Walter Scott and the
‘Common’ Novel, 1808–1819
Peter Garside
Scott's strategy from the commencement
of the Waverley Novels, it might be argued, was to create
a 'superior' kind of fiction, pitched in such a way as to
draw back a male book-buying audience as acknowledged
readers of fiction. Ina Ferris in her The Achievement
of Literary Authority (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell
University Press, 1991) has shown how the privileged discourses
at work in Waverley; or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since (1814)
and its immediate successors were capable of interlocking
smoothly with the social-historical outlook of the Edinburgh
and Quarterly reviews, whose sales at this time exceeded
10,000. A similar equivalence can be sensed in the seemingly
gentle but condescending spoofing of 'common' [1]
fictional modes in the first chapter of Waverley,
a routine similar to that found in Scott's review of Maturin's
Fatal Revenge for the Quarterly in 1810. [2] Contemporary
reviewers followed suit in signalising Scott as an exceptional
novelist who had single-handedly rescued the genre, and
traditional literary history has completed the process in
proclaiming Scott as the innovator of a new historical novel.
In recent years, several commentators have challenged this
view in the light of Scott's position vis-à-vis a
mostly female-authored 'national' fiction, stemming from
Sydney Owenson's The Wild Irish Girl (1806). [3] Yet
there is perhaps a danger in such moves of positioning newly
privileged authors ahead of old favourites, while continuing
to ignore uncharted ground below.
This essay
aims to show that Scott was more in tune with current trends
and development in contemporary fiction, especially in the
years immediately prior to the publication of Waverley,
than his official aloof stance might suggest. It comes in
the immediate wake of the completion of a new Bibliographical
Survey of Prose Fiction Published in the British Isles 1770-1830,
scheduled for publication in two volumes in Spring 2000.
[4]
In all, the second volume, covering the years 1800-1829
inclusive, provides details of 2,256 novels, published for
the first time during these thirty years, a large proportion
of the entries being based on first editions held in the
library of Castle Corvey, in Germany. Viewed from this vantage
point, Scott's early fiction output can take on a very different
aspect compared with that provided by the official literary
historical version or by some of the new realignments. Even
handling Scott's earlier, unspectacularly-presented (12mo)
fiction alongside contemporaneous fiction has the effect
of diminishing a sense of difference.
It would
be misleading to present Scott as a wholesale reader of
novels throughout his life—his busy public and private
career clearly militated against that. On the other hand,
there is a danger in fostering an exaggerated reverse picture,
with Lady Scott glutting herself of 'common' female novels
from the circulating library, and Scott churning out masculine
masterpieces which she herself hardly knew about. In particular,
there appear to have been two phases when Scott was especially
involved in fiction. The first, which is relatively well
known, occurred in the later 1780s, when he was apprenticed
to his father, and is recorded by the Ashestiel 'Memoir'
in a section probably written about 1810:
My desk usually contained a store of the most miscellaneous
volumes especially works of fiction of every kind which
were my supreme delight. [.] all that was adventurous
and romantic I devoured without much discrimination and
I really believe that I have read as much nonsense of
this class as any man now living. [5]
Scott also mentions his subscription to
James Sibbald's Edinburgh Circulating Library, and, though
the connection is not explicitly made, it is more than likely
that most of his novels were procured that way. A near contemporary
surviving Catalogue [1780-86] of Sibbald's library, indicates
fiction holdings of approximately 20% from nearly 4,500
items, while appendices point to an accession rate of some
sixty novels annually in the mid-1780s. [6]
This latter reflects an explosion in the production of new
fiction generally at this time, much of it by women authors,
with production doubling in 1785 and reaching new heights
near the end of the decade.
The second
period of involvement is less well recorded. Its roots lay
in a scheme for a collected edition of novelists, first
discussed between Scott and the publisher John Murray at
Ashestiel early in October 1808, aimed at replacing the
faded-looking Harrison's Novelist's Magazine (1780-88).
