Walter Scott

Walter Scott (1771-1832), Scottish novelist, poet, historian, and biographer, whose work as a translator, editor, and critic, together with his novels and poems, made him one of the most prominent figures in English Romanticism. He was born in Edinburgh on August 15, 1771. Trained as a lawyer, he became a legal official, an occupation that allowed him to write.

A broad knowledge of ballads and legends helped direct Scott's literary activity. His translations of German Gothic romances in 1796 gained him some note, but he first achieved eminence with his edition of lowland ballads, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, in 1802-1803. His first narrative poem, The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), brought him huge popularity. Following this success, he wrote a series of Romantic narrative poems, which included Marmion (1808), The Lady of the Lake (1810), The Bridal of Triermain (1813), and The Lord of the Isles (1815). In 1813, he was offered the Poet Laureateship of England, and declined, recommending Robert Southey for the post. He also published editions of the writings of the English poet John Dryden in 1808 and of the English satirist Jonathan Swift in 1814.

Scott's declining popularity as a poet, in part caused by the competition of Lord Byron, led him to turn to the novel. Waverley (1814) began a new series of triumphs. It was immediately recognized and enjoyed by a large audience. More than 20 historical novels followed in rapid succession, including Guy Mannering (1815), Old Mortality (1816), The Heart of Midlothian (1818), Rob Roy (1817), The Bride of Lammermoor (1819), Ivanhoe (1819), Kenilworth (1821), Quentin Durward (1823), and The Fair Maid of Perth (1828). His success was due to his outstanding literary gifts as a storyteller, master of dialogue, acute observer of society's mores and attitudes, and vivid portrayal of Roma (Gypsies), outlaws, and itinerants. He was also renowned for his rich literary style that combined vigour, lyric beauty, and clarity of description. As well as establishing the form of the historical and regional novel, Scott influenced the form of the short story with “The Highland Widow” and “The Two Drovers”. Although he published this fiction anonymously, his identity became an open secret. Scott used his enormous profits to construct a baronial seat in the Scottish lowlands called Abbotsford. In 1820 he was made a baronet.

Scott was entangled with the printing firm of James Ballantyne and the publishing house of Archibald Constable, which both failed in the economic crisis of 1826. Refusing the easy recourse of bankruptcy, Scott strove for the rest of his life to repay a debt of more than £120,000. He completed the epic poem Life of Napoleon Buonaparte (1827) and wrote several new novels. After a series of strokes, he died at Abbotsford on September 21, 1832. By the sale of copyrights, all of Scott's debts were settled by 1847.

Scott is the first major historical novelist. In his portraits of Scotland, England, and the Continent from medieval times to the 18th century, he showed a keen sense of political and traditional forces and of their influence on the individual. Although his plots are sometimes hastily constructed and his characters sometimes stilted, these works remain valuable for their compelling atmosphere, epic dignity, and clear understanding of human nature. James Fenimore Cooper in America, Honoré de Balzac in France, and Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray in England were among the many who learned from Scott's panoramic studies of the interplay between social trends and individual character. In Great Britain, he created an enduring interest in Scottish traditions, and throughout the Western world he encouraged the cult of the Middle Ages, which strongly characterized Romanticism. His poems were frequently set to music, for example, by Schubert, and his novel The Bride of Lammermoor was turned into the opera Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti.