Sir Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott was born to parents Anne Rutherford and Walter Scott in August 1771. He spent the
majority of his life teetering between practicality and his love of history and poetry. Eventually, Scott
became a famous novelist who worked as a lawyer to make a living. Having suffered many challenges to do
with health, money, and love in his life, it is almost obvious that Sir Walter Scott be declared by historians
the pioneer of the historical novel.

In the prime of his career, there weren't many in England, Scotland, or America who needed to ask the
question "who is Sir Walter Scott?". Although incredibly popular in the 19th century, Scott's fame has fallen
off in recent years. His legacy as the man who wrote novels when no one else wanted to still lasts today,
though, and many monuments stand in his honor.

Early Life

Sir Walter Scott, born in Edinburgh in 1771, spent the majority of his early childhood in a cramped
apartment with his parents Anne and Walter. Little airflow and cleanliness in the apartment building
attributed to six of Scott's siblings passing away. Scott himself contracted Polio as a young boy, resulting in
his right leg becoming lame, which would remain this way for the rest of Scott's life.

In an effort to save their child from further ailments, the Scotts sent Sir Walter Scott to live near the Scottish
Borders with his grandparents and Aunt Jenny at the age of two. Scott spent his days in the country
recovering from poor health, and his aunt read poetry and historical stories to him during this time. His
grandparents also told the young boy stories of Scotland's past wars and battles with England. This all
contributed to Scott's deep love of poetry, storytelling, and the history of Scotland.

At the age of twelve, Sir Walter Scott studied classics at the University of Edinburgh. Later in life, he would
return to school and obtain a degree in Law. During his break from poetry, Scott had a quick love affair with
Charlotte Carpentier which resulted in a happy thirty-year-long marriage between the two. Scott fell in love
with writing again in 1809 when he joined friend James Ballantyne at the James Ballantyne & Co. printing
house.

Later becoming popular in Scotland, England, and America, Sir Walter Scott has been accredited with very
heavily influencing the American South's sense of identity and longing for the antebellum and anti-
industrialization lifestyle. Scott's novels such as Ivanhoe would go on to influence American Southerners so
much that American writer Mark Twain would eventually accuse Sir Walter Scott of starting the American
Civil War.

Literary Career
Sir Walter Scott began his writing career writing the popular epic poems of his time. Walter Scott's poems
followed Scottish Border tales and folklore. His work was heavily influenced by the stories and poetry read
to him in his childhood, and Scott became popular for his addition of personal love affairs to harsh military
stories.

Scott is known for his novels about Scottish Border Tales.

Scott portrait

Later, Scott found that his works needed a more loose and free form of writing, and he expanded his epic
poetry into novels. Novels were not at all popular in the 19th century, generally considered boring or a
waste of words by the rest of society. Despite this, Sir Walter Scott went on to create his own form: the
modern historical novel. These novels featured the recognizable names, families, and events of (usually
Scottish) history with added flairs of romance and speculated personalities.

Scott wrote and published these first novels anonymously, known as 'the author of Waverley', Waverley,
sometimes spelled 'Waverly', being his first widely popular novel. Scott would take advantage of the
success of his first novel and eventually expand it into The Waverly Series. His anonymity was not
altogether so anonymous because by the time Scott came out publicly as the author of Waverly the public
was not at all surprised and, in fact, placed quite the damper on his announcement. Scott became so
popular for his writing that he was offered the title of England's Poet Laureate in 1813. He declined the
position.

Death

Sir Walter Scott died in September of 1832. He was buried next to his wife at Dryburgh Abbey. Scott had
suffered a stroke the year before his death and many monetary struggles the previous years which left him
in debt even after death. Before he died, Scott wrote many novels, the proceeds of which would go to his
creditors, in hopes of eventually paying off said debts with his books. This worked, and Scott's novels saved
his estate from being overtaken by creditors, placing it into the hands of his family.

Influence

Scott's influence on the world cannot be easily summed up in a short paragraph. He left many novels and
poems behind, but he was also highly praised in Scotland for his contribution to their worldwide
recognition. Sir Walter Scott was a lover of the arts and architecture, influencing the revival of Medieval
architecture and home art.

