The Antiquary — Complete

The Antiquary — Complete

THE ANTIQUARY was begun in 1815; the bargain for its publication by Constable was made in the October of that year. On December 22 Scott wrote to Morritt: I shall set myself seriously to The Antiquary, of which I have only a very general sketch at present; but when once I get my pen to the paper it will walk fast enough. I am sometimes tempted to leave it alone, and try whether it will not write as well without the assistance of my head as with it,a hopeful prospect for the reader! It is amazing enough that he even constructed a general sketch, for to such sketches he confesses that he never could keep constant. I have generally written to the middle of one of these novels without having the least idea how it was to end,in short, in the hab nab at a venture style of composition (Journal, Feb. 24, 1828). Yet it is almost impossible but that the plot of The Antiquary should have been duly considered. Scott must have known from the first who Lovel was to turn out to be, and must have recognised in the hapless bride of Lord Glenallan the object of the Antiquarys solitary and unfortunate passion. To introduce another Wandering Heir immediately after the Harry Bertram of Guy Mannering was rather audacious. But that old favourite, the Lost Heir, is nearly certain to be popular. For the Antiquarys immortal sorrow Scott had a model in his own experience. What a romance to tell!and told, I fear, it will one day be. And then my three years of dreaming and my two years of wakening will be chronicled doubtless. But the dead will feel no pain. The dead, as Aristotle says, if they care for such things at all, care no more than we do for what has passed in a dream. The general sketch probably began to take full shape about the last day of 1815. On December 29 Scott wrote to Ballantyne: In The Antiquary Scott had a subject thoroughly to his mind. He had been an antiquary from his childhood. His earliest pence had been devoted to that collection of printed ballads which is still at Abbotsford. These he mentions in the unfinished fragment of his Reliquiae Trotcosienses, in much the same words as in his manuscript note on one of the seven volumes. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 7005
Author: Scott, Walter
Release Date: Aug 17, 2004
Format: eBook
Language: English