Sir Walter Scott

Does anyone know if the Folio Society have ever printed the complete works of Scott's Waverley novels?

I think this would be an amazing offering and popular too.

Scott was in 19th Century Europe as popular as Tolkein, Rowling, Meyer and Brown all rolled into one, as far as the historical records show.

In the USA as well, until Twain's denunciation in Life on the Mississippi and elsewhere caused a reaction that continued until changing styles finally made his popularity decline until he is pretty much read only by English majors today (and that unwillingly).

And that is a great shame, as his works are notwithstanding excellent to this day.

I think they published isolated works (such as Kenilworth) but not the full series.

Here's one American (USA, that is) that reads Scott willingly. I've collected all of his works of fiction and poetry, but would consider selling all the Waverleys I've accumulated if FS would produce a uniform set (and guarantee they wouldn't drop it halfway through).

It does take a bit to get used to the antique language, especially for Americans, but most editions of Scott's works in the 1800s included his notes and a Scot's glossary to help with the vernacular. I would hope any FS edition would include these.

On my first trip to the UK, I visited Abbotsford, and had a physical reaction to walking through the study and library of the house that Waverley built (of course, the walls of books probably had something to do with it as well). But just standing down by the Tweed looking back up at the house, as Scott would have often done, felt almost like time-travel.

Os.

Osb....

I read your post with the feeling we are kindred spirits :-)

The Waverly novels would be great, especially if they included the illustrations by George Cattermole

I read an author's works chronologically by date of publication in order to see how the author's style develops. That's the way, for example, I read all of Trollope and all of Scott. I have suggested for several years now that they should do a complete Scott, but was told once that they don't think he would sell that well.
I disagree but ....
They seem to change their minds frequently. I was told once that they weren't reprinting the Gilbert & Sullivan libretti and then about 6 months later they appeared! So you never know.

I started reading Scott in historical order (first, Rob Roy which took place during the '15, through St. Ronan's Well, ca. 1812). Since these were all set in a fairly brief part of Scottish history, it helped me keep the historical setting and characters straight as I went from one to the next. Next, I'll go back to The Talisman and Ivanhoe, but I may go more in the order they were written in for the rest.

Os.

I would love a set of the Waverly Novels. Ah, what grandeur and adventure we would have!

I have written to the society and given them a heads up for the 250th anniversary of Walter's birthday.

What a fine moment to do a full set of Waverley novels and anything else for that matter.

I mean, I have given them 12 years notice! Surely they can sort it out in that time?

:-)

I would jump all over a Sir Walter Scott set!

They really should take this suggestion to heart, especially since Easton Press hasn't done a Scott set, other than a few titles. I've been told by an employee that Folio is reluctant to produce sets anymore, because of cost issues. Instead, they like to try out a volume or two and see if they sell. I think the single book try-out will be a dud if they go this way with Scott. They will most likely pick "Ivanhoe," and lots of Folio members will already have a nice copy of this book. Then the book won't sell all that well, and then they'll decide it's not worth doing a set. In my opinion, it's a losing cycle doing it this way, when they try to lead with a popular book that is already heavily produced in quality editions through Easton Press, Franklin Library, etc.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I really like sets. I can understand there is a significant cost factor in Folio taking them on, but I'm much more inclined to "go for it" with familiar authors when I see Folio is publishing them as a set.

Maybe if they offered them as a set for 'x' amount and then broke up the payments equal to the number of volumes. That way at least they would have people committed to the whole set. I can understand their dilemma on produce something like this considering the costs involved. They could also try another model that EP uses which is to send out fliers asking people to commit to purchasing and if they can get enough response they print them, if not, EP sends a notice to the prospective buyers apologizing.

>13 cweller: Both those ideas are great suggestions, cweller. Having people place pre-orders, even a year or more ahead of time, could really give them a strong sense of whether it makes sense to produce these sets or not. And, if we all know that their publication depends on us placing pre-orders, I think lots of members would be inclined to do so. We understand they are running a business and need to be fiscally responsible, and I'm happy to help in any way I can by taking part in surveys, giving feedback on titles I want to see published, and placing pre-orders.

On a side note, I was very disappointed when the Bronte set that Easton Press was going to publish was cancelled. They were kind enough to send me a free copy of "Mrs. Dalloway" to apologize, however, which was a very nice gesture.

#11 "I have given them 12 years notice!" And maybe by then I'll have reduced my To Be Read pile enough to consider them. I actually feel more guilty about the number of unread books I have at home than I do about the amount of backlogged work I have at the office. But three weeks holidays in September with no computer for miles and limited television will hopefully put a good-sized dent in the pile.

As for the sets v. singles question cweller's suggestion of breaking down the cost into the number of volumes would probably entice me to buy more sets. On the other hand it's a lot harder to sneak a full set (is Wikipedia correct that there's 16 Waverley novels?) into the house than say picking up one or two books at a time. My sister's memory isn't as good as it once was so she might forget how many single shipments there were but if the full set arrived at the wrong time--oh dear! ;-)

>15 haniwitch: ...to sneak a full set into the house...

Ahh, but the idea is that you pay one volume per month and receive one volume per month, right?

Os.

Wow...you are lucky, maisonvivante. When I asked them if the Bronte set would be published and how I was looking forward to it, I received a very blunt note back saying NO! I haven't ordered anything from them since.

If the Folio Society were going to do a set of Scott, I'd be tempted to rejoin. But I can't see it happening. The handful of readers who want a full set that looks good on the shelf can easily find a Victorian edition (there are quite a lot on ABEBooks from about 300 euros upwards), and there's the recent Edinburgh University Press edition if you want up-to-date scholarly bells and whistles for the more obscure works. So I should think the market is just about saturated.

The Edinburgh University Press edition is almost complete (scheduled to be completed in the next few months). It is printed on good quality archival paper in a hardback format (not up to FS standards, but superior to most commercial hardbacks). The texts are based on the first editions rather than the usual Magnum Opus edition of 1829-33. There are extensive textual and explanatory notes and introductions, but these are all printed after the main text, which is thus uncluttered. For those who want the accretions of the Magnum Opus edition, Scott's notes for these will be printed in 2 volumes to complete the Edinburgh edition.

> 18

I'm not quite sure I agree with you on these points.

The fact is, many people on here and in the FS membership at large, are interested in the aesthetic qualities of books as well as the literary attributes.

I'm sure many people, unread in the Scott sub-genre, would more than willingly purchase a set based on the reputation of the man and the finesse of the presentation.