Today, while his novels are no longer so popular as they once were, statues and monuments for Sir Walter
Scott range from Edinburgh, Scotland all the way to New York, USA. The man left a lasting mark on the
world and, today polarizes many scholars.
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Sir Walter Scott Novels

Most Walter Scott novels share similar subject matter: Scottish Border stories. His obsession with Scottish
Folklore and history permeates the most well-known novels of Scott's writing career. Scott created a series
of popular books called The Waverly Series, which saw great success in its time. This success is likely due to
the audience's love for real stories, dynamic characters, and plenty of action, all of which are included in
Scott's books. There are a few novels in this series that stand out, particularly because of their surprising
success during his life.

The 'Sir Walter Scott and the Historical Novel' display marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Sir Walter
Scott (1771-1832). Ran from 12 November to 28 May.

Sir Walter Scott was a key figure in developing the historical novel and is one of Scotland's most important
authors.

Scott was crucial in creating and shaping part of Scotland's national identity in the 19th century, and that
legacy is still felt today. His technique of setting stories in familiar historical events and bringing together
fictional characters and real-life figures proved widely popular with readers.

First editions of Scott's novels will be on display alongside a significant collection of his correspondence,
engravings, and original manuscripts, including 'The Heart of Mid-Lothian'.

'The Heart of Mid-Lothian'

First published in four volumes in 1818, Scott's historical novel 'The Heart of Mid-Lothian' is often
considered to be one of his finest works. It was published shortly after his popular novel, 'Rob Roy'.

Real places and historical events, including the 1736 Porteous Riots, provided inspiration for the plot. The
title refers to the name of the Old Tolbooth Prison in Edinburgh, where the character Effie Deans is awaiting
trial, accused of murdering her child. Effie's sister, Jeanie Deans, believes she is innocent. Jeanie walks from
Edinburgh to London, to ask for a pardon for her sister from the Queen.

The 'Sir Walter Scott and the Historical Novel' display marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Sir
Walter Scott (1771-1832). Ran from 12 November to 28 May.

Sir Walter Scott was a key figure in developing the historical novel and is one of Scotland's most important
authors.

Scott was crucial in creating and shaping part of Scotland's national identity in the 19th century, and that
legacy is still felt today. His technique of setting stories in familiar historical events and bringing together
fictional characters and real-life figures proved widely popular with readers.

First editions of Scott's novels will be on display alongside a significant collection of his correspondence,
engravings, and original manuscripts, including 'The Heart of Mid-Lothian'.

'The Heart of Mid-Lothian'

First published in four volumes in 1818, Scott's historical novel 'The Heart of Mid-Lothian' is often
considered to be one of his finest works. It was published shortly after his popular novel, 'Rob Roy'.

Real places and historical events, including the 1736 Porteous Riots, provided inspiration for the plot. The
title refers to the name of the Old Tolbooth Prison in Edinburgh, where the character Effie Deans is awaiting
trial, accused of murdering her child. Effie's sister, Jeanie Deans, believes she is innocent. Jeanie walks from
Edinburgh to London, to ask for a pardon for her sister from the Queen.

Walter Scott and the Historical Novel

Walter Scott was admired by his contemporaries Goethe, Pushkin and Balzac, and celebrated by
Lukács as the founder of the historical novel. He was born in Edinburgh 250 years ago on 15
August 1771. Born into the upper middle class, his family preserved a sense of tradition from one of
the great Scottish clans, including folk heritage. Like Robert Burns, Scott grew up with the songs
and legends of Scotland. He collected them and reflected them in his own work. This cultural
awareness was accompanied by a deep sense of national identity.

Scott read European literature of popular, patriotic spirit fluently and was familiar with the English
realistic novel. He studied Scottish law and took a lively interest in the historical relations between
Scotland and England. In 1797 he married Charlotte Carpenter of French royalist stock. Scott was a
landowner and staunch Tory – yet his work goes beyond this.

