DOCSLIB.ORG

St. Ronan's Well Online

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

aCP7m (Read now) St. Ronan's Well Online [aCP7m.ebook] St. Ronan's Well Pdf Free Walter Scott ebooks | Download PDF | *ePub | DOC | audiobook Download Now Free Download Here Download eBook Scott Walter 2015-10-18Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.21 x 1.44 x 6.14l, 2.48 #File Name: 1344863698684 pagesSt Ronan s Well | File size: 44.Mb Walter Scott : St. Ronan's Well before purchasing it in order to gage whether or not it would be worth my time, and all praised St. Ronan's Well: 0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Enjoyable readBy Katie PrestwichThis was a good story, and I loved reading it, but didn't like the end, otherwise I would have given it 4 stars. Like The Bride of Lammermoor, in the end of this book Scott tends toward the melodramatic, which I'm not a fan of.0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Could describe events in rural New York during the 1970By ExperienceScott aptly portrayed rural human nature in a manner that could have been set as fittingly in central,New York state of the 1970s. An interesting psychodrama.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Bigamy is bad enough for a bigamist. But Oh what it does to his sons!By T. Patrick KilloughNOTE: The "Saint" in SAINT RONAN'S WELL is usually, but not always, abbreviated to "St." in printed book titles. In searching .com ST. RONAN'S WELL produces many hits, SAINT RONAN'S WELL very few. END NOTE.Sir Walter Scott wrote a famous Introduction to his 1823 novel SAINT RONAN'S WELL. In it he describes the novel as "light literature." It follows "a plan different from any other that the Author has ever written."What is so different? SAINT RONAN'S WELL is not historical in the way IVANHOE, QUENTIN DURWARD and even WAVERLEY are. These are historical in that Scott, father of the historical novel genre, had to rely entirely on reading and research for the romances farthest back in time, while for the more recent settings prior to SAINT RONAN'S WELL he could flesh out printed records with boyhood recollections of tales told him by very old men who had been active in the "risings" of 1715 and 1745.SAINT RONAN'S WELL, by contrast, is set in Scott's own lifetime and draws on his own experiences at many country inns in Scotland and at some spas built around healing waters. The novel is set in Sir Walter's own mid-life time and is almost entirely detached from the great events of England's struggle with Napoleon.The Wizard of the North clearly found it a relief not to have to portray accurately in a work of fiction greats of history such as Mary Queen of Scots, Saladin, Richard the Lion Heart and Bonnie Prince Charlie. Sir Walter is conscious that he is invading a genre of novel hitherto the province of perceptive ladies such as Jane Austen. All his characters are make believe. And he shapes them lovingly and memorably.The time is summer and autumn sometime before 1815. The place is southern Scotland at a reasonably fashionable hotel very recently built thanks to the interest of an officious Lady in its nearby healing waters associated with Saint Ronan in former Roman Catholic days.The plot is driven by two marriages a third of a century earlier by a titled Englishman, one in France, not publicized, to a titled Frenchwoman, a second later in England to a titled Englishwoman. Both unions produced sons. Both marriages ended with the death of the husband. In other words the second marriage was bigamous and its offspring illegitimate.Trouble is that the second son inherited his father's title. As life ended, the father regretted his deception and sent the first son, Francis (Frank) Tyrrel, proof of his legitmacy. Both Frank and half- brother, Valentine Bulmer, Lord Etherington, arrive in the vicinity of Saint Ronan's village, spa and waters with their eyes out for nubile (or is she?) Miss Clara Mowbray, the ward of her impoverished noble, hothead brother John.Does one brother get the girl? Does the Earl keep his title? The tale is avoidably tragic and I will reveal no spoilers. There are many comic characters and interludes, an absent-minded, vastly learned but kindly Presbyterian minister, a domestic spy close to Lord Etherington, a canny, unforgettable innkeeper, Meg Dods, and a cast of silly men and women who frequent the new hotel associated with the healing waters.Keep your eye on Mr Touchwood, an immensely wealthy nabob who had once met and befriended Frank Tyrrel in Smyrna (Turkey). Several people's hells are paved with Touchwood's good intentions. -OOO- This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. About the AuthorSir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet, FRSE (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832) was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright and poet with many contemporary readers in Europe, Australia, and North America. Scott's novels and poetry are still read, and many of his works remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish literature. Famous titles include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Old Mortality, The Lady of the Lake, Waverley, The Heart of Midlothian and The Bride of Lammermoor. Although primarily remembered for his extensive literary works and his political engagement, Scott was an advocate, judge and legal administrator by profession, and throughout his career combined his writing and editing work with his daily occupation as Clerk of Session and Sheriff-Depute of Selkirkshire. A prominent member of the Tory establishment in Edinburgh, Scott was an active member of the Highland Society and served a long term as President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1820–32). [aCP7m.ebook] St. Ronan's Well By Walter Scott PDF [aCP7m.ebook] St. Ronan's Well By Walter Scott Epub [aCP7m.ebook] St. Ronan's Well By Walter Scott Ebook [aCP7m.ebook] St. Ronan's Well By Walter Scott Rar [aCP7m.ebook] St. Ronan's Well By Walter Scott Zip [aCP7m.ebook] St. Ronan's Well By Walter Scott Read Online.
Recommended publications
  • Debating Insurrection in Galt's Ringan Gilhaize