Furthermore, I'm sure there are people, perhaps in large numbers in the membership, who prefer not to buy an old set of over a hundred years old or so, or on the other hand, buy a set that is more scholarly in design than artistic.

Just as Macaulay is a handsome set and attractive to those who would not have sought it out, though may buy it; so would a set of Scott's works.

> 11

Oh great joy!

I have just received a lovely email from the Editorial team at FS, saying that I might not have to wait 12 years for SWS after all!

No other hints, but I will, nonetheless let my imagination run riot!

:-)

>20 LesMiserables:,21

I'm sure you're right that there are FS members who would buy a Scott set to have a new, high-quality edition. But I wonder whether there would really be enough. Even if they only do the Waverley novels, that's somewhere between 25 and 30 volumes, which they're unlikely be able to price at less than 40 pounds each. So at least a thousand pounds for the full set. Given that not that many people read Scott nowadays, and that there are alternative editions on offer, my guess would be that they won't get past the five or six best known works. But it would be nice to be proved wrong :-)

I'd be one of those NOT buying Scott. In fact, I wouldn't want him as a gift. Suffered too much as a small child... ;)

Although I think Twain was very unfair in Life on the Mississippi when he blamed Scott for the War Between the States, I think his generally critical attitude has been the one most adopted over time. I certainly wouldn't buy a full set of Scott's novels--even the Waverly novels--but I have the few I enjoy. (Same with J.F.Cooper, often described as America's SWS.)

I'm with LolaWalser on this - I won't be buying any Scott.

Well I will!!!!!!! :-)

I probably would, I'm working my way through them right now and I really enjoy them. Perhaps volumes could be made with more than one novel in it, as older collections were, so as to reduce the number of volumes?

Yeah, I'll be in the "No Scott" group. He is the one writer I risked my GPA over in college; I couldn't even get through the SparkNotes for Ivanhoe! (For the record, I am not proud of this).

I think I'd go for Scott, so long as his is a reasonably priced bunch. :-) LE = no-no.

I've only read Ivanhoe, but really enjoyed it, so would almost certainly buy some Folio Scott, as long as they were a reasonable price (under £35).

Ah! The Yankees are out in force, I observe. ;-)

I'd love an FS set of Scott's Waverley novels. I'm afraid, though, that FS would only produce the 5 or 6 most well known titles, and I already have all of his novels and shorter works, just not in one uniform edition.

There is some disagreement as to what the Waverley novels are. Some put all of Scott's prose fiction into this list, some would exclude the works published as "Tales of My Landlord", "Chronicles of the Cannongate", and "Keepsake Tales", which would result in about 18 works (but would leave out perhaps his best - The Heart of Midlothian. But, somewhere in between, the most common list of Waverley novels would run about 25 works. Even if FS produced these with two novels per volume (as was commonly done in Waverley sets produced in the 1800s), it would still be 12 or 13 volumes. I think for them to make this economically feasible, they would have to tap into Scott fans who are not currently FS customers. And, if they produced it as a single-priced set, they'd scare off a lot of potential buyers, but if they produced one or two at a time, they'd make those of us who are looking for a complete, uniform set pretty nervous about ever seeing the last few volumes.

Perhaps more achievable from FS's standpoint would be a uniform set of his ballad poems - Lady of the Lake, The Lay of the Last Minstrel, and Marmion. I don't know that his other ballads stand up well enough for FS to produce them as well.

That's one more Yank's opinion.

Os.

>32 Osbaldistone: - I'd like to see them done similarly to the Conrad series (not illustration-wise or anything).

>32 Osbaldistone:

Yes, a richly-illustrated set of the narrative poems would be very desirable. And it's the sort of thing that even people with no real interest in reading the poems might be prepared to buy as an object of beauty.

Wouldn't doubling-up the novels to make a 15 volume set leave you with rather un-Foliolike thin paper/small print?

> 34

Doubling up would be a pity: very unlike FS.

I think like the Maturin series, perhaps a handful to start with. Single volumes. Richly illustrated.

Looking forward to seeing what Sir Walter Scott novels they are planning on.

Perhaps a reprint of Rob Roy or an edition of Waverley.

To be honest I would buy any Scott Folio editions.

Still waiting patiently Folio.....

Well not really.

Don't they know......

Scott was the first English-language author to have a truly international career in his lifetime, with many contemporary readers in Europe, Australia, and North America. His novels and poetry are still read, and many of his works remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish literature. Famous titles include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, The Lady of The Lake, Waverley, The Heart of Midlothian and The Bride of Lammermoor. (wiki)

Come on Mole

I find Scott such an odd figure in literature.

There must be very few authors who have had such an enormous impact in their lifetime, and then suffered quite such a fall from popularity afterwards.

As a Scot, living in Edinburgh, I know just how important Scott was and is to my city and my country - much of 'Scottishness' is his creation (or, at least, interpretation). And even in a physical sense, he is a dominant figure in my city: when I get a train anywhere, I travel from Waverley Station, located in the Waverley Valley (both named after his novels), which forms the very heart of the city, in between Old Town and New. And the whole area is dominated (well, setting aside the castle) by the huge, outrageously gothic, Scott Monument, which must surely be one of the most spectacular memorials to a writer anywhere in the world.

And yet I've never read even one of his books! And I barely know anyone who has (for enjoyment at least).

Perhaps some lovingly-crafted Folio editions could be just the thing to tempt me. I really do feel he's a writer I should have read...

I have a Folio Bride of Lamermoor - 1985, very handsome production, woodcuts by Sue Scullard. The only problem with it, besides the fact that I've had it for several years and never read it, is that it comes from the day when Folio printed titles on the spine running from bottom to top instead of top to bottom. If you put the book down with the front facing upward, the title is upside down on the spine.

>39 coynedj:
1) The Bride of Lammermoor is a lot more readable than you would guess from the opera. And a lot funnier.
2) Just shelve it with your German books. German publishers tend to do the upside-down spine title thing.

I read Waverley a few months ago and greatly enjoyed it. I am fully intending to work my way through the whole lot, eventually. A little more daunting is his Life of Napoleon Buonaparte, a first edition of which (1827) I was lucky enough to have been given a few years ago. It's in 9 beautifully-tooled leather-bound volumes, but unfortunately one of them has some loss to the top of the spine.

> 38

Gasp!

