Waverley (novel)
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| Author | Sir Walter Scott |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Archibald Constable |
| Released | 1814 |
Waverley is a novel by Walter Scott.
Contents |
[edit] Plot introduction
Scott's first venture into prose fiction, Waverley was anonymously published in 1814, and is often regarded as the first historical novel. Scott's later novels were advertised as being "by the author of Waverley". His series of novels on similar themes written during the same period have become collectively known as the "Waverley novels".
In 1815 Scott was given the honour of dining with George, Prince Regent, who wanted to meet "the author of Waverley". It is thought that at this meeting Scott persuaded George that as a Stuart prince he could claim to be a Jacobite Highland Chieftain, a claim that would be dramatised when George became King and visited Scotland.
The character of "Fergus Mac-Ivor" in Waverley was drawn from the flamboyant Chieftain Alasdair Ranaldson MacDonell of Glengarry. During the King's visit, Glengarry made several dramatic unplanned intrusions on the pageantry.
[edit] Plot summary
The English eponymous protagonist, Edward Waverley, has been brought up in the family home by his uncle, Sir Everard Waverley, who maintains the family Tory and Jacobite sympathies, while Edward's Whig father works for the Hanoverian government in nearby London. Edward Waverley is given a commission in the Hanoverian army and is posted to Dundee, then promptly takes leave to visit Baron Bradwardine, a Jacobite friend of his uncle, and meets the Baron's lovely daughter Rose.
When wild Highlanders visit the Baron's castle Waverley is intrigued and goes to the mountain lair of Clan Mac-Ivor, meeting the Chieftain Fergus and his sister Flora who turn out to be active Jacobites preparing for the '45 Rising. Waverley has overstayed his leave and is accused of desertion and treason, then arrested. Highlanders rescue him from his escort and take him to the Jacobite stronghold at Doune castle then on to Holyrood Palace where he meets Bonnie Prince Charlie himself. Encouraged by the beautiful Flora Mac-Ivor, Waverley goes over to the Jacobites and takes part in the Battle of Prestonpans, where he saves the life of a colonel who turns out to be a close friend of his uncle. Thus he escapes retribution and marries the Baron's daughter, Rose Bradwardine (symbolically choosing the moderate, family-oriented Rose over the romantic, politically motivated Flora).
[edit] Characters in "Waverley"
- The Clan Mac-Ivor (or MacIvor, M'Ivor)
- Chieftain Fergus Mac-Ivor
- Flora Mac-Ivor, sister of Fergus
- Sir Everard Waverley
- Edward Waverley, protagonist
- Baron Bradwardine
- Rose Bradwardine, daughter of the Baron
- Bonnie Prince Charlie
[edit] Major themes
Scott's work shows the influence of the 18th century enlightenment. He believed every human was basically decent regardless of class, religion, politics, or ancestry. Tolerance is a major theme in his historical works. The Waverley Novels express his belief in the need for social progress that does not reject the traditions of the past. He was the first novelist to portray peasant characters sympathetically and realistically, and was equally just to merchants, soldiers, and even kings.<ref>Sir Walter Scott. Lucidcafe Library.</ref>
[edit] Allusions/references to other works
- The division in the Waverley family had been caused by the English Civil War of the mid-seventeenth century. Fear of civil war is ever-present in Waverley not just as subject matter or historical reality, but a primal fear as deep in Scott as in Shakespeare, as manifested by various allusions throughout the novel and by direct references to Henry V and Henry VI in chapter 71.<ref name="Hypertext">Waverley Hypertext Project</ref>
[edit] Literary significance & criticism
Upon publication, Waverley was an astonishing success, the first edition of one thousand copies sold out within two days of publication, and by November a fourth edition was at the presses. The critics too were warm in their praise, particularly Francis Jeffrey in the Edinburgh Review who extolled its truth to nature, fidelity to 'actual experience', force of characterization, and vivid description. Some reviewers, though, notably John Wilson Croker for the Quarterly Review, expressed reservations about the propriety of mixing history and romance.<ref>Sir Walter Scott Digital Archive. Edinburgh University Library.</ref>
Despite Scott's efforts to preserve his anonymity, almost every reviewer guessed that Waverley was his work. Many readers too recognized his hand. One, Jane Austen, wrote: "Walter Scott has no business to write novels, especially good ones. -- It is not fair. He has Fame and Profit enough as a Poet, and should not be taking the bread out of other people's mouths.-- I do not like him, and do not mean to like Waverley if I can help it -- but fear I must".<ref>Austen, J. 1814. letter to Anna Austen of 28 September.</ref>
The opening five chapters are often thought to be dour and uninteresting, an impression in part due to Scott's own comments on them at the end of chapter five. However, John Buchan thought the novel a 'riot of fun and eccentricity'<ref>Buchan, J. 1933. Sir Walter Scott. London: Cassell</ref>, seemingly a minority opinion. Scott does, however, attempt to be comic, or at least to follow the conventions of the picaresque novel. The comments on the relay of information via Dyers Weekly Letter, the self-explanatory name of the lawyer, Clippurse, Sir Everard's desire and courting of the youngest sister, Lady Emily, all point in this direction.<ref name="Hypertext"/>
E. M. Forster<ref>Forster, E.M. 1941. Aspects of the Novel. London: Edward Arnold</ref> is renowned as one of Scott's fiercest and unkindest critics. His critique has received fierce opposition from Scott scholars who believe his attack is a symptom of his ignorance, perhaps of literature, but more certainly of all things Scottish. This hostility reaches academic circles, as is made evident by Alan Massie's lecture The Appeal of Scott to the Practising Novel, the inaugural lecture at the 1991 Scott conference. Defence of Scott subsumes a defence of a national culture against the attacks of Englishness. Others have, however, suggested that this misrepresents Forster's case.<ref name="Hypertext"/>
Georg Lukács has been responsible for re-establishing Scott as a serious novelist.<ref>Lukacs, G. 1937. The Historical Novel. Moscow.</ref> Lukács is most adamant in his belief that Waverley is the first major historical novel of modern times. This is clear from the distinction he draws between the eighteenth-century novel of manners, where social realities are described with little attention to diachronic change, and the eruption of history in the lives of communities, as occurs in historical novels. Furthermore, that Waverley marks an important watershed is firmly stated in Lukács' opening sentence, that "The historical novel arose at the beginning of the nineteenth century at about the time of Napoleon's collapse."
[edit] Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science
- Waverley is set during the Jacobite rising of 1745, which sought to restore the Stuart dynasty in the person of Charles Edward Stuart (or 'Bonnie Prince Charlie').
- The opening paragraph of chapter viii is frequently considered one of the major attempts at describing the specifically Scottish landscape in some detail.<ref name="Hypertext"/>
- The description of Adullam as the resort of "every one that was in distress," or "in debt," or "discontented," has often been humorously alluded to, notably by Sir Walter Scott, who puts the expression into the mouth of the Baron of Bradwardine in Waverley, chap. lvii.<ref>Adullam. 1911. Encyclopedia Britannica.</ref>
[edit] Trivia
- The proposition Scott is the author of Waverley is one of the examples whose meaning Bertrand Russell studied in his paper On Denoting.<ref>Russell, B. 1905. On Denoting.</ref>
- Waverley Station in Edinburgh takes its name from here, as does the PS Waverley. The Scott Monument is nearby.
[edit] Release details
Waverley; or 'Tis Sixty Years Since. In Three Volumes. Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. For Archibald Constable and Co. Edinburgh; And Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, London, 1814.
[edit] References
<references/>
[edit] External links
- Online Edition at eBooks@Adelaide
- Waverley, available freely at Project Gutenberg