    Debating Insurrection in Galt's Ringan Gilhaize

    Studies in Scottish Literature Volume 46 Issue 1 Article 4 8-2020 Debating Insurrection in Galt's Ringan Gilhaize Padma Rangarajan University of California, Riverside Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons Recommended Citation Rangarajan, Padma (2020) "Debating Insurrection in Galt's Ringan Gilhaize," Studies in Scottish Literature: Vol. 46: Iss. 1, 7–13. Available at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol46/iss1/4 This Symposium is brought to you by the Scottish Literature Collections at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Studies in Scottish Literature by an authorized editor of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DEBATING INSURRECTION IN GALT’S RINGAN GILHAIZE Padma Rangarajan Anarchists, federalists, cantonalists, covenanters, terrorists, all who are unanimous in a desire to sweep away the present order, are grouped under the ensign of nihil. The frenzy which thus moves a whole people to tear their hair and rend their garments is at bottom an element of passionate melancholy born of just and noble aspirations crushed by fatal circumstances. —E.P. Bazán, Russia, Its People and Its Literature1 Throughout Ringan Gilhaize (1823), John Galt’s fictional recounting of the history of the Presbyterian establishment in Scotland, the novel attempts to maintain a delicate dialectic that constantly threatens to collapse into itself. Its narratological innovation—three generations of filial and social
  • Disfigurement and Disability: Walter Scott's Bodies Fiona Robertson Were I Conscious of Any Thing Peculiar in My Own Moral

    Disfigurement and Disability: Walter Scott's Bodies Fiona Robertson Were I Conscious of Any Thing Peculiar in My Own Moral

    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by St Mary's University Open Research Archive Disfigurement and Disability: Walter Scott’s Bodies Fiona Robertson Were I conscious of any thing peculiar in my own moral character which could render such development [a moral lesson] necessary or useful, I would as readily consent to it as I would bequeath my body to dissection if the operation could tend to point out the nature and the means of curing any peculiar malady.1 This essay considers conflicts of corporeality in Walter Scott’s works, critical reception, and cultural status, drawing on recent scholarship on the physical in the Romantic Period and on considerations of disability in modern and contemporary poetics. Although Scott scholarship has said little about the significance of disability as something reconfigured – or ‘disfigured’ – in his writings, there is an increasing interest in the importance of the body in Scott’s work. This essay offers new directions in interpretation and scholarship by opening up several distinct, though interrelated, aspects of the corporeal in Scott. It seeks to demonstrate how many areas of Scott’s writing – in poetry and prose, and in autobiography – and of Scott’s critical and cultural standing, from Lockhart’s biography to the custodianship of his library at Abbotsford, bear testimony to a legacy of disfigurement and substitution. In the ‘Memoirs’ he began at Ashestiel in April 1808, Scott described himself as having been, in late adolescence, ‘rather disfigured than disabled’ by his lameness.2 Begun at his rented house near Galashiels when he was 36, in the year in which he published his recursive poem Marmion and extended his already considerable fame as a poet, the Ashestiel ‘Memoirs’ were continued in 1810-11 (that is, still before the move to Abbotsford), were revised and augmented in 1826, and ten years later were made public as the first chapter of John Gibson Lockhart’s Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
  • Freedom and Responsibility in the Bride of Lammermoor