From the start it was envisaged that the set, in addition
to the main classics, should include in its later volumes
more modern works. Murray's letter from London of 26 October,
shortly after his return, includes under the heading 'Novels
for Consideration' several titles from the later 1780s,
as well as some translated titles only just issued. [7]
Scott in his letter of 30 October, which crossed with Murray's,
pressed the case for the inclusion of material still in
copyright; and also requested that Murray send Hookham's
and Lane's circulating library catalogues so that he could
survey the field. [8]
On 17 November Murray was able to send the specified catalogues,
the same letter enclosing a list considerably extending
the agreed 'additional' titles, with works such as Charlotte
Smith's Old Manor House (1793), Ann Radcliffe's Romance
of the Forest (1791) and Mysteries of Udolpho
(1794), and Maria Edgeworth's Belinda (1801)—marked
as a group as 'all Copy R[igh]t'. [9]
Murray's letters also show him sending copies of novels
to Scott by mail-coach, a procedure that probably accelerated
when the latter's planned visit south was postponed. In
many ways, the situation parallels that of the 1780s, though
Scott's own position changes from consumer to a potential
exploiter of the mode. Output of new fiction at this time
was booming, as Figure 1, based on the entries in the forthcoming
Novels bibliography, illustrates. In all 111 new titles
are found with 1808 imprints, the largest figure by far
for the years surveyed.
Fig
1. Total Output of New Fiction, 1800-29
The novels
scheme continued into the new year, but then foundered on
the breakdown of relations between Murray and James and
John Ballantyne (Scott’s printer and literary agent
respectively), and was finally pre-empted by the appearance
of Anna Barbauld's fifty-volume British Novelists
(1810). One survivor from the wreck, I would suggest, however,
is no less than Waverley itself. Similarities between
the first chapter's burlesque of novel modes and the Maturin
review, as well as other internal and bibliographical evidence,
point to an inception in 1808/9, rather than as Scott later
implied in 1805. The next clear sign of an engagement occurs
in early Autumn 1810, when sample chapters were sent to
James Ballantyne, and his brother John, newly established
as a bookseller/publisher, advertised Waverley as
'in the press'. [10]
Though the evidence again is ultimately unclear, it seems
likely that Scott, encouraged partly by the now evident
popularity of the 'national tale', went on to write the
Highland incidents in the story, before falling back on
the more certain rewards of another poem.
If Scott's
own account is to be believed the unfinished manuscript
went into the attic at Abbotsford, and was forgotten, but
in reality, with an uncompleted novel on hand he most likely
kept a firm eye on the market. This would have been facilitated
through John Ballantyne's association with Longman &
Co, for whom Ballantyne now served as Edinburgh agent. Longmans
were steady 'middle-market' producers of fiction at this
period, publishing between 1810 and 1814 some thirty new
titles, representing slightly less than 10% of output, against
a noticeably smaller base. By this stage the house had built
up a group of regular (mainly female) novelists, such as
Amelia Opie and the Porter sisters, on occasions paying
out advances as large as four or five hundred guineas. As
Figure 2 indicates, their list reflected a more general
pattern of female dominance in the period, with women novelists
accounting for more than 50% of production in six years
between 1810-17, even allowing for a considerable gender-unknown
component. Female-authored novels outnumber those by males
by two to one in years 1810, 1812, 1813, 1814, and 1816,
and are never exceeded during the whole decade. As these
figures suggest, the Waverley novels first emerged at a
time when male authorship was at an unusually low ebb; though
from 1820 the position changes sharply, and by the later
1820s, no doubt partly because of Scott's influence, male
novelists are dominant.
Fig
2. Gender, by Percentage, 1800-29
The bibliographical
entries below describe three novels, all by women writers,
which Scott might have come across in his second main engagement
with fiction, and where it is possible to draw interesting
parallels with the first phase of Waverley fictions to 1819.
[West, Jane].
THE LOYALISTS: AN HISTORICAL NOVEL. BY THE AUTHOR OF “LETTERS
TO A YOUNG MAN,” “A TALE OF THE TIMES,” &C.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown,
Paternoster-Row, 1812.
I 364p; II 307p; III 352p. 12mo. 21s (ECB, ER, QR).
ER 20: 501 (Nov 1812); QR 7: 471 (June 1812); WSW I: 557.
BRu ENC; ECB 631; NSTC W1348 (BI BL, C, O).
Notes: Further edns: 2nd edn. 1812 (Corvey), CME
3-628-48893-1; Boston 1813 (NUC).
[CUTHBERTSON, Catherine].
