Chronicles of the Canongate is a collection of stories by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1827 and 1828. They are named after, the Canongate in Edinburgh. Stories in this book include The Highland Widow, and The Two Drovers. In The Highland Widow, a mother is devastated when her son announces his intention to join the British army to fight in America, and uses all her cunning to keep him at home. The Two Drovers is a tale of a prophecy fulfilled in which the Englishman Harry Wakerfield is set against his Scottish friend Robin Oig in a destructive and ultimately tragic quarrel.

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:

Walter Scott, Scottish poet and novelist, invented the genre of historical fiction. An Edinburgh lawyer, he also ran a printing press, and his poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel brought him fame. He began writing novels because they were more lucrative, beginning with Waverly in 1814; thereafter, to maintain his reputation as a poet, he published fiction as 'The Author of Waverley. ' He suffered from debt his whole life, but his writings were terrifically popular and continue to be so today.

About this edition

• Publisher: Book Jungle
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1438529279
• ISBN 13: 9781438529271
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 230