    Freedom and Responsibility in the Bride of Lammermoor

    Studies in Scottish Literature Volume 31 | Issue 1 Article 11 1999 Freedom and Responsibility in The rB ide of Lammermoor Gerry H. Brookes Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Brookes, Gerry H. (1999) "Freedom and Responsibility in The rB ide of Lammermoor," Studies in Scottish Literature: Vol. 31: Iss. 1. Available at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol31/iss1/11 This Article is brought to you by the Scottish Literature Collections at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Studies in Scottish Literature by an authorized editor of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Gerry H. Brookes Freedom and Responsibility in The Bride of Lammermoor Sir Walter Scott's Bride of Lammermoor (1819) ends in a bizarre disaster. Lady Ashton has driven her daughter to the brink of insanity in an effort to force her to give up her engagement to Lord Ravenswood and to take Frank Hayston of Bucklaw instead. Despite her loyalty to Ravenswood, Lucy Ashton is intimidated and cannot proclaim her feelings. After Ravenswood denounces her for her disloyalty, the wedding to Bucklaw proceeds, but when the bride and groom retreat, she stabs him. They find her hiding in a comer, "her eyes glazed, and her features convulsed into a wild paroxysm of insanity."l The groom survives and will say nothing, but Lucy dies shortly thereafter. Raven­ swood appears at her funeral and then, on his way to face her brother's chal­ lenge, drowns in quicksand.
  • Landscaping Justice, Rebellion and Dynastic Failure in the Heart of Mid-Lothian, Waverley and Redgauntlet

    Landscaping Justice, Rebellion and Dynastic Failure in the Heart of Mid-Lothian, Waverley and Redgauntlet

    Chapter 4 Landscaping Justice, Rebellion and Dynastic Failure in The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Waverley and Redgauntlet Our environment, conceived as landscape scenery, is fundamentally linked to our political landscape. kenneth r. olwig1 ⸪ There is no shortage of critical appraisal focused on Scott’s use of landscape to explore his thematic concerns in the Waverley Novels.2 As Jenni Calder points out, much of Scott’s popularity was the direct result of “his conjuring of a myth- ic history out of mountains, lochs and ruins”.3 Of course, Scott uses Highland 1 Kenneth R. Olwig, Landscape, Nature, and the Body Politic: From Britain’s Renaissance to America’s New World (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002), xxxii. 2 See, for example, James Buzard’s Disorienting Fiction: The Autoethnographic Work of Nine- teenth-Century British Novels (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005); Penny Fielding’s ‘Curated Regions of the North: Art and Literature in the “Scottish Border” and the “Transpen- nine Corridor,”’ Visual Culture in Britain, 15 (2014), 159–72, and Scotland and the Fictions of Geography: North Britain, 1760–1830 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008); and Yoon Sun Lee’s chapter on Scott in Nationalism and Irony: Burke, Scott, Carlyle (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 74–104. See also the following recent commentary on Scott and his use of landscape: Chris Ewers. ‘Roads as Regions, Networks and Flows: Waverley and the “Periphery” of Romance,’ Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 37 (2014), 97–112; E. García Díaz. ‘An Overview of Justice in Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley Novels: The Heart of Mid-Lothian.’ Oñati Socio-legal Series [online], 4 (2014), 1167–72; Anna Faktorovich.
  • Circulation, Monuments, and the Politics of Transmission in Sir Walter Scott’S Tales of My Landlord by Kyoko Takanashi

    Circulation, Monuments, and the Politics of Transmission in Sir Walter Scott’S Tales of My Landlord by Kyoko Takanashi

    CirCUlaTion, MonUMenTs, and THe PoliTiCs of TransMission in sir WalTer sCoTT’s TaLEs of My LandLord by kyoko TakanasHi i n the opening passage of sir Walter scott’s The Heart of Midlothian, the narrator, Peter Pattieson, asserts that the “times have changed in nothing more . than in the rapid conveyance of intelligence and communication betwixt one part of scotland and another.”1 Here, Pattieson seems to confirm the crucial role that the speed of print distribution played in romantic print culture, particularly in relation to time-sensitive reading material such as periodical publications, po- litical pamphlets, and statements by various corresponding societies.2 indeed, the rapidity of the mail-coach that enabled up-to-date com- munication seems crucial to our understanding of the romantic period as an age that became particularly cognizant of history as an ongoing process, forming, as it were, what benedict anderson characterizes as a “historically clocked, imagined community.”3 and yet the first half of Pattieson’s sentence reveals ambivalence about such change; while he admits that there has been dramatic increase in the speed of com- munication, he also asserts that “nothing more” has changed. despite the presence of “the new coach, lately established on our road,” Pat- tieson considers the village of Gandercleugh as otherwise unchanged, since it still offers him the opportunity to collect local, historical tales that will eventually be published as Tales of My Landlord (H, 14). This representation of communication infrastructures in Tales of My Landlord series does not so much confirm the thorough penetration of a national print-based imagined community as it exposes how this national infrastructure existed uneasily alongside pockets of traditional, local communities.
  • Waverley (Novel) - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

    Waverley (Novel) - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

    Waverley (novel) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waverley_(novel) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Waverley is an 1814 historical novel by Sir Walter Scott. Initially Waverley published anonymously in 1814 as Scott's first venture into prose fiction, Waverley is often regarded as the first historical novel. It became so popular that Scott's later novels were advertised as being "by the author of Waverley". His series of works 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.[1] Illustration to 1893 edition, by J. Pettie. Waverley Abbey is noted by English Heritage to be Sir Walter Scott's inspiration for this novel.[2] However, this was probably Author Sir Walter Scott not the case.[3] Country United Kingdom Language English, Lowland Scots, some Scottish Gaelic and French Series Waverley Novels 1 Plot introduction 2 Plot summary Genre(s) Historical novel 3 Characters Publisher Archibald Constable 4 Major themes 5 Allusions/references to other works Publication date 1814 6 Literary significance & criticism Followed by Guy Mannering 7 Allusions/references from other works 8 Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science 9 Miscellany 10 See also 11 References 12 External links Waverley is set during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, which sought to restore the Stuart dynasty in the person of Charles Edward Stuart (or 'Bonnie Prince Charlie').
  • The Tragedy of Lucy Ashton, the Bride of Lammermoor

    The Tragedy of Lucy Ashton, the Bride of Lammermoor

    Studies in Scottish Literature Volume 19 | Issue 1 Article 8 1984 The rT agedy of Lucy Ashton, the Bride of Lammermoor Brian Hollingworth Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Hollingworth, Brian (1984) "The rT agedy of Lucy Ashton, the Bride of Lammermoor," Studies in Scottish Literature: Vol. 19: Iss. 1. Available at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol19/iss1/8 This Article is brought to you by the Scottish Literature Collections at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Studies in Scottish Literature by an authorized editor of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Brian Hollingworth The Tragedy of Lucy Ashton, the Bride of Lammermoor Bride Lammermoor stands out among, the Haverley novels in the tightness of its construction and the controlled force of its narration. Dictated while Scott was in severe pain, and almost unaware of what he was ,1 it nevertheless im- presses the reader by its coherence and its melancholy impact. In a mere thirty-five chapters, most told by Scott's standards, he charts with unusual sureness of tone and intention the tra::;ic tale of the death of Lucy Ashton and the Fall of the House of Ravenswood. It might be thought, therefore, that this book might have escaped that general neglect of Scott's work which often seems based on the erroneous assumption that Scott is a long-winded bore with very little of serious importance to say. Yet, some favorable notice by modern critics,2 it has received the attention it deserves as a genuinely tragic novel--an outstanding example of Scott's response to historical change, and his ability to transmute this response into literary art.
  • Rivalry and Desire in Scott's Rob Roy Ian Dennis