SANTO SEBASTIANO: OR, THE YOUNG PROTECTOR. A NOVEL. IN FIVE
VOLUMES. BY THE AUTHOR OF “THE ROMANCE OF THE PYRENÉES.”
London: Printed for George Robinson, 25, Paternoster-Row,
1806.
I 418p; II 405p; III 416p; IV 422p; V 455p. 12mo. 30s (ECB,
ER).
ER 9: 500 (Jan 1807); WSW I: 233.
BL 12650.aaa.166; ECB 514; NSTC C4645 (BI E).
Notes: Colophon in vol. 1 reads: 'T. Davison, Printer,
Whitefriars', vol. 2, 3, and 4 read: 'Printed by William
Ballintine, Duke-Street, York-buildings, Strand', vol. 5
reads: 'Printed by S. Hollingsworth, Crane-Court, Fleet-street'.
Further edns: 2nd edn. 1809 (NSTC); 3rd edn. 1814 (Corvey),
CME 3-628-48619-X; 4th edn. 1820 (NUC); 1847 (NSTC); Philadelphia
1813 (NUC). Published in penny numbers as The Heiress
of Montalvan; or, First and Second Love, W. Caffyn,
Oxford Street, London, 1845-6 (Summers).
COTTIN, [Sophie Ristaud];
MEEKE, [Mary] (trans.).
ELIZABETH; OR, THE EXILES OF SIBERIA. A TALE, FOUNDED ON
FACTS. ALTERED FROM THE FRENCH OF MADAME DE COTTIN, BY MRS.
MEEKE.
London: Printed at the Minerva-Press, for Lane, Newman,
and Co. Leadenhall-Street, 1807.
vi, 237p. 12mo. 4s 6d (ER).
ER 10: 241 (Apr 1807), 10: 493 (July 1807).
CtY Hfd29.602m; xNSTC.
Notes: Trans. of Élisabeth, ou les exilés
de Sibérie (Paris, 1806). This story also appeared
with Meeke's translation of Ducray-Duminil's Julien;
or, My Father's House (CME 3-628-48208-9), published
by the Minerva Press with the same year imprint. French
language version of this tale received a full review in
ER, 11: 448-62 (Jan 1808). ECB 138 lists 3rd edn. 1809,
Tegg, 3s.
Further edns: 1808 (NSTC C3815); 3rd edn. 1809 (NSTC); 1810
(NSTC); Dublin 1811 (NSTC); 1814 (NSTC); [at least 15 more
edns. to 1850]; Philadelphia 1808 (NUC).
The Loyalists: An Historical Novel,
by Mrs Jane West appeared in 1812, by which point West was
an established author, well known for a series of conservative
anti-Jacobin novels, all published by Longmans, beginning
with A Gossip's Story (1796). [11]
In this instance (her fifth novel) she makes a distinctive
shift in employing a historical setting, the English Civil
War. The story's hero, Evellin, a loyal royalist, is in reality
Sir Allan Neville, heir to the Earldom of Bellingham, who,
on the advice of his treacherous brother-in-law, De Vallance,
has fled from London. Evellin finds a temporary haven in Ribbesdale,
Lancashire, where he eventually marries Isabel, the sister
of the staunchly Anglican divine Dr Beaumont. A rival local
admirer of Isabel had been the fainéant Sir William
Waverly [sic] of Waverly Park, 'lord of a vast demesne,
but selfish, ignorant, scant of courtesy, and proud of wealth'
(I, 36). With the onset of hostilities, in spite of entreaties
from the now Colonel Evellin, Sir William hedges his bets,
fearful of losing out. At last he throws his hat in with Prince
Rupert, but is then mortally wounded, reportedly shot by his
own son, who at his instigation had joined the Cromwellian
forces. Waverly Hall becomes 'a complete ruin':
A few of the meaner offices, and a part of the
walls, marked where the residence stood, which once sheltered
crafty selfishness. The park afforded a temporary asylum
to a gang of gipseys, whose cattle grazed unmolested on
the unclaimed demesne [.] (II, 179)
This was not
the first wavering Waverley to have appeared in a novel: as
Wilbur L. Cross's article of 1902 indicates, the most likely
single source for Scott's choice is Charlotte Smith's Desmond
(1792). [12]
The composition of the early chapters of Waverley at
least by 1810 also clearly precludes any possibility that
West's novel influenced the inception of Scott's work. Yet
there are a number of factors which might have guided Scott
to this title in the interim years before completion—a
similarity in subject to Rokeby (1813) is one—so
it is perhaps not entirely vain to look for an element of
overlap in the later stages of Scott's novel. The dilapidation
of West's Waverly Hall matches in some ways the devastation
at Tully-Veolan in Waverley after the suppression of
the Jacobite rising, though Scott's account offers a bleaker
and more generalised view of the downside of civil discord.