Scott’s interest in Scottish border ballads led to his collection Minstrelsy of the Scottish
Border (1802-03), in which he endeavoured to restore orally corrupted versions to their original
wording. This publication made Scott known to a wide audience. His epic poem, The Lay of the
Last Minstrel (1805), was followed by further lyrical romances. During these years Scott led a very
active literary and social life. At the same time, he was deputy sheriff of Selkirkshire from 1799 and
clerk of the court in Edinburgh from 1806, as well as part-owner of a printing press and later
publishing house, which he saved from bankruptcy. Personal financial crises increasingly impacted
on the course of his career and his writing became determined by the need to pay off debts. His
estate in Abbotsford, furnished with many antiquarian objects, also consumed vast sums.

In 1813 Scott rediscovered the unfinished manuscript of a novel he had begun in 1805, which he
rapidly finished in the early summer of 1814. This novel Waverley, about the Jacobite uprising of
1745, was enthusiastically received. Like all of Scott’s novels written before 1827, Waverley was
published anonymously.

A born storyteller and master of dialogue in both Scots dialect and aristocratic etiquette, he was able
to portray sensitively the whole range of Scottish society, from beggars and farm labourers to the
bourgeoisie, the professions and the landowning aristocracy. Scott’s sensitivity to ordinary people
was a new orientation. He convincingly portrayed outlandish highlanders as well as the political and
religious conflicts that shook Scotland in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Scott’s masterpieces include Rob Roy (1817), The Heart of Midlothian (1818), and his most popular
novel, Ivanhoe (1819).

Unfortunately, the haste with which he wrote his later books affected Scott’s health, as well as his
writing. In 1827 his authorship of the Waverley novels became known. In 1831 his health
deteriorated badly and he died on 21 September 1832.

Scott’s Times

Scott lived and wrote in an era of enormous upheaval – revolutions in France and North America,
uprisings in Haiti and Ireland, the Napoleonic wars, the expansion of the British Empire and its
domination of the seas, the slave trade, the uprooting of large sections of Britain’s peasantry
through enclosure for the purpose of sheep farming, increasing capitalist “rationalisation” of the
countryside, and large-scale highland clearances and evictions.
The beginnings of the Industrial Revolution consolidated the power of the bourgeoisie and the first
political organisations of the working class emerged. Such density of dramatic events suddenly
made the course of history, the progression from one society to another, directly tangible. History
unfolded before everyone’s eyes and, it seemed, could be influenced. This is the shifting ground on
which Scott’s historical novels are set.

In addition, literary production in Scotland and Ireland flourished. Here, on the colonial edges,
questions of history and cultural identity, colonialism and anti-colonialism sharply crystallised. This
begins in Ireland with Swift and his magnificent writings against British colonial power from the
perspective of the Irish people as early as the 1720s. In Scott’s time, the Irish people speak in their
idiom in Maria Edgeworth’s novels.

While England in the 18th century is preparing for the Industrial Revolution, politically it is already
a post-revolutionary country, following the bourgeois English Revolution in the 1640s.

The emergence of the historical novel

As Georg Lukács argues convincingly in The Historical Novel, this genre emerges with Scott at this
time. There had been novels with historical themes in the 17th and 18th centuries, but their
characters and plots were taken from the time of the authors, who did not yet grasp their own epoch
as historical. Scott’s novels introduce a new sense of history to the English realist novel tradition.

While Scott neither creates psychologically profound individuals nor reaches the level of the
emerging bourgeois novel, he vividly embodies for the first time historical-social types. His main
characters’ conflicts give artistic expression to social crises. The task of the protagonists is to find
neutral ground on which the opponents can coexist. The main characters are usually tied to both
camps. Pointing out a middle path is typical of Scott’s novels, and this is how his political
conservatism is expressed.

For Scott, outstanding historical figures are representatives of a movement that encompasses large
sections of the people. This passionate character unites various sides of this movement and
embodies the aspirations of the people. Through Scott’s plot, readers understand how the crisis
arose, how the division of the nation came about. It is against this background that the historical
hero appears. The broad panorama of social struggles illuminates, as Lukács writes, how a
particular time produces an heroic person, whose task it becomes to solve historically specific
problems. These leaders, directly linked to the people, often overshadow the main characters.
Historical authenticity is achieved through condensed dramatic events and the collision of
opposites.

