Waverley Novels
2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Novels
The Waverley Novels are a long series of books by Sir Walter Scott. For nearly a century they were among the most popular and widely-read novels in all of Europe. Because he did not publicly acknowledge authorship until 1827, they take their name from Waverley (1814), which was the first. The later books bore the words "By the author of Waverley" on their title pages.
More loosely, the term is used to refer to all of his novels. The Tales of my Landlord series were not advertised as "by the author of Waverley" and thus are not always included in this list.
| Title | Published | Main setting | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waverley, or, Tis Sixty Years Since | 1814 | Perthshire (Scotland) | 1745- 1746 |
| Guy Mannering, or, The Astrologer | 1815 | Galloway (Scotland) | 1760-5, 1781-2 |
| The Antiquary | 1816 | Angus (Scotland) | 1790s |
| Tales of My Landlord, 1st series: | |||
| The Black Dwarf | 1816 | Scottish Borders | 1707 |
| The Tale of Old Mortality | 1816 | Southern Scotland | 1679- 89 |
| Rob Roy | 1818 | Loch Lomond and environs (Scotland) | 1715- 16 |
| Tales of my Landlord, 2nd series: | |||
| The Heart of Midlothian | 1818 | Edinburgh and Richmond, London | 1736 |
| Tales of my Landlord, 3rd series: | |||
| The Bride of Lammermoor | 1819 | East Lothian (Scotland) | 1709- 11 |
| A Legend of Montrose | 1819 | Scottish Highlands | 1644- 5 |
| Ivanhoe | 1819 | Yorkshire and Leicestershire (England) | 1194 |
| The Monastery | 1820 | Scottish Borders | 1547- 57 |
| The Abbot | 1820 | Various in Scotland | 1567- 8 |
| Kenilworth | 1821 | Southern England | 1575 |
| The Pirate | 1822 | Shetland and Orkney | late 17th century |
| The Fortunes of Nigel | 1822 | London and Greenwich (England) | 1616- 18 |
| Peveril of the Peak | 1822 | Derbyshire, the Isle of Man, and London | 1658- 80 |
| Quentin Durward | 1823 | Tours and Péronne (France) Liège ( Wallonia/Belgium) |
1468 |
| St. Ronan's Well | 1824 | Southern Scotland | 1800s |
| Redgauntlet | 1824 | Southern Scotland, and Cumberland (England) | 1766 |
| Tales of the Crusaders: | |||
| The Betrothed | 1825 | Wales, and Gloucester (England) | 1187- 92 |
| The Talisman | 1825 | Syria | 1191 |
| Woodstock, or, The Cavalier | 1826 | Woodstock and Windsor (England) Brussels, in the Spanish Netherlands |
1652 |
| Chronicles of the Canongate, 2nd series: | |||
| St Valentine's Day, or, The Fair Maid of Perth | 1828 | Perthshire (Scotland) | 1396 |
| Anne of Geierstein, or, The Maiden in the Mist | 1829 | Switzerland and Eastern France | 1474- 77 |
| Tales of my Landlord, 4th series: | |||
| Count Robert of Paris | 1831 | Constantinople and Scutari (now in Turkey) | 1097 |
| Castle Dangerous | 1831 | Kirkcudbrightshire (Scotland) | 1307 |
Chronological order
- 1097: Count Robert of Paris
- 1187-94: The Betrothed, The Talisman, Ivanhoe
- 1307: Castle Dangerous
- 1396: The Fair Maid of Perth
- 1468-77: Quentin Durward, Anne of Geierstein
- 1547-75: The Monastery, The Abbot, Kenilworth
- 1616-18: The Fortunes of Nigel
- 1644-89: A Legend of Montrose, Woodstock, Peveril of the Peak, The Tale of Old Mortality, The Pirate
- 1700-99: The Black Dwarf, The Bride of Lammermoor, Rob Roy, Heart of Midlothian, Waverley, Guy Mannering, Redgauntlet, The Antiquary
- 1800s: St. Ronan's Well
Editions
The two definitive editions are the 48-volume set published between 1829 and 1833 by Robert Cadell (the "Magnum Opus"), based on previous editions, with new introductions and appendices by Scott, and the 30-volume set, based on manuscripts, published by the Edinburgh University Press and Columbia University Press in the 1990s.
Some of the early editions were lavishly illustrated by George Cattermole.
Placenames
The village of Waverly, Tioga County, New York, takes its name from these novels, as does Waverley Station in Edinburgh.