In both novels, too, the renovated and re-possessed estate
offers a symbol for a newly united society. In West's account,
the inheritors are Evellin's daughter, Isabel, and her husband,
the decent son of the dastardly De Vallance:
It was agreed to disuse the dishonoured name
of De Vallance, and adopt the endeared appellative of Evellin,
to which was annexed the title of Baronet. Waverly-Park
was now changed into Evellin-hall. An elegant mansion was
erected on the scite of the ruins . (III, 341)
It is not beyond
the bounds of possibility that West's novel left trace marks
on a number of subsequent Waverley novels, say The Tale
of Old Mortality (1816). A single instance must suffice
here, however, to show how similar motifs were manipulated
by both authors, albeit ultimately in different ways. One
interesting feature of The Loyalists is the way in
which the anagram Evellin is employed to mask the identity
of Sir Allan Neville, finally persisting to the extent that
it serves to re-name an estate. In Scott's third novel, The
Antiquary (1816), the unknown Lovel first emerges from
his chrysalis as Major Neville, and then is revealed to be
the son of Eveline, the deceased wife of Earl of Glenallan.
Scott's relish in the word play involved is apparent in the
following exchange:
“But who—who is he?” continued
Lord Glenallan, holding the Antiquary with a convulsive
grasp.
“Formerly I would have called him
Lovel, but now he turns out to be Major Neville.”
“Whom my brother brought up as his
natural son—whom he made his heir—Gracious Heaven!
the child of my Eveline!”[13]
In this instance, however, the disclosure
of disguises leads more directly and obtrusively to the restoration
of male lineage.
The second
novel first came to my attention indirectly, and at first
hardly seemed worth following as a lead. In his Recollections
of Sir Walter Scott (1837), R. P. Gillies recalls a visit
by Scott circa 1813 to his private library when Scott 'wished
to find out a now-forgotten novel, entitled “Santo Sebastiano” ’.
[14]
Santo Sebastiano: Or, the Young Protector, an anonymous
work by Catherine Cuthbertson, was first published in 1806,
and rapidly became one of the most popular novels of its time.
[15]
Cuthbertson's output was widely advertised in front-page adverts
in both the London and Edinburgh, and between 1810-14 she
stood at the height of her (anonymous) fame. Notwithstanding
its unwieldy look, Santo Sebastiano is still immensely
readable, filled as it is with interesting characters and
dramatic incidents, and marked by sharp social satire. Its
orphan heroine, Julia de Clifford, not unexpectedly considering
the commonness of such denouements, turns out to be a rich
heiress, as the granddaughter of the Duke of Avondale. Nevertheless
in constructing the plot Cuthbertson shows unusual skill,
in holding together two main components: present events in
England and past events which have already taken place abroad,
the revelation of the latter eventually disclosing the mystery
of identity. One interesting effect is the way in which the
unknown and alien unexpectedly intrude into the domestic present.
