Case 11
- Waverley novels 1820
[Sir Walter Scott]. Ivanhoe: a romance. [1st edition]. Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co., Edinburgh; and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., London, 1820. Three volumes; Vol. 1 displayed.
An
enormous critical and commercial success, the entire first printing of 10,000
copies was exhausted within less than two weeks, and demand for further copies
put the printers under serious strain. Widely translated, Scott’s venture into
chivalric romance proved an international success, his vogue spreading rapidly
into continental Europe.
[Sir Walter Scott]. Ivanhoe: a romance. [1st edition]. Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co., Edinburgh; and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., London, 1820. Three volumes; Vol. 1 displayed.
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[Sir Walter Scott]. Ivanhoe: a romance. [1st edition]. Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co., Edinburgh; and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., London, 1820. Three volumes; Vol. 2 displayed.
Ivanhoe is the first of Scott’s novels
to adopt a purely English subject, portraying the enmity of Saxons and Normans
during the age of King Richard I. The novel’s Saxon hero, Wilfred of Ivanhoe,
is disinherited by his father Cedric for supporting the Norman King Richard.
[Sir Walter Scott]. Ivanhoe: a romance. [1st edition]. Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co., Edinburgh; and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., London, 1820. Three volumes; Vol. 2 displayed.
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[Sir Walter Scott]. The monastery: a romance. [1st edition]. Edinburgh: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, London; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, Edinburgh, 1820. Three volumes; Vol. 1 displayed.
The monastery is preceded by an introductory
epistle by ‘Captain Clutterbuck’, a military veteran turned antiquarian, who
relates how he has discovered a Benedictine manuscript relating the history of
the fictional Abbey of Kennaquhair, and requests the ‘author of Waverley’ to
edit it for publication.
[Sir Walter Scott]. The monastery: a romance. [1st edition]. Edinburgh: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, London; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, Edinburgh, 1820. Three volumes; Vol. 1 displayed.
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[Sir Walter Scott]. The monastery: a romance. [1st edition]. Edinburgh: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, London; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, Edinburgh, 1820. Three volumes; Vol. 2 displayed.
Scott
initially planned to publish both Ivanhoe
and The monastery simultaneously and anonymously – he was curious as to
whether the public would guess the author of both. His more cautious publisher
however prevailed upon him to attribute both to ‘the author of Waverley’.
[Sir Walter Scott]. The monastery: a romance. [1st edition]. Edinburgh: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, London; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, Edinburgh, 1820. Three volumes; Vol. 2 displayed.
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