Waverley Novels
The Waverley Novels is a long series of novels by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). For nearly a century, they were among the most popular and widely read novels in all of Europe.
Because Scott did not publicly acknowledge authorship until 1827, the series takes its name from Waverley, the first novel of the series released in 1814. The later books bore the words "by the author of Waverley" on their title pages.
The Tales of my Landlord sub-series was not advertised as "by the author of Waverley" and thus is not always included as part of the Waverley Novels series.
Contents
Order of publication
Title | Published | Main setting | Period |
---|---|---|---|
Waverley, or, Tis Sixty Years Since | 1814 | Perthshire (Scotland) | 1745–1746 |
Guy Mannering, or, The Astrologer | 1815 | Galloway (Scotland) | 1760-5, 1781-2 |
The Antiquary | 1816 | Angus (Scotland) | 1790s |
Tales of My Landlord, 1st series: | |||
The Black Dwarf | 1816 | Scottish Borders | 1707 |
The Tale of Old Mortality | 1816 | Southern Scotland | 1679-89 |
Rob Roy | 1818 | Northumberland (England), and the environs of Loch Lomond (Scotland) | 1715-16 |
Tales of My Landlord, 2nd series: | |||
The Heart of Midlothian | 1818 | Edinburgh and Richmond, London | 1736 |
Tales of My Landlord, 3rd series: | |||
The Bride of Lammermoor | 1819 | East Lothian (Scotland) | 1709-11 |
A Legend of Montrose | 1819 | Scottish Highlands | 1644-5 |
Ivanhoe | 1819 | Yorkshire and Leicestershire (England) | 1194 |
The Monastery | 1820 | Scottish Borders | 1547-57 |
The Abbot | 1820 | Various in Scotland | 1567-8 |
Kenilworth | 1821 | Berkshire and Warwickshire (England) | 1575 |
The Pirate | 1822 | Shetland and Orkney | late 17th century |
The Fortunes of Nigel | 1822 | London and Greenwich (England) | 1616-18 |
Peveril of the Peak | 1822 | Derbyshire, the Isle of Man, and London | 1658-80 |
Quentin Durward | 1823 | Tours and Péronne (France) Liège (Wallonia/Belgium) |
1468 |
St. Ronan's Well | 1824 | Southern Scotland | 19th century |
Redgauntlet | 1824 | Southern Scotland, and Cumberland (England) | 1766 |
Tales of the Crusaders: | |||
The Betrothed | 1825 | Wales, and Gloucester (England) | 1187-92 |
The Talisman | 1825 | Syria | 1191 |
Woodstock, or, The Cavalier | 1826 | Woodstock and Windsor (England) Brussels, in the Spanish Netherlands |
1652 |
Chronicles of the Canongate, 2nd series:[1] | |||
St Valentine's Day, or, The Fair Maid of Perth | 1828 | Perthshire (Scotland) | 1396 |
Anne of Geierstein, or, The Maiden in the Mist | 1829 | Switzerland and Eastern France | 1474-77 |
Tales of my Landlord, 4th series: | |||
Count Robert of Paris | 1831 | Constantinople and Scutari (now in Turkey) | 1097 |
Castle Dangerous | 1831 | Kirkcudbrightshire (Scotland) | 1307 |
The Siege of Malta | 2008 | Malta and Southern Spain | 1565 |
Chronological order, by setting
- 1097: Count Robert of Paris
- 1187-94: The Betrothed, The Talisman, Ivanhoe
- 1307: Castle Dangerous
- 1396: The Fair Maid of Perth
- 1468-77: Quentin Durward, Anne of Geierstein
- 1547-75: The Monastery, The Abbot, Kenilworth, The Siege of Malta
- 1616-18: The Fortunes of Nigel
- 1644-89: A Legend of Montrose, Woodstock, Peveril of the Peak, The Tale of Old Mortality, The Pirate
- 1700-99: The Black Dwarf, The Bride of Lammermoor, Rob Roy, Heart of Midlothian, Waverley, Guy Mannering, Redgauntlet, The Antiquary
- 19th century: St. Ronan's Well
Editions
Originally printed by James Ballantyne on the Canongate in Edinburgh, brother of one of Scott's close friends, John Ballantyne ("Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. For Archibald Constable and Co., Edinburgh"). Some of the early editions were lavishly illustrated by George Cattermole.
The two definitive editions are the 48-volume set published between 1829 and 1833 by Robert Cadell (the "Magnum Opus"), based on previous editions, with new introductions and appendices by Scott, and the 30-volume set, based on manuscripts, published by the Edinburgh University Press and Columbia University Press in the 1990s.
Placenames
![](/w/images/thumb/4/4d/Edinburgh-scottm.600px.jpg/300px-Edinburgh-scottm.600px.jpg)
The towns of Waverly, Nebraska; Waverley, New York; Waverley, Nova Scotia; Waverly, Ohio; and Waverly, Tennessee,[2] take their names from these novels, as does Waverley Station and Waverley Bridge in Edinburgh. Waverley School in Louisville, Kentucky, which later became the Waverly Hills Sanatorium, was named after the novels as well.[3]
Other uses of names
Many British railway locomotives were given names from the novels.
Over two thousand streets in Britain have names from titles of individual novels, with 650 from Waverley alone.
See also
Notes and references
- ↑ The first series of Chronicles of the Canongate comprised several short stories.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~waverlymemorial/newspapers/waverly_herald/Misc/how_waverly_got_its_name_wh_p9.jpg
External links
- A typically enthusiastic essay on the Waverley Novels, published in 1912