38. Yorpa, being Welsh and yet not having read any Dylan Thomas I know exactly how you feel. I really should, but I never have. My reluctance to partake may be due to the fact that my Grandmother, who knew him, used to describe him as a "pig of a man" and once poured a pint of beer over his head. Having said that (largely due to the efforts of the tourist board) he has recently undergone something of a revival in Wales where in the past he had generally been viewed as something of a wastrel. Given our discussion of character vs art over on the Canterbury Tales thread, perhaps if the FS produced a nice volume of "Under Milk Wood" or a collection, rather than the rather drab affair currently available, then I may be tempted.

Removed nonsensical reply and will now go to sleep again.

44> I'm afraid that neither that, nor the red and green previous version is anywhere near nice enough to make me want to set aside my prejudice.

>39 coynedj: Have read (of his novels) Rob Roy, The Heart of Midlothian (possibly his best novel), Waverley (the one that got me hooked to begin with), Redgauntlet, and Guy Mannering. These are listed pretty much in order of historical time-frame. Also read Lady of the Lake and The Lay of the Last Minstrel. Loved them all, and have a plan in place to read most of the remaining novels in historical time-frame order, which means starting with The Talisman.

Scott should be read by a modern reader in large doses, as it takes awhile to adjust to the early 19th century (or older) English and Scots that he uses, and, once you've adapted, you should keep going while it's fresh. But it gets easier pretty quickly, and Scott prepared extensive footnotes in a later edition, and a Scots glossary was commonly included, at least through the 1800s.

I'd be sorely tempted by an FS set, if they include the footnotes and glossary associated with his 'Magnum' edition. However, it would be a tough decision for me, since I spent about three years collecting his complete works in 19th century leather-bound editions, and have always assumed I'd be reading those. Of course, it wouldn't be the first time I've acquired a nice FS illustrated edition of a book I already owned.

Os.

>41 boldface:
Green with envy - I spent a year or so scouring the internet for Scott's 'Bonaparte' to no avail. On the other hand, I don't know if I'd ever carve out the time to read the whole work. Scott went at that project with the energy and thoroughness that he attacked all of his work (building Abbotsford as well as his writing), and it's contemporary nature makes it tempting for a history buff.

Os.

I think Scott's tone has simply been out of fashion for a long time. It may not be that his style is too archaic to be accessible so much as the High Romantic sentiment of his work. Also, tastes now dictate less florid sentences and fewer plot tangents. With the possible exception of Dumas, Scott's artistic descendents (James Fenimore Cooper, for example) appear to have suffered similarly.

However, I observe a trend back towards Scott in popular fiction. Diana Gabaldon, Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir among others have become very popular by treating history in much the same way as Scott, albeit often without the historical or artistic expertise. Even if Scott doesn't return to prominence in popular culture, he will continue to be experienced at least indirectly.

As one who is 3rd gen Canadian but with relatives still living in the Highlands, and wears his "Scottishness" on his sleeve I have read Scot and others (i.e Nigel Trantor). I submit that it helps me somewhat in knowing where I came from and where I might be going. I have read that Diasporan(sp?) Scots may be more "Scottish" than the natives. Any thoughts?

>49 Barton:
"more Scottish than the natives"

Well, I think that's probably what Scott thought:

Breathes there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne’er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored , and unsung.

(Incidentally, I don't believe "Diaspora" has an adjectival form--if anything, it would seem that "Diasporic" would be the most nearly correct form.)

> 50

Also quoted in Groundhog Day :-)

>50 Django6924: Thank you. I was to far from a dictionary at the time.

>50 Django6924:
In the Introduction to that poem, Scott writes of the Borders in the 16th century: "The inhabitants living in a state partly pastoral and partly warlike, and combining habits of constant depredation with the influence of a rude spirit of chivalry, were often engaged in scenes highly susceptible of poetical ornament." — that's Scott in a nutshell, effortlessly moving backwards and forwards between the worst of pompous 19th century stodge and lovely, racy, readable narrative full of lines you quote without even remembering that they're from Scott. If you want to read him (and you should!), you do need to be prepared to put up with the occasional patch of porridge in between the thrilling escapes. I suppose all writers of adventure stories do that, especially those that were as productive as Scott, but Scott at his best is so good that the dreary bits seem extra-dreary.

> 49 "I have read that Diasporan(sp?) Scots may be more "Scottish" than the natives. Any thoughts?"

Impressed as I am with the fact that you've read Scott, I'm afraid I'd have to disagree with you on that aspect! ;) Literature aside perhaps,* I'd say the notion of 'Scottishness' amongst Scots is probably stronger now than it has been for centuries (though this is not necessarily the same thing as support for independence and similar notions).

And of course, much of what defines the more visible aspects of Scottish identity is Scott's creation (or at least adaptation), so perhaps that is where his more lasting legacy lies?

* I suspect these days if you were to ask a Scot to name a famous Scottish writer, their answer would almost certainly be someone like JK Rowling, Alexander McCall Smith, Ian Rankin or Muriel Spark, rather than Scott...

As someone who views his Scottish heritage with some honour I also see "Scottish Nationalism" as something to be held with some trepidation. Nationalism of any sort has an unfortunate tendency to devolve into a narrowminded idea which begets violent and arrogance. This is something which seems to have been proven over and over again across our world. Scottishness in this way is less something to be held with pride as much as a weapon to be used against others no matter who they may be.

I have tried my best to refrain from joining this discussion, but I guess the bate has been taken.

I am a Scot: a relatively new expat now living in Australia.

I am in my early 40s.

I voted Nationalist (SNP) when I was in Scotland and would vote them again now.

I am historically and culturally opposed to belonging to the homogeneous UK: when quite clearly, like the Irish and Welsh we are culturally and politically NOT English or British.

Not so long ago Dublin (and many Dubliners) would have considered themselves as part of Great Britain.....

Now, the idea would be ludicrous. The Irish, unlike the Scots, ejected the unwelcome invaders (yes it was hundreds of years ago) out of their country, more or less (cue the Ulster problem).

The point is. For me Nationalism is a celebration of our culture. Britishness smothers, dilutes and poisons our culture.

This is not being anti-English. It is being pro Scots.

.....................

Scott was a prolific and successful writer!

Two books have been printed by Folio. Scott was the most successful writer in Europe for decades. Two books! Come on Folio.

What more needs to be said?

>56 LesMiserables:
"The Irish, unlike the Scots, ejected the unwelcome invaders"
Perhaps because the union wasn't the result of an invasion?

Whilst I tend to agree with you on much of what you say, I would say the homogeneity is not a consequence of being British, or being a part of the UK, but a result of the very London-centric attitude, and propensity to centralise, of Westminster. There are many countries/states who successfully celebrate their more local cultures and sense of ownership within a broader national framework and, yes, culture.

And many of us ARE British - I am a real mixture of English (about a quarter), Welsh (ditto) and Scottish/Irish (about a half, but too mixed to differentiate out), as is my wife (without the Welsh bit). Her brother's family lives in Scotland, my brothers' families live in Wales and Ireland (we're in England).

I hpe that I am to be proven wrong about nationalism and in this case Scottish nationalism being small minded and vile. I should correct myself in that I feel that this movement of Scottish Nationalism attracts in small part those who are small mindeded. in this it is no different then Little Englandism, Quebecoise purlaine, Russian nationalism... I hope that my point is taken. However I do hear and read that this is not the case. Comments that rudeness and worse towards the English can be justified through the English treatment of William Wallace. That I my humble opinion is not justified. Anyway, this is the last that I will speak of this since this has wondered just a wee bit off topic. LesMis I hope that you will not be too offended by my comments, if so I do apologise to you.

> can be justified through the English treatment of William Wallace

It's an interesting one this one, because who are the English? Many (most) of today's English are not the English of the 14th century. Indeed many (including my own family) will be descended from both sides, and indeed from other 'neutral' lines as well. Similary with Scots - one of the most rabid (and I use that word advisedly!) Scottish nationalists I ever knew, was shocked to find that they were predominantly 'English' by descent.

We're way too much of a mixture to start banging on about what happened 700 years ago (or indeed, less far back). That isn't to say we shouldn't celebrate the cultures we have grown up in, or live in now, but passing the sins of the fathers on to their offspring is a dangerous occupation, especially when all too often we're not sure who exactly those children are!

Having said all that (and I emphasise that I'm not getting at Les Mis, whose comments I almost completely agree with) - to get back to the point. I would also echo Les Mis's comments here - more Scott please!!!!

A really nice edition of Lay of the Last Minstrel would be a treasure. (But no cheesy illustrations, please)

> 57 Perhaps because the union wasn't the result of an invasion?

Well the Scots Union with England with England IS as a result of Invasion and or threat of invasion/bullying.

The medieval to modern history of Scotland is transparent. We were constantly in a state of harassment: trying to protect or reject English from our borders.

> 60

A really well illustrated edition of Waverley would be nice.

>54 Yorpa:
if you were to ask a Scot to name a famous Scottish writer, their answer would almost certainly be someone

Well, if you asked most folks here in the States to name a famous American writer, their answer wouldn't likely be Melville or Hawthorne or any other author from before 1850. The answer to that question says more about popular culture and public education than it does about nationalism, which, as you probably know, runs a bit strong here these days.

Os.

> 63

Exactly.

In Scotland, one might say Rankin or Welsh presently.

>61 LesMiserables:

Some bullying? Yes, although rather more of it was financial greasing of palms (including payment of the Darien affair debt) than threat of invasion. Perhaps not surprising, given what the Scottish Parliament were threatening to do.

I do agree, Scotland spent much of the medieval era under threat of harassment, although it wasn't quite all one way later on. Flodden? The Reivers were certainly mixed, Scottish/English.

Given the nature of Parliament now, and the issue of the West Lothian question, perhaps the Scots are making up for some of that just a little bit now. ;-)

> 65 - "Given the nature of Parliament now, and the issue of the West Lothian question, perhaps the Scots are making up for some of that just a little bit now. ;-)"

Yes, indeed. In this new spirit of equality, I'd like one day to get elected to the Scottish Parliament. ;-)

>64 LesMiserables:
It was more fun about 15 years ago, at the height of Trainspotting fever and before the rise of 'Arripottère and the Detectives, when one could simply say: The most famous Scottish writer is Welsh

>61 LesMiserables:,65
...I seem to remember another famous Scottish writer getting rather worked up about politicians being "bought and sold for English gold".

Getting back to the subject - Scott has quite a lot to say about the Act of Union in The bride of Lammermoor (before) and The heart of Midlothian (after), and probably elsewhere too. Obviously he's a Tory and believes that Scotland is better off united with England, but he makes it clear that the process of achieving union was messy, and a left lot of people on both sides of the border feeingt that they'd been tricked.

>67 thorold:

Well yes. I have just finished The Bride of Lammermoor and it is truly a remarkable book. Tragic of course: worthy of the Opera.

The Union was and is a farse.

Coined by the few for the few.

> 67

I have not read Bride - based on what you say I may give it a try, although Scott can be quite turgid and hard going at times.

I totally disagree with your latter comments about the Union. Save them for a Scottish Nationalist forum Les Mis - this is a book forum.

>69 Quicksilver66:

My comments on the Union, like yours, are opinion. I am of course perfectly entitled to respond to the previous post...in this case the last clause of the last sentence of post #67.

Slàn leat.

> 70

Ok - but let's call it a day !

Getting back on track, with the 250th anniversary of the birth of Scott just over a decade away, I hope the FS get their finger out and seriously get down to the business of presenting us with a lovely portfolio of Scott's works. Scott was a GIANT of literature, yet FS have published two!

I am being hinted to by the FS that I won't have to wait too long for more Scott.

Mole?

> 72

Folio should put some Scott out there, at the very least Ivinghoe and Rob Roy (or all the Waverley novels). I believe there is a market for him.

>73 Quicksilver66:

They have published Rob Roy and The Bride of Lammermoor which I have.

Of related interest - Hillary Mantel's "Wolfe Hall" recently won the inaugural Walter Scott historical fiction prize. I think if this prize becomes an ongoing event, it will help increase the visibility of Scott's works, especially leading up to his 250th birth anniversary.

Os.

> 75 Wolf Hall seems to divide opinion like marmite. Having just finished it, I fall squarely into the 'absolutely brilliant' camp.

I just finished reading KENILWORTH for pleasure and what a fantastic tale! Owen Wister made reference to it in his novel THE VIRGINIAN and I had to pick it up. Walter Scott knows how to write an adventure story like few authors I've encountered! I would absolutely adore a Folio Society edition of the Waverly novels. Can I preorder now?

> 77

Me too!

Of related interest - Hillary Mantel's "Wolfe Hall" recently won the inaugural Walter Scott historical fiction prize.
Looking at the shortlist, it was an excellent year for historical fiction. I'm also in the camp that thinks Wolf Hall is brilliant, but several of the others would have made worthy winners in other years.

