Case 16
- Waverley novels 1826-1827
[Sir Walter Scott]. Woodstock, or, The Cavalier: a tale of the year sixteen hundred and fifty-one. [1st edition]. Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co., Edinburgh; and Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, London, 1826. Three volumes; Vol. 1 displayed.
Set
during the Civil War, the plot centres on the escape of Charles II from England
after the battle of Worcester. An important feature is the supposed haunting of
Woodstock (a royal lodge and park near Oxford) which is taken advantage of by
the Cavaliers in order to defeat the intended sequestration. The novel was a commercial
triumph, despite the critical censure of supernatural episodes - and visitors
flocked to Woodstock.
[Sir Walter Scott]. Woodstock, or, The Cavalier: a tale of the year sixteen hundred and fifty-one. [1st edition]. Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co., Edinburgh; and Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, London, 1826. Three volumes; Vol. 1 displayed.
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[Sir Walter Scott]. Woodstock, or, The Cavalier: a tale of the year sixteen hundred and fifty-one. [1st edition]. Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co., Edinburgh; and Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, London, 1826. Three volumes; Vol. 2 displayed.
Woodstock was written when Scott had become afflicted with misfortunes: financial ruin, resulting from the collapse of his publisher, the death of his wife Charlotte, and the serious illness of his beloved grandson, John Hugh Lockhart. It was rapidly composed as Scott rushed to meet pressing financial obligations.
[Sir Walter Scott]. Woodstock, or, The Cavalier: a tale of the year sixteen hundred and fifty-one. [1st edition]. Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co., Edinburgh; and Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, London, 1826. Three volumes; Vol. 2 displayed.
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[Sir Walter Scott]. Chronicles of the Canongate. [1st edition]. Edinburgh: Printed for Cadell and Co., Edinburgh; and Simpkin and Marshall, London, 1827. Two volumes; Vol. 1 displayed.
Although
the title page credits the Chronicles
to the ‘author of Waverley’, Scott acknowledges the authorship of Waverley in the autobiographical
introduction, which is signed: Walter Scott.
[Sir Walter Scott]. Chronicles of the Canongate. [1st edition]. Edinburgh: Printed for Cadell and Co., Edinburgh; and Simpkin and Marshall, London, 1827. Two volumes; Vol. 1 displayed.
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[Sir Walter Scott]. Chronicles of the Canongate. [1st edition]. Edinburgh: Printed for Cadell and Co., Edinburgh; and Simpkin and Marshall, London, 1827. Two volumes; Vol. 2 displayed.
Chronicles of the Canongate is an inclusive title for two
short stories The highland widow, The two
drovers, anda novella The surgeon’s daughter. This is Scott’s
only collection of shorter fiction, which was only beginning to appear as a
popular literary genre in the 1820s. Each story is set in the second half of
the eighteenth century and deals with the exodus of Scots from their
post-Union, post-Culloden homeland, to seek their fortunes elsewhere. The highland widow is the most highly
regarded of the three.
[Sir Walter Scott]. Chronicles of the Canongate. [1st edition]. Edinburgh: Printed for Cadell and Co., Edinburgh; and Simpkin and Marshall, London, 1827. Two volumes; Vol. 2 displayed.
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