    Rivalry and Desire in Scott's Rob Roy Ian Dennis

    Studies in Scottish Literature Volume 31 | Issue 1 Article 19 1999 Rivalry and Desire in Scott's Rob Roy Ian Dennis Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Dennis, Ian (1999) "Rivalry and Desire in Scott's Rob Roy," Studies in Scottish Literature: Vol. 31: Iss. 1. Available at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol31/iss1/19 This Article is brought to you by the Scottish Literature Collections at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Studies in Scottish Literature by an authorized editor of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Ian Dennis Rivalry and Desire in Scott's Rob Roy "Can you do this?" said the young lady, putting her horse to a canter. There was a sort of rude overgrown fence crossed the path before us, with a gate, composed of pieces of wood rough from the forest; I was about to move forward to open it, when Miss Vernon cleared the obstruction with a flying leap. I was bound, in point of honour, to follow, and was in a moment against at her side. "There are hopes of you yet," she said. I Walter Scott, long thought deficient in an understanding of strong emo­ tion,2 is in fact a penetrating interpreter of what Rene Girard, drawing on con­ tinental novelists later in this century, famously called triangular or "mimetic" desire. Indeed, it is very much through the processes of imitation, the danger­ ous complementarity of human desires at both the individual and national lev­ els, that the Author of Waverley understands, and fears, romantic "passion." A naIve young Englishman quarrels with his father in London and is sent north.
  • 47 from Lucy to Lucia

    47 from Lucy to Lucia

    European Journal of English Language and Literature Studies Vol.8, No.4, pp.47-53, June 2020 Published by ECRTD- UK Print ISSN: 2055-0138(Print), Online ISSN: 2055-0146(Online) FROM LUCY TO LUCIA: WALTER SCOTT’S THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR AS ADAPTED BY DONIZETTI Dr. Mikako Ageishi Professor of English literature, Department of English and American Literature, Komazawa University, Tokyo, Japan Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT: The paper explores the treatment of major female characters in three versions of the narratives most famously known as Sir Walter Scott’s The Bride of Lammermoor: the original incident on which the novel was based, the novel itself, and the opera, Lucia di Lammermoor, composed by Gaetano Donizetti. Because of the popularity of Donizetti’s opera, a female character, Lucia, and Lucy in the novel version, is considered a central character in both narratives. However, the novel’s plot focuses on the male protagonist, Edgar Ravenswood, and his revenge story. In a novel with remarkably few female characters, it is striking that Lady Ashton; holds arguably, the most power in the narratives, contrasting starkly with Lucy’s relative feebleness. Through an examination of the respective narratives’ different though intersecting treatments of women’s desire, power, and madness, I argue that the opera’s Lucia gains a different kind of power through Lady Ashton’s madness. KEYWORDS: Walter scott, the bride of lammermoor, donizetti, madness, women’s power INTRODUCTION Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), the Scottish author was one of the most famous writers of his day, and his literary works were popular all over Europe.
  • The Quentin Durward by Sir Walter Scott

    The Quentin Durward by Sir Walter Scott

    The Quentin Durward By Sir Walter Scott The Quentin Durward by Sir Walter Scott CHAPTER I: THE CONTRAST Look here upon this picture, and on this, The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. HAMLET The latter part of the fifteenth century prepared a train of future events that ended by raising France to that state of formidable power which has ever since been from time to time the principal object of jealousy to the other European nations. Before that period she had to struggle for her very existence with the English already possessed of her fairest provinces while the utmost exertions of her King, and the gallantry of her people, could scarcely protect the remainder from a foreign yoke. Nor was this her sole danger. The princes who possessed the grand fiefs of the crown, and, in particular, the Dukes of Burgundy and Bretagne, had come to wear their feudal bonds so lightly that they had no scruple in lifting the standard against their liege and sovereign lord, the King of France, on the slightest pretence. When at peace, they reigned as absolute princes in their own provinces; and the House of Burgundy, possessed of the district so called, together with the fairest and richest part of Flanders, was itself so wealthy, and so powerful, as to yield nothing to the crown, either in splendour or in strength. In imitation of the grand feudatories, each inferior vassal of the crown assumed as much independence as his distance from the sovereign power, the extent of his fief, or the strength of his chateau enabled him to maintain; and these petty tyrants, no longer amenable to the exercise of the law, perpetrated with impunity the wildest excesses of fantastic oppression and cruelty.
  • Walter Scott's Waverley and the Construction of Scottish History