I know it's not Folio, but I just have to show this to somebody (I don't personally know many people who are as passionate about books as I am!) and I thought you lot would understand. I just purchased a complete set of Waverley novels on ebay for an insane price, just £50 for 25 volumes including delivery.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360301740895&ssPage...

Not sure if this think will work but they are the centenary edition from 1871, I can't believe it!

> 80

Magic!

>80 Witchylady333:
Well spotted!

It's obviously not a super-duper luxury edition, but it looks to be in perfectly good reading condition, and for that price...

Very good value. I also picked up this edition (except it was in a half leather binding) a few years ago for £50. It has all Scott's notes and some beautiful steel engravings. Recommended.

Awesome, glad to hear I got a good edition, though it sounds like you got an even bigger bargain with your half leather bindings! I know they're not fine editions but I love the little flourish on the front cover and they'll do me till I win the lottery and can afford the full leather mint condition versions for £8k on Abebooks!

>85 EclecticIndulgence: Do you mean Andrew Lang?

Yes, the Waverley novels can be read separately. They are not a series in the conventional sense. They are only referred to as the Waverley novels because they were published anonymously until quite late on in the series, and were simply referred to as "by the author of Waverley" (which was the first in the series).

I love Scott, but he has been unfashionable for a long time now so his work is largely neglected. I would recommend starting with Waverley, Redgauntlet, Rob Roy and The Bride of Lammermoor. Three of those four have been published by FS.

EDIT: This link may help in comparing copper and steel engravings.

http://www.antiqueprints.com/Info/engraving.php

A short extract states "with copper engravings areas of parallel lines are further apart, the lines look heavier and the impression has an overall softer, warmer feel. Steel engravings have an almost silvery feel, the parallel and cross-hatched lines are much closer together and sharper"

I have a personal fondness for woodcuts. One of my most treasured FS publications is Thomas Bewick's two-volume History of British Birds which I can happily peruse for hours on end. It has over 500 illustrations of Bewick's wood engravings which are simply beautiful.

>85 EclecticIndulgence:
I've built a series of Waverley Novels in order of the period in which the story takes place. Though the novels each stand alone, you may get a better overall sense of the historical period and language by reading a few from a similar period in historical chronological order. For example, you might start with Rob Roy, followed by The Heart of Midlothian and Waverley. You'll get a good idea of the early 1700's Scottish/English troubles, get used to the Scots dialect, and will have read three of his best.

I've built another series listing the Waverley Novels in publication order. Generally, his earlier novels were his best, though Kennilworth is, for most folks, an exception. I also think he's best when writing about Scotland and closer to his own time period, but that's just me.

Scott, being a very early novelist, will not read like 20th century novels. You definately need to to give him about 100 pages, as he spends quite a bit of time building the scene and introducing characters before much action takes place. But I found that I appreciated his work as I read more, and find them quite enjoyable. Look for an edition with his footnotes and glossary, though. His Scots English glossaries at the end of many of his novels are quite helpful, unless you're pretty familiar with it already.

Os.

>85 EclecticIndulgence:
As you've made it through Ivanhoe, you might now want to read Rebecca and Rowena, a parody by William Makepeace Thackeray with illustrations by the brilliant Richard Doyle. ;-)

Awww, poor, old Thackeray (I have to admit that I like him much better than Dickens). But in contrast to "Vanity Fair", "Rebecca & Rowena" is short and sweet. Really.

>5 Osbaldistone:

Os You Will Be Pleased To Know That Abbotsford Has Gone Through A Service And Will Be Returning In Probably A Much Better Condition Than When You Encountered It.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22641169

PS no Idea What's Going on With My Key Board Capitalising Every Word :-(

>91 LesMiserables:

I'm very much looking forward to going when I'm next up there, LesMis. I was in the area last summer and it was frustrating to find it was closed. However, after the restoration everything should now be looking at its best.

I feel there will be a revival in the works of WS in the coming years. The argument around antiquated language is understandable but superficial. Like any book from a period other than one's own, it will initially appear foreign, but that quickly passes within a matter of pages. What a pity it would be to pass on the treasury of Scott for such a trivial entrance fee.

>93 LesMiserables:

Nicely put, LesMis. He's certainly long overdue for a revival. I've recently started working my way through the new (well, it's recently been completed after 20 years) set from EUP.

>91 LesMiserables:
LesMis,

First, I had just posted a note to another FS devotee who had not been heard from in awhile (remember Iriesa, who was 14 when she joined LT?) when I then clicked on this thread and was taken aback to see a post from "LesMiserables"! Good to hear from you.

Second, I had heard a couple of years ago that the estate was now in the hands of the Abbotsford Trust. I was quite relieved to hear that. Spurred by your post, I just did a quick visit of their website http://www.scottsabbotsford.co.uk/ and was quite amazed at what's taken place, including the £10M they've raised for the Trust. I'm especially pleased that Scott's 9,000+ volume library will be better protected and cared for now, though it's also possible that, if they can't control the conditions in the library and study, it will be moved to the Advocates Library for long-term preservation. That would be a shame in one sense, but, if necessary, it should be done.

Well, I thought that our first overseas trip after I am fully employed again would be Ireland, but now I'll be pretty keen on another visit to Scotland. We've only been to the borders area and I've also been to the western isles, so there's plenty of reasons to go back again. I doubt we'll be staying in the new accommodations being prepared in what was the private quarters. Sounds like they'll be quite nice and quite pricey.

Again, good to hear from you again, and thanks for the info.

Os.

P.S.
Don't know if you've seen this, but I read it a few months back and thought it was something a Scott fan would enjoy. A bit more accessible than reading his complete journal, though that's still on my to-read list - Scott on Himself

I also read this past year Scott-Land, by Stuart Kelly, which you'd probably enjoy quite a bit as well.

I reviewed both, so you can see my opinions if you care to.

> 95

The Scott-Land volume is one I will get at some point. Thanks for the link.
He would have loved this recent find and probably crafted a novel from it...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-22734279

F.S. SALE - WAVERLEY 50%

Waverley is 41% off here - still a sale but not 50... I wonder if they are doing marketing tests again or it is based on region.

> 98

Waverley is 41% off in ROW. Not a bad discount but I already have the book.

#97-99
41% in Canada too. Unfortunately this was one of my buy-as-soon-as-it-comes-out books so it's been sitting on my shelf for a while now.

Thats weird I could have sworn it was 50%. Must have been the Cabernet Merlot.

Not FS!!! But I just bought a second edition of Lockhart's Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Robert Cadell, Edinburgh, 1839, in Safffron Walden for £25 the 10 vol. set. The half leather bindings are a little scuffed, but the text blocks are pristine - no marks, no toning, no foxing. All page edges marbled and marbled endpapers. I feel like my wife with a new handbag.

>102 boldface:
Jonathan, now that takes me back! I was a GP in Saffron Walden in 1975, way before I knew that the FS existed. A lovely town and community.

>103 wcarter:

I don't know if you can view this recent TV programme online in Oz...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b021n2rg/TOWN_with_Nicholas_Crane_Series_2_...

>104 Polar_bear:
Unfortunately the BBC restrict this to UK viewers only :-(

>105 wcarter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLekEyIZy-8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

>106 LesMiserables:
Thanks Les Mis. Interesting video that took me back to a former existence. The old times, they are a changing.

> 107

By the way, there is a 'work-around' that you can use to watch bbc iview here in Australia. I have heard one of my daughters talking about her friend who lives here and is a Dr Who addict, who regularly accesses it.

I hope you don't mind bringing to your attention a little group I have started and intend to nurture, which concerns classic Scottish prose and poetry.

http://www.librarything.com/groups/albagubrth

Despite the title it is not intended to be singularly nationalistic nor opposed to anything non Scottish. Rather I hope it to be a reserve for those who wish to discuss, comentate and celebrate the likes of Burns, Scott, Stevenson. So in one respect it looks to the past but otherwise I hope to look forward to rekindle the enthusiasm for what I consider a neglected national genre in some of you excellent people.
Thanks

>109 LesMiserables:
Hmmm. If you're going to celebrate Burns, Scott and Stevenson, you might do better with a Scots name rather than a Gaelic one. As it stands, it sounds like a group devoted to Ossian and Sorley MacLean.

What about "A parcel of rogues"?

110

Well I guess since its my concoction I might have the opportunity to label it. I'm unclear on your intent in your interrogative, but I politely request that you offer dissent, disdain or displeasure through non acknowledgement, perhaps sending me to Coventry rather than being condescending.
Thanks.

>111 LesMiserables:
Sorry, I didn't mean to sound condescending. I do think it's a worthwhile subject for a group, the name just struck me as rather incongruous when none of the three authors you mention comes from the Gaelic-speaking side of Scottish culture.

Posted on http://www.librarything.com/topic/193462 regarding a nice copy of Heart of Midlothian

Any suggestions? Here or there is fine.

Re #11

Half way there. Only 6 years out from the 250th Anniversary of Sir Walter Scott's birth. What a sublime opportunity for Folio, on this approaching magnificent landmark, to publish a set of his canonical works.

>114 LesMiserables:

I agree, but Scott's novels are not very widely read any more outside literature courses. Undeserved, I know, but I don't really hold out many hopes that Folio would publish the entire series, at least unless a huge publicity campaign is launched now by some interested body to convince the general public of Scott's undoubted excellence. Maybe we could realistically expect a set of half a dozen of the most iconic, but Anne of Geierstein? I don't think so!

>115 boldface:
That's quite shocking for me to learn. It was even more shocking to find out that if you search for "Walter Scott" (without the 'Sir') in the US version of google, not a single link on the first page has anything to do with Sir Walter! Even "Walter Scott wiki" shows his wiki page as only the third result. At least google.co.uk brings him up...

My perception of Scott was quite the opposite - popular entertainment, something you would find on boys' shelves, not something to study in literature courses! Ivanhoe, Quentin Durward, Rob Roy were popular books for boys in Russia when I was growing up. Even now there are plenty of his books in print, including fine and limited editions and collections:

http://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/4587120
http://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/3446862
http://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/6272924
http://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/31346046

115, 116

Perhaps from 5 years out, releasing two Waverley novels a year as a part of set.

>116 elladan0891:

No shortage of choice in Russia, then. Alas, here, apart from paperbacks, the only recent complete edition of the Waverley novels is that from Edinburgh University Press, recently completed after the issue of a volume or two a year since the early 1990s.

This is a hardback set printed on archival paper but it's no FS edition - no illustrations except facsimile title pages. But it does have scholarly notes and essays, which are usefully confined to the back of the book without marks in the text. It also reproduces the first edition texts, as opposed to the last so-called "Magnum Opus" texts which were the last to be overseen by Scott himself and on which nearly all modern editions up to now have been based. However, Scott's additional notes and introductions from the Magnum Opus edition are contained in the two final Edinburgh volumes. EUP have also announced a similar complete edition of Scott's poetical works.

There are, of course, many vintage sets of the Waverley Novels available on the second-hand market. The Centenary Edition of 1871 (and later reprints) in 25 volumes has steel engravings, mainly of landscape locations from the novels, and is usually not too expensive.

The larger format Border Edition (1892-4) has over 250 "new and original etchings by Eminent Artists" and was edited, with additional notes from the Magnum Opus edition, by Andrew Lang. It was issued in 48 volumes in both standard and deluxe versions, the latter being a limited edition on special paper. There was also an issue in 24 volumes.

As the Pratchett fans are going wild with the release of one of his books from his series, I'm increasingly concerned that the Folio Society have taken a definitive turn down the vogue fork in the road. Anyway with Sir Walter Scott, I hope they have something lined up for just over 5 years time. I mean mole, I started this thread T- 12 years out! The paltry amount they have published so far is far from adequate, and without coming across as a literary snob, as I'm not, when compared to some of the drivel that has been published, I wonder if the editorial team have forgotten that they are meant to be publishing carefully crafted editions of the world’s finest literature.

With the number of books they are publishing lately, there is enough space both for classical works and for newer works. :) And even current titles can be part of the finest literature.

>120 AnnieMod:

And even current titles can be part of the finest literature.

Fair point, but a contentious one :-) I'm unwilling to apply that label to all that Folio publish. It is much better to see what legs a book has, over an extended period of time and be wholly conservative in selections.

Unfortunately I can't think of a single work of Scott that would be likely to shift 500 copies of an LE in a day.