An incident of this kind takes place when Julia, walking on
the Dorsetshire seashore, is almost kidnapped by seamen:
one of the men instantly sprung from the boat,
and, fleet as the wind, almost instantaneously seized her
in his arms, and was bearing her, struggling, shrieking,
to the boat; when two gentlemen, on horseback, with attendants,
came at full speed down the path-way, and presenting pistols
at the man who held Julia, he let her drop, deprived of
senses, upon the sands; and taking to the boat, again, he,
with his companions, got off to the cutter, which immediately
stood out to sea. (II, 189-90)
As a whole
the novel throws up a number of parallels with Guy Mannering
(1815), Scott's second novel, which in the course of composition
Scott himself described as 'a tale of private life only varied
by the perilous exploits of smugglers and excisemen'. [16]
Just as in the above seashore incident one might sense the
seeds of the kidnapping of the young Henry Bertram, which
ends the first narrative phase in Guy, so another attempt
on Julia de Clifford's life, a sudden and abortive shooting,
brings to mind the wounding of young Hazelwood by the newly-returned
Bertram (consecutive Ch. 31). The saviour of Cuthbertson's
heroine is her secret protector and eventual husband:
Lord St. Orville, encircling our heroine's waist
with his left arm, pressed her with convulsive eagerness
to his breast, to shield her from threatened destruction;
and with his right hand grasped at a pistol, directed to
her heart; but as, with almost frensied rapidity, he turned
the muzzle from her, he received the contents of the dreadful
weapon in his side. (III, 302)
At this point one approaches a level of difference.
Scott's account is given through the eyes of Julia Mannering,
herself an avid reader of novels and something of a self-dramatist.
One might also point to broader re-orientations, such as Scott's
masculinisation of the familiar trope in women's fiction of
the rediscovered heiress. Whereas the Julia de Clifford's
social position remains painfully uncertain for the bulk of
Cuthbertson's novel, in Guy, with the past disruptions
already mostly laid out, there is little doubt who Brown really
is when he purposefully first strides into novel. Already
it could argued Scott is found actively 'recycling' female
forms of fiction into heartier and more profitable male equivalents.
The last title
for consideration is Sophie Cottin's short tale, Elizabeth;
or, the Exiles of Siberia, first published in French in
1806, which includes a number of parallels with Scott's The
Heart of Mid-Lothian (1818). Cottin's 'Elizabeth' was
one of the most recent works to be considered for inclusion
in Murray and Scott's projected edition of novels—as
a foreign work it was not subject to the rules of copyright
and hence freely available. It was first published in English
in a translation by Mary Meeke, packaged in 1807 by the Minerva
Press both as a single volume and as a makeweight in another
work translated by Meeke (see 'Notes' field in Entry listed
above). Mrs Meeke, at that point, was one of the Minerva's
most popular and successful authors. Indeed, between 1796
and 1823 she was responsible for no less twenty-five original
works of fiction in ninety-three volumes, making her unquestionably
the most prolific novelist of the Romantic era, outmatching
incidentally Scott's own twenty-three novels in seventy-five
volumes. [17]
Elizabeth itself rapidly gained a reputation as a classic
moral tale, and was frequently reprinted both in Meeke's and
other translations. In fact, no other work included in the
forthcoming Novels Bibliography, for the years 1800-29, received
more further editions to a cut-off point in 1850—at least
twenty to that date. This figure excludes versions in French,
which were also much in use as an educational tool, as combining
language tuition with homiletic instruction.
When planning
with the Heart of Mid-Lothian a novel that would highlight
Presbyterian virtues, it is not impossible that Scott's mind
hit on this classic pietistic story, itself by now more exclusively
marketed as a text for 'young persons'. Certainly the similarities
between the two plots are striking. In Elizabeth, the
heroine makes a long trip on foot to plead on behalf of her
exiled parents, finally gaining a pardon through a direct
appeal to the Emperor in Moscow. In the Heart, Jeanie
Deans's journey to London likewise culminates in a similar
appeal to the Crown, in the person of Queen Caroline. There
are also some interesting overlaps in the specifics of both
narratives. Cottin's Elizabeth enlists the support of an admirer,
Smoloff, the governor's son, while planning her journey, confiding
in him first, though eventually her parents are told before
she sets off. Jeanie leaves without telling her father, but
the gap is filled by her admirer and confidant, Butler,
who sends a letter to Davie Deans. Both heroines are waylaid
by robbers, but are guarded by a firm faith. Just as Jeanie
resides in London with Mrs Glass, Elizabeth after arriving
in Moscow receives protection from an innkeeper and his wife.
Whereas the Duke of Argyle accompanies Jeanie at her interview
with Caroline, in Elizabeth Smoloff, who is found in
attendance on the Emperor, performs a similar function.