By interweaving personal fates of people with historical upheavals, Scott’s narrative is never
abstract. Ruptures run between generations, between friends and affect them deeply in their
personal lives. Scott’s great strength lies in the credible narration of human relationships in the
context of their historical age.

Class struggles in feudal times – Ivanhoe

With Ivanhoe, Scott reaches far back into history. The novel is set around 1194, when the Norman
Richard the Lionheart, King of England, Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou, returns to
England from his various adventures in the Crusades and from prisons in Austria and Germany. The
Anglo-Saxon Ivanhoe, loyal knight in Richard’s army, also appears in England in disguise.

The central historical conflict of the novel is between the Anglo-Saxons of England and the Norman
conquerors. The people are largely Anglo-Saxon, the feudal upper class are Norman. Parts of the
Anglo-Saxon nobility, deprived of political and material power, still retain some aristocratic
privileges and form the ideological and political centre of Anglo-Saxon national resistance to the
Normans. Yet Scott shows how parts of the Anglo-Saxon nobility sink into apathy, while others
await the opportunity to reach a compromise with the more moderate sections of the Norman
nobility, which Richard the Lionheart represents.
When Ivanhoe, the title character and also a supporter of this compromise, disappears from the
novel’s plot for some time and is overshadowed by secondary characters, this formal structure
illuminates the historical-political reference to an absent compromise. The characters who
overshadow Ivanhoe include his father, the Anglo-Saxon nobleman Cedric, unflinchingly insisting
on anti-Norman positions, who even disinherits Ivanhoe because of his allegiance to Richard’s
army, as well as his serfs, Gurth and Wamba.

Above all, however, this includes the leader of the armed resistance against Norman rule, the
legendary Robin Hood. The true heroism with which the historical antagonisms are contested
comes, with few exceptions, from “below”.

The folk figures are depicted with great vitality and nuance, while the antagonists tend to be
stereotypes with little development. But neither does Ivanhoe change. Isaac the Jew is also
stereotyped, although the same cannot be said of his daughter Rebecca, who captures the reader’s
heart. Letters to Scott complained that Ivanhoe does not marry Rebecca at the end, but the
comparatively pale Anglo-Saxon Rowenta. The author rejected such an ending as historically
indefensible.
Scott proves himself here once again to be a defender of the middle road. The future belongs to
Ivanhoe, knight in the service of the moderate Norman Richard the Lionheart and son of the anti-
Norman Anglo-Saxon Cedric. His marriage to Rowenta points to this middle ground.

Scott, in depicting historical conflict in the lives of the people, shows the energies ignited in the
people by such crises. Consciously or unconsciously, as Georg Lukács notes, the experience of the
French Revolution is in the background.

Plot Summary

Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley; or, ‘Tis Sixty Years Since, first published anonymously in 1814, is Scott’s first
novel and the world’s first work of historical fiction. Often comical and with aspects of a picaresque novel,
Waverley depicts the travels of the English soldier Edward Waverley during the Jacobite uprising of 1745.
Scott went on to become a celebrated poet and writer of works such as Ivanhoe and The Lady of the Lake.

Some historical context is necessary for modern readers to understand the novel. It is set during the
Jacobite uprising of 1745, when British subjects loyal to the deposed House of Stuart sought to regain
power and restore Charles Edward Stuart, or “Bonnie Prince Charlie,” to the throne, defeating the reigning
Hanover dynasty. This uprising, known as “The ’45,” was the last in a long line of attempts at rebellion and
restoring the Stuart name to the throne. A surge in Scottish nationalism helped fuel the rebellion; the
Stuart family originated from Scotland and the line of Mary, Queen of Scots. Though the rebellion was
unsuccessful, its aftermath helped create a legacy in Scottish literature and a sense of national Scottish
unity: the very legacy that led Sir Walter Scott to write Waverley.

The novel first introduces the Waverly family. Edward Waverley, the protagonist, is the son of the second
son of minor nobility. His uncle, Everard Waverley, is a Jacobite sympathizer who supports the Stuarts,
while his father, Richard, is a Hanoverian. This political difference has caused a rift between the brothers,
and Everard has denied his brother his share of the Waverley estate.