I lately finished reading The Antiquary for about the tenth time, with quite as much relish as ever before, and it occurred to me that a part of the reason, though not the whole reason, for my being better acquainted with it than with anything else from Scott's pen was the edition of it that I've mostly read, Constable's 1895-6 reprint with the 1829 introductions and notes. Volumes that sit lightly in the hand, print that's quite large and clear and graceful, paper with hardly a trace of foxing after 120 years. I've long possessed a lesser complete Scott and various stray volumes including the few Folio ones, but nothing except The Antiquary from that 1895-6 printing, and the time had come to put that right. So, for the price of maybe five or six volumes if the FS were to take up their responsibility, I now have the Waverley Novels in 48, in a format I distinctly prefer.

That's part of the trouble, I expect: not so very many folk minded to read Scott at all, and for anyone who is there's still not much difficulty in procuring single works or everything at once in a choice of more or less agreeable editions, or the EUP one with full critical apparatus for anybody disposed to make the outlay. The returns from publishing Waverley, and Rob Roy before it, presumably won't have excited Folio's accountants, whose role in determining the publishing programme seems an ever growing one.

>122 terebinth:

Thanks and interesting points. Well I have written to the society editorial team today, reminding them of such the Scott 250 landmark. I hope they do engage. Many folk have never read Scott simply because they have not been tempted. Folio do that very well.

>121 LesMiserables:

"Tastes differ" said the dog and licked its behind. (as a Bulgarian saying goes) :)

They do not publish 12 books per year but over 70. There will be books for everyone - and if they want the young generation to notice them and embrace them, they need to risk with newer books. Old companies can survive and keep doing their work as usual only if they also embrace the market and find a way to make money.

I am very happy that they are venturing in both the crime and SF/F/H fields. I like my classics but I also like newer literature and even though I do have my usual publishers for both, Folio is always welcome.

>124 AnnieMod:

Yes, there is room for different tastes but exactly does the world’s finest literature. I mean there must be some benchmark, or is it just a whimsical whatever?

>125 LesMiserables:

Depends on the definition of fine after all. I like their taste in my genres and I consider these some of the "fine" books in them. Someone may think that Dickens is not "fine literature" (of course that person probably is not the target of FS but still). Taste is subjective and while there is some agreement on what constitutes "fine" in the books that are at least a few decades old, newer books are harder to gauge. And coshing not to publish new will get them nowhere - this way someone can come for King for example and stay for Dickens. If King was not published, the someone may never decide to spend the money for the rest.

As long as they keep publishing stuff I like, I do not care what else they are publishing - they do publish too much to be able to buy all anyway so it comes down to selection. :)

PS: Despite my modern reading inclinations, I'd be the first to go for a complete set of Walter Scott. Or anything by Charles Lever for example. ;)

>124 AnnieMod: I agree, and love the Bulgarian expression!

>125 LesMiserables: Folio seems to be good at asking what members want. The works of Sir Walter Scott must definitely be candidates for the 'world's finest literature', but even great writers move in and out of fashion. How many now read George Meredith, huge in his day and lauded for his plots by E M Forster? Presumably too few members have requested Scott in recent years.

>125 LesMiserables:
It's an interesting debate. I'm not saying your view is wrong, but there are other views. Literature isn't static, and there are numerous writers whose current / recent work is profound, original, challenging, engaged in dialogue with "the canon", creating new perspectives, or celebrating old ones. I accept there is a "test of time" standard that can be applied at the top level, but equally there are plenty of classic works (some now very old) whose appearance was immediately hailed as significant or momentous.

Folio's output is increasingly diverse, and my own taste is sufficiently catholic, such that I can almost always find something of interest and tolerate the stuff that doesn't appeal to me. We all have our particular niches and favourites, who we would dearly love to see given the Folio imprimatur. They are at least regularly asking (as cronshaw says above) and are quite open about wanting unsolicited suggestions as well (via our own member pages).

I wonder if Scott is a little too far out of fashion at present. I agree that such an anniversary should be marked in some way. Has he got the "clout" to warrant a full programme like the one you suggest? - personally, and reading other comments here, I doubt it. Is there a landmark life of Scott? That might be a good anniversary edition.

I have absolutely no disagreement over the inclusion of a wide range of modern literature, including previously under-represented genres such as science fiction and fantasy, neither of which I can be described as a fan of (although recent purchases include the Wyndham trilogy and Dune).

However, I have some considerable sympathy with LesMis, and do think that the pendulum has swung overmuch the opposite way, so much so that whilst regarding myself as a fairly eclectic reader, unlike ian-curtin I'm struggling to find new FS fiction which for me warrant buying at the prices charged for new collections, and have done for the past couple of years. I think I've bought three of these since the change in membership system (Parade's End, Radetzky March and Paradise Lost).

As for Sir Walter Scott, I would agree with LesMis: the publication of more of his books is long overdue.

>123 LesMiserables:

I wonder whether British literature will ever have its equivalent of the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade or the Library of America, in practice more or less a public service publisher whose active remit is to put in print and keep in print the finest works (and perhaps a few other things besides) in well-edited, pleasant and durable form. It's hard for me to imagine such a series failing to present Scott's works in their entirety. The Folio Society isn't that publisher, and does seem to be moving ever further from such a role, but, as you say, it's good at tempting people to look at authors they've disregarded, Somehow Scott acquired the reputation of providing the dreariest or least "relevant" part of many an undergraduate's compulsory reading. I wonder how many English undergraduates - surely every Scottish one, or I despair - are still required to read him at all. Ah well... I hope the FS will come up trumps and respond with some worthy celebration of the great man's quarter-millennium.

>130 terebinth:

I think modern universities are exactly the worst kind of barometer for measuring good literature. You would have to find one of the very few that offer a Great Books type syllabus.
I have read a few Scott and they all are quite simply excellent: fully developed and contextualised narratives that excite and pull at the heart. The development and contextualisation are the elements that modern readers can't abide now: okay don't shoot me, but they are lazy, skimming type readers who give up if they can't find the answer by CTRL+F. I'm not referring to FSDs but students in general who have been poisoned by technology.

All it would take to jumpstart excitement in Scott's work *today* would be a couple of good film renditions. Introduce some of his stories to the young generation in a format that gets their attention and it'll generate the necessary demand for new, fine printings. Easier said than done, sure, but it would work.

>132 treereader:

Well that is true and it would be interesting to see whether readings of Rob Roy 1995 (Liam Neeson, Jessica Lange) rose after release? Catalogued items on LT only go back to 2005, so that's no help. And Goodreads is only back to 2015.