    Walter Scott's Waverley and the Construction of Scottish History

    Between Romance and History: Walter Scott’s Waverley and the Construction of Scottish History Treball de Fi de Grau/ BA dissertation Author: Marina Domínguez Salgado Supervisor: Dr. David Owen Departament de Filologia Anglesa i de Germanística Grau d’Estudis Anglesos June 2020 Acknowledgments I am extremely grateful to my supervisor Dr. David Owen for his guidance, feedback and understanding that have kept me motivated throughout the whole project. I would like to thank my family and particularly my mother whose patience cannot be underestimated. Special thanks to my friends Claudia, Anna, Àngela, Marthe, Sara and Sonia who have supported me during these four years. ABSTRACT Carry the lad that’s born to be King Over the sea to Skye (Sir Harold Boulton, 1870s) These verses belong to the original version of The Skye Boat Song, written by Sir Harold Boulton at some uncertain point in the 1870s. It narrates how Bonnie Prince Charles fled with the help of Flora MacDonald after the defeat of the Jacobites in the Battle of Culloden in 1746.This work typifies aspects of the Romantic movement from of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in which there was a revival of the Scottish folklore. One of the greatest authors of this period is Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) whose historical novel Waverley (1814) became the finest example of Scottish Romantic literature. Scott was a pioneer for the cultural revival of the Jacobites and his novel is broadly accepted as proof of that: “Scott constructs the country as an object of English romantic desire by idealizing Scotland’s own Highland past as he seeks imaginative enhancement of a necessary but insipid modernity” (Glendening, 1997: 159).
  • The Author of Waverley, with His Various Personas, Is a Highly

    The Author of Waverley, with His Various Personas, Is a Highly

    Promoting Saint Ronans Well: Scotts Fiction and Scottish Community in Transition MATSUI Yuko The Author of Waverley, with his various personas, is a highly sociable and com- municative writer, as we observe in the frequent and lively exchanges between the author and his reader or characters in the conclusions of Old Mortality1816 and Redgauntlet1824 , or in the prefaces to The Abbot1820 and The Betrothed1825 , to give only a few examples. Walter Scott himself, after giving up his anonymity, seems to enjoy an intimate author-reader relationship in his prefaces and notes to the Magnum Opus edition. Meanwhile, Scott often adapts and combines more than one historical event or actual person, his sources or originals, in his attempt to recre- ate the life of a particular historical period and give historical sense to it, as books like W. S. Crocketts The Scott Originals1912 eloquently testify, and with the Porteous Riot and Helen Walker in The Heart of Midlothian1818 as one of the most obvious examples. Both of these characteristics often tend to encourage an active interaction between the real and the imagined, or their confluence, within and outwith Scott＇s historical fiction, perhaps most clearly shown in the development of tourism in 19th century Scotland1. In the case of Saint Ronan’s Well1824 [1823], Scotts only novel set in the 19th century, its contemporaneity seems to have allowed that kind of interaction and confluence to take its own vigorous form, sometimes involving an actual commu- nity or other authors of contemporary Scotland. Thus, we would like to examine here the ways in which Scott adapts his sources to explore his usual interest in historical change in this contemporary fiction and how it was received, particularly in terms of its effect on a local community in Scotland and in terms of its inspiration for his fellow authors, and thus reconsider the part played by Scotts fiction in imagining and pro- moting Scotland in several ways, in present and past Scotland.