If there is
an essential difference, it lies in Scott's application of
the story. Elizabeth's journey serves as an illustration of
filial devotion and piety, Jeanie's provides a model through
which Scott can explore the issue of Anglo-Scottish relations
after the Union. An initially private concern is thus made
obtrusively public in its bearing, encouraging assessments
such as Monthly Review's that the author had 'raise[d]
himself from the general mass of novelists to sit on the same
bench with the annalists of his country'. [18]
Noticeably less effusive was the reviewer in Blackwood's
Magazine, almost certainly the veteran Henry Mackenzie,
who noted a number of specifically literary prototypes,
including for Jeanie's character and journey 'the French story
of Elizabeth '. [19]
How new then
was Waverley? Very new according to Henry Cockburn:
'The unexpected newness of the thing, the profusion of original
characters, the Scotch language, Scotch scenery, Scotch men
and women, the simplicity of the writing, and the graphic
force of the descriptions, all struck us with an electric
shock of delight. [20]
Cockburn's most emphatic word noticeably is 'Scotch', yet
even here there is room for further reappraisal, notwithstanding
recent manoeuvres involving the 'national' tale. No space
as yet has been found in literary history for such works as
Caledonia; or, the Stranger in Scotland: A National Tale
(4 vols, 1810; CME 3-628-48270-4), written under the pseudonym
of Kate Montalbion, but probably by Catherine Bayley, Sarah
Wigley's Glencarron: A Scottish Tale (3 vols, 1811;
CME 3-628-48921-0), and the sequence of titles by Honoria
Scott (herself possibly identifiable as Mrs Susan Fraser),
which includes The Vale of Clyde: A Tale (2 vols, 1810;
CME 3-628-48543-6), A Winter in Edinburgh (3 vols,
1810; CME 3-628-48544-4), and Strathmay: Or Scenes in the
North, Illustrative of Scottish Manners (2 vols, 1813).
Our comparative lack of knowledge of such authors and their
titles, now made more accessible through Corvey, indicates
that still more excavation is needed in certain domains of
the novel.
Notes
1.
The term 'common' was used by J. B. S. Morritt, in
a letter to Scott of 14 July 1814, shortly after his having
received a presentation copy of Waverley: 'Your manner
of narrating is so different from the slipshod sauntering
verbiage of common novels . that it cannot, I think, fail
to strike anybody who knows what stile is, though amongst
the gentle class of readers who swallow every blue-backed
book in a circulating library for the sake of the story,
I should fear that half the knowledge of nature it contains
and all the real Humour would be thrown away' (The Private
Letter-Books of Sir Walter Scott, edited by William
Partington (London, 1930), p. 111). Notwithstanding the
hugely condescending (and sexist) spin given to the term
by Morritt here, 'common' arguably offers a more apt term
than 'popular' to describe the more general output of fiction
in this period, before the advent of a mass readership.
2.
Quarterly Review 3: 6 (May 1810), 339-47.
3.
See my own article, 'Popular Fiction and National
Tale: Hidden Origins of Scott's Waverley', Nineteenth-Century
Literature 46: 1 (1991), 30-53. More recent reappraisals
include: Katie Trumpener, 'National Character, Nationalist
Plots: National Tale and Historical Novel in the Age of
Waverley, 1806-1830', ELH 60 (1993), 685-731;
Ina Ferris, 'Translation from the Borders: Encounter and
Recalcitrance in Waverley and Clan-Albin',
Eighteenth-Century Fiction 9: 2 (Jan 1997), 203-22;
and Ian Dennis, Nationalism and Desire in Early Historical
Fiction (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997), especially Chs.
1 and 2.
4.
Oxford University Press: general editors Peter Garside,
James Raven, and Rainer Schöwerling. Volume 2 is edited
by Peter Garside and Rainer Schöwerling, with the assistance
of Christopher Skelton-Foord and Karin Wünsche. Tables
and figures for this volume were prepared with the help
of Anthony Mandal.
5.
Scott on Himself, ed. David Hewitt (Edinburgh:
Scottish Academic Press, 1981), p. 32.
6.
A New Catalogue of the Edinburgh Circulating Library:
Containing Twenty Thousand Volumes (Edinburgh, [1780];
with appendices of 'New Books' to 1786), surviving copy
in National Library of Scotland [henceforth NLS].
7.
NLS, MS 3877, fols 170-71.
8.
The Letters of Sir Walter Scott, ed. H. J.