Sir Everard, however, has no children to inherit after him, and eventually, he decides to make his nephew
Edward his heir. As a result, Edward is raised jointly by his father and his uncle, passed back and forth
between their households. He is an extensive reader but indulges more in romances than in readings that
will further his education and challenge his mind. He receives little formal education and spends his days
daydreaming and indulging in a fantastical inner life.

Edward’s Aunt Rachel, concerned that the boy has little experience with the real world, and hoping to keep
him from pursuing local women she deems unsuitable, decides that travel would do him good. Richard
arranges a commission for his son with the Hanoverian army at a platoon in Scotland. Rachel sends him off
with a warning not to be taken in with “Scottish beauties.”

Soon, Edward heads to his regiment in Dundee, where he fails to excel in his training. When summer
arrives, Edward visits a friend of his uncle’s in Perthshire, Lord Bradwardine. Once arrived, he is introduced
to Bradwardine’s daughter, the beautiful and spirited Rose. At a welcoming feast, Bradwardine toasts him
with an heirloom goblet believed to have mystical powers, the Blessed Bear of Bradwardine.

The old-fashioned estate appeals to Edward’s romantic sensibilities, and he finds the wild character of
Scotland more appealing than his native England. He also falls in love with the stories, songs, and dances of
Davie Gellatly, a Shakespearean comic fool and Bradwardine’s servant.

Edward’s life changes with the surprise arrival of Highlander Evan Dhu Maccombich. Edward is intrigued by
this man and extends his leave from the army to visit the Highlands and see clan chieftain Fergus Mac Ivor
Vich Ian Vohr. On this journey, he ventures into a cave housing Scottish outlaw Donald Bean Lean, a Robin
Hood-like thief who steals only from the wealthy.

Then, Evan takes him to Fergus’s ancient Highland castle. He meets the beautiful Flora, Fergus’s sister, who
is a romantic like Edward and sings Gaelic poetry to him. Edward quickly falls in love with her, but their
match seems impossible: Edward is a Hanoverian soldier, and Flora is a Jacobite who has pledged her life to
the cause of overthrowing the Hanoverian line.

Back in England, a change in power has diminished Richard’s political influence, and he has left his seat in
government. Soon after, Edward is accused of desertion from the army and of treason—it turns out that
the thief Donald Bean Lean convinced several of Edward’s men to join the Highlanders using a seal he stole
from Edward. Now Edward is taking the blame. He is arrested but quickly rescued by the Highlanders, who
lead him to safety at Holyrood Palace, where he meets Bonnie Prince Charlie. With some persuasion from
Flora, who says she might be willing to marry him if he becomes a Jacobite, Edward switches political sides.
He proposes repeatedly, but she says she loves nothing more than the cause, and cannot marry until
Bonnie Prince Charlie is restored to the throne.

Undeterred, Edward fights for the Jacobites in the September 1745 Battle of Prestonpans. During the fight,
both armies are bogged down in the marsh at the center of the battlefield. Edward rescues a soldier who
tumbles into the marsh; the man turns out to be a Hanoverian named Colonel Talbot. Though a
Hanoverian, the colonel is also a friend of his uncle Everard

The war progresses and the Jacobite uprising is quelled. However, Talbot, indebted to Edward, intervenes
and makes sure he receives a pardon for fighting against the Hanoverians. Fergus receives no such aid and
is sentenced to death for his actions. After Fergus is executed, there is no chance of Edward marrying Flora
—but his affections have shifted to Bradwardine’s gentle daughter, Rose, instead. Edward marries Rose,
and Flora enters a convent. Though Bradwardine’s estate had been seized, Edward purchases it and
immediately returns it to his new father-in-law.

Waverley was an overwhelmingly successful novel. Though Scott published it anonymously, reviewers
quickly guessed he was the author, recognizing his style from his already-famous poetry. The novel was so
popular that Scott’s later works were advertised as written by “the author of Waverley,” and his later works
addressing similar historical themes became known as the “Waverley novels.”