Scott's Waverley Novels and their Midwest Legacy

The Antiquary (1816), title page

Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1890

Waverley (1814), frontispiece 

Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1889

"Extraordinary Productions" 

Characters

Scott’s stories enticed readers with fascinating characters, memorable settings, and cultures undergoing often unprecedented change. Immediate bestsellers, the first several Waverley novels develop a panoramic view of Scotland’s diverse regions and peoples, leading the nineteenth-century literary critic H.A. Taine to claim Scott “has given to Scotland a citizenship of literature […] characters of every age and condition, from the baron to the fisherman, from the advocate to the beggar, from the lady to the fishwife” (256). In other words, Scott illustrates just how complex national character is, first in Scotland and then in other lands. 

Characters drive each story, revealing endearing quirks and powerful human emotions. As the narrator tells readers in the first chapter of Waverley, he has thrown “the force of the narrative upon the characters and passions of the actors,” and Scott stays true to this strategy throughout the series. Many titles clearly name the focal protagonist, such as Waverley, Guy Mannering, Rob Roy, Ivanhoe, The Fortunes of Nigel, Peveril of the Peak, Quentin Durward, Redgauntlet, Anne of Geierstein, and Count Robert of Paris. Other titles gesture to individuals’ appearance, role, or relationship to other characters, as in the case of The Antiquary, The Black Dwarf, The Bride of Lammermoor, The Abbott, The Pirate, The Betrothed, The Talisman, The Fair Maid of Perth, The Surgeon’s Daughter, and "The Highland Widow" and "Two Drovers" (short stories included in Chronicles of the Canongate, First Series, along with the novella The Surgeon's Daughter).

Some of the most memorable characters, however, are not the protagonists but secondary figures who often appear in illustrations. In many editions, these charming or eccentric personalities engage readers in striking illustrations as they unexpectedly bound off or beckon from the page. For example, the title-page of The Antiquary, Scott's third novel, invites readers to learn the story of Isabella Wardour and her rescuer, who hoists the baronet's daughter to safety along a stormy Scottish coast. Bailie McWheeble, on the other hand, provides a humorous interlude and entertaining Highland Fling during the concluding events of Waverley. Early on, Scott was very interested in the commercial and artistic side of his novels’ illustrations and was both complicit and proactive in the illustration of his novels during his lifetime, which “laid the foundation for the more celebrated Victorian illustrated book," as Richard Hill argues (1, 7). Throughout the nineteenth century, descriptions and artistic renditions of Waverley characters worked in tandem, to the delight of readers.

As a series or collection of novels, then, Scott’s "extraordinary productions" present a lively gallery of "historical and national portraits," as an anonymous reviewer of The Antiquary commented in 1816 (The British Critic 657). With each publication, readers could choose their favorite hero or heroine, while eagerly awaiting new champions, whether Jeanie Deans, Ivanhoe, Anne of Geierstein, Rob Roy, or a host of others. 

Sumburgh Head, Shetland Islands,

Setting for The Pirate (1821)

St. Ninian's Bay, Isle of Bute

Significant in The Fair Maid of Perth (1828)

Scottish Highlands

Setting for many Waverley novels

Settings

Reviewers and readers were also drawn to the striking settings, both the locations and historical backdrops. While the majority of the twenty-seven novels highlight diverse Scottish regions, from the northern Orkney and Shetland Islands to southern Scottish-English border, others unfold in locales including France, Spain, England, Switzerland, Belgium, Syria, and Constantinople. As with characters, Scott draws particular attention to place by selecting titles that reflect the importance of the geographical site. The Heart of Midlothian (1818), considered one of Scott’s finest novels, draws its title from the Old Tolbooth Prison (known as The Heart of Midlothian) in Edinburgh, where the central moral dilemma of the novel unfolds. The Monastery, Kenilworth, Saint Ronan’s Well, Woodstock, The Chronicles of the Canongate (which includes Scott’s shorter fiction, two short stories and a novella), and Castle Dangerous also hint to circumstances and advertise specific places where plots unfold most memorably. Again and again, setting reveals personal crises and enhances significant themes novels explore.

Likewise quite varied, the historical settings range from the eleventh century (Count Robert of Paris) to contemporary times (St. Ronan’s Well). Most plots, however, develop in the eighteenth century, a profoundly transformative time for Scotland. Scott’s first novel, Waverley, illustrates young Edward Waverley’s dawning understanding of Highland and Lowland cultures as he leaves England to travel north through Scotland, during the final and disastrous Jacobite rebellion of 1745-6. The narrator invites readers to undertake a similar journey of discovery in order to rethink, through unprejudiced eyes, the diverse cultures they encounter in this and subsequent novels. Together, Scott's first three Waverley novels comprise a quasi annalistic chronicle of Scotland in the eighteenth century, set in the 1740s, 1770s, and 1790s (Trumpener 156). Other novels engage other periods, often telescoping "long-term historical processes into single dramatic events, played out by small groups of major and minor actors," as Kate Trumpener argues (152). Credited by most critics with establishing the historical novel, Scott drew upon unforgettable places and haunting cultural clashes to capture the past. Perhaps more importantly, he also helped readers make sense of the dynamic diversity of cultures they confronted in contemporary times, whether in Great Britain, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, or America. 

In the following pages, I suggest three themes that might have appealed to Americans, particularly as they journeyed from east to west and founded towns named Waverly: honor tied to place, discovery through travel across borders, and conciliation amidst and despite cultural differences. While Scott develops these ideas in many of his works, I draw upon examples from only a few of his Waverley novels in order to whet your appetite for the smorgasbord that awaits. So many books, such remarkable characters….

Walter Scott statue in Central Park, New York City

The Waverley Novels

Waverley (1814)
Guy Mannering (1815)
The Antiquary (1816)
The Black Dwarf (Tales of My Landlord, First Series) (1816)
The Tale of Old Mortality (Tales of My Landlord, First Series) (1816)
Rob Roy (1817)
The Heart of Midlothian (Tales of My Landlord, Second Series) (1818)
The Bride of Lammermoor (Tales of My Landlord, Third Series) (1819)
A Legend of Montrose (Tales of My Landlord, Third Series) (1819)
Ivanhoe (1819)
The Monastery (1820)
The Abbot (1820)
Kenilworth (1821)
The Pirate (1821)
The Fortunes of Nigel (1822)
Peveril of the Peak (1823)
Quentin Durward (1823)
Saint Ronan's Well (1823)
Redgauntlet (1824)
The Betrothed (Tales of the Crusaders) (1825)
The Talisman (Tales of the Crusaders) (1825)
Woodstock (1826)
"The Highland Widow," "The Two Drovers," and "The Surgeon's Daughter" (Chronicles of the Canongate, First Series) (1827)
The Fair Maid of Perth (Chronicles of the Canongate, Second Series) (1828)
Anne of Geierstein (1829)
Count Robert of Paris (Tales of My Landlord, Fourth Series) (1831)
Castle Dangerous (Tales of My Landlord, Fourth Series) (1831)