C. Grierson (London 1932-37; 12 vols), II, 114-15. The Minerva
Library founded by William Lane, in Leadenhall Street, and
Thomas Hookham's fashionable West End library, in Old Bond
Street, were probably the two best-known London circulating
libraries of the period, and had extensive stocks of fiction.
9.
NLS, MS 3877, fols 204–05; MS 910, fol. 37.
10.
For details concerning this phase of activity, and
other related evidence, see Claire Lamont's Introduction
to the Clarendon Press edition of Waverley (Oxford,
1981), pp. xxiii-xxv; also my own article, 'Dating Waverley's
Early Chapters', The Bibliotheck 13: 3 (1986), 61-81.
11.
Quotations below are taken from the copy of the first
edition held in the Bristol University Library Early Novels
Collection, with references being given in parenthesis within
the main text. The Corvey library holds a copy of the second
edition, also published in 1812 (Corvey Microfiche Edition
[CME] 3-628-48893-1).
12.
See 'An Earlier Waverley', Modern Language Notes
17: 2 (Feb 1902), 88-90.
13.
The Antiquary, ed. David Hewitt (Edinburgh,
1995; Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels 3), p. 352.
14.
Recollections of Sir Walter Scott, Bart. (London,
1837), p. 197.
15.
Quotations are from the first edition, with references
given in parenthesis in the main text. The Corvey copy (CME
3-628-48619-X) is a third edition of 1814, published by
a consortium of booksellers, consisting of Robinsons (the
original publishers), Longmans, Cradock & Joy, and A.
K. Newman of the Minerva Press.
16.
In a letter to J. B. S. Morritt, 19 Jan 1815 (Letters
of Scott, ed. Grierson, IV, 13).
17.
The balance shifts more fully in Meeke's favour if
four translations of fiction (in thirteen volumes) are also
counted.
18.
Review of Tales of My Landlord, 2nd series
[i.e. The Heart of Mid-Lothian], Monthly Review,
n.s. 87 (Dec 1818), 362.
19.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine 3: 17 (Aug 1818),
569.
20.
Memorials of His Time (Edinburgh, 1856), p.
281.
Copyright Information
This article is copyright © 1999 Centre for Editorial
and Intertextual Research, and is the result of the independent
labour of the scholar or scholars credited with authorship.
The material contained in this document may be freely
distributed, as long as the origin of information used has
been properly credited in the appropriate manner (e.g. through
bibliographic citation, etc.).
Thanks are due to the trustees
of the National Library of Scotland for permission to cite
manuscript materials in the library’s care in this
essay.
This article is a revised
version of a paper originally presented at the 6th Quadrennial
Meeting of the International Scott Conference, ‘Scott,
Scotland and Romanticism’ held at the University of
Oregon, Eugene, on 21–25 July 1999.
Referring to this
Article
P. D. GARSIDE. ‘Walter Scott and the “Common”
Novel, 1808-1819’, Cardiff Corvey: Reading the Romantic
Text 3 (September 1999). Online: Internet (date accessed):
<http://www.cf.ac.uk/encap/romtext/articles/cc03_n02.html>.
Contributor Details
Peter Garside (MA Cantab., PhD Cantab., AM Harvard) is Professor
of English Literature at Cardiff University and Chair of
the Centre for Editorial and Intertextual Research. As
well as specialising in Romantic and Augustan literature,
he has recently completed work on a Bibliographical Survey
of Prose Fiction Published in the British Isles (with
James Raven and Rainer Schöwerling; OUP forthcoming),
and is currently editing James Hogg’s Private Memoirs
and Confessions of a Justified Sinner.
His other involvements include
participation in the advisory board of the Edinburgh Edition
of the Waverley Novels (from 1985) and the Stirling/South
Carolina Edition of the Collected Works of James Hogg (from
1991), as well as editing for both projects. He has
published widely in the field of Scottish fiction, publishing
history, and Romantic literature, and recent publications
relevant to fiction of the Romantic period include a chapter
on ‘Romantic Gothic’, in Literature of the
Romantic Period, ed. Michael O’Neill (Oxford, 1998),
pp. 315–40.
Last modified
19 September, 2005
.
This document is maintained by Anthony Mandal
(Mandal@cf.ac.uk).
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