Synopses & Reviews
Find Out What Scott Really WroteGoing back to the original manuscripts, a team of scholars has uncovered what Scott originally wrote and intended his public to read before errors, misreadings and expurgations crept in during production. The Fair Maid of Perth centres on the merchant classes of Perth in the fourteenth century, and their commitment to the pacific values of trade, in a bloody and brutal era in which no right to life is recognised, in which the Scottish nobles fight for control of the weak Scottish monarchy, and clans are prepared to extinguish each other to gain supremacy in the central Highlands. It is a remarkable novel, in part because late in his career Scott has a new subject, and in part because he employs a spare narrative style that is without parallel in the rest of his oeuvre. Far too many critics, from his son-in-law J.G. Lockhart to the present day, have written off late Scott, and seen his last works as evidence of failing powers. Readers of the Edinburgh Edition of The
Synopsis
The Fair Maid of Perth centres on the merchant classes of Perth in the fourteenth century, and their commitment to the pacific values of trade, in a bloody and brutal era in which no right to life is recognised.
Synopsis
This is a remarkable novel, in part because late in his career Scott has a new subject and in part because he employs a spare narrative style that is without parallel in the rest of his oeuvre. Many critics have written off late Scott and seen his last works as evidence of failing powers. This edition will prove these critics wrong, for in it we see a luminous creative intelligence working at high pressure to produce a tightly organized and deeply moving novel.
The Edinburgh Editions of the Waverley Novels are the first critical editions of Scott's fiction. This is the only edition to be based on the original manuscripts and is emended by readings from Scott's manuscripts which were lost in the original process of preparing the novel for publication. It is supported by a full textual apparatus, explanatory notes and glossary.
Synopsis
< p=""> This new editon of < i=""> The Fair Maid of Perth<> reintroduces the formerly neglected later writings of Scott.<>
About the Author
Andrew Hook is Emeritus Bradley Professor of English Literature at the University of Glasgow