My first reaction when I saw all the excitement about Mort was almost identical to >119 LesMiserables: - but then it occurred to me that we'd have been grumbling in almost exactly the same terms if we'd been around in the 1830s and the Folio society of the time had been rushing out LEs of some insanely-popular and recently-deceased Edinburgh genre-novelist instead of the much-needed definitive set of Defoe or Smollett (whom George Orwell called "Scotland's greatest novelist" in an essay that doesn't even mention Scott)...

If we're fair, the only really important difference between Pratchett and Scott is that Pratchett is still popular. Otherwise, they are both prolific best-selling genre writers who wrote piles of mediocre - but consistently competent and entertaining - stuff, almost accidentally managing half a dozen or so really good novels along the way. And we can argue ad nauseam about which the good ones are...

> 134
Scott...piles of mediocre?

Well ok then....

>134 thorold:

"I fancy it is not beyond the mark to add, that of the eminent foreigners who visited our island within this period, a moiety crossed the Channel mainly in consequence of the interest with which his writings had invested Scotland - and that the hope of beholding the man under his own roof was the crowning motive with half that moiety. As for countrymen of his own, like him ennobled, in the higher sense of that word, by the display of their intellectual energies, if any one such contemporary can be pointed out as having crossed the Tweed, and yet not spent a day at Abbotsford, I shall be surprised" - J.G. Lockhart.

I'm intrigued by your comparison, and it's possible that Terry Pratchett's popularity, though it's never likely to be as nearly universal among readers as Scott's once was, may follow a similar trajectory over the next couple of centuries as Sir Walter's has over the last . As far as I know, though, it would have been quite hard to rake together very many 1830s readers at all disposed to hark back to the glories of Smollett and Defoe whilst being sniffy about Scott. Sniffiness about Scott arguably took a century or so to reach its peak, perhaps in the Leavis generation.

>136 terebinth: ...and yet not spent a day at Abbotsford

Hmm. Yes, writing about a real place and (even better) building a castle there does stimulate the literary tourism business. Maybe that was Pratchett's mistake.
I wouldn't take Lockhart's numbers as gospel, mind you: he had a vested interest in talking up the Scott industry.

>137 thorold:

I was moved to wonder as to the view of Scott held by Walter Savage Landor, a contemporary who as far as I know was not a personal friend and never even made the pilgrimage to Abbotsford ;) The curiosity led me to a letter from fairly late in Landor's life, March 1850, quoted by his first biographer Forster.

"I have been reading Scott's Kenilworth, and think I shall prefer it, on a second reading, either to the Bride of Lammermoor or my old favourite, The Heart of Midlothian. It appears to me now to be quite a fine epic. We ought to glory in such men as Scott. The Germans would; and so should we, if hatred of our neighbour were not the religion of authors, and warfare the practice of borderers. Keats is our Ariel of poetry, Scott our Prospero. The one commands, the other captivates: the one controls all the elements, the other tempers and enlivens them..."

It's hard to overestimate Scott's standing in the literary world of his day, though Lockhart may on occasion have managed the feat. Now, if you'd brought forth, say, Mrs. Radcliffe as a parallel to our Pratchett-related enthusiasms and discontents, I'd have to acknowledge a striking case for declaring plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

>138 terebinth:
If Landor really thought Kenilworth better than The Heart of Midlothian, he must have started going senile earlier than is generally reported...

Tush, thorold.

> 139

How very droll.

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned above at all, but the Limited Editions Club published some very nice editions of Scott's works (letterpress, nice bindings, commisioned illustrations etc, for those not familiar with the LEC) and they can mostly be had for less than £50 in quite decent condition.

>142 HuxleyTheCat:

They certainly did. I picked up Kenilworth not long ago to add to my modest (well, Shakespeare aside) complement of LEC titles. I'll probably not add any more LEC Scott volumes now I'm possessed of the little Constables as related in post 122, but I don't much doubt they would be a fine quarry for a Scott-loving book collector.

I dusted off my FS Hours in a Library and looked up what Leslie Stephen had to say in 1899 about Sir Walter Scott. Here are just the first few lines or so...

The question has begun to be asked about Scott which
is asked about every great man : whether he is still read or
still read as he ought to be read. I have been glad to see
in some statistics of popular literature that the Waverley
Novels are still among the books most frequently bought at
railway stations, and scarcely surpassed even by ' Pickwick,'
or ' David Copperfield.' A writer, it is said, is entitled to be
called a classic when his books have been read for a century
after his death. The number of books which fairly satisfies
that condition is remarkably small. There are certain
books, of course, which we are all bound to read if we make
any claim to be decently educated. A modern Englishman
cannot afford to confess that he has not read Shakespeare
or Milton ; if he talks about philosophy, he must have
dipped at least into Bacon and Hobbes and Locke ; if he is
a literary critic, he must know something of Spenser and
Donne and Dryden and the early dramatists ; but how
many books are there of the seventeenth century which are
still read for pleasure by other than specialists ? To speak
within bounds, I fancy that it would be exceedingly difficult
to make out a list of one hundred English books which
after publication for a century are still really familiar to the
average reader. Something like ninety-nine of those have
in any case lost the charm of novelty, and are read, if read
at all, from some vague impression that the reader is doing
a duty. It takes a very powerful voice and a very clear utter-
ance to make a man audible to the fourth generation. If
something of the mildew of time is stealing over the Waver-
ley Novels, we must regard that as all but inevitable. Scott
will have succeeded beyond any but the very greatest, per-
haps even as much as the very greatest, if, in the twentieth
century, now so unpleasantly near, he has a band of faithful
followers, who still read because they like to read and not
because they are told to read.

>144 LesMiserables:

Very perceptive, not least in his fears for the twentieth century!

Well, at least all the Waverley Novels are still in print in hardback - just not from the Folio Society.

>145 boldface:
Well, at least all the Waverley Novels are still in print in hardback - just not from the Folio Society.

It is a testament to Scott for just that his works live on, bridging the last two centuries. It would be nice of course if Folio would recognise this.

>147 EclecticIndulgence:

From C.U.P. Description Contents Resources Courses About the Authors
This three-volume set brings together a diverse selection of essays by Sir Leslie Stephen (1832–1904), author, philosopher and literary critic. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, he was the founding editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. He wrote critiques of many authors and works, which were published in periodicals such as the Cornhill Magazine (of which he was editor from 1871), Fraser's Magazine and the Fortnightly Review. Stephen sets each writer's work in its historical context, comparing it to that of other significant authors of its era and evaluating its philosophical and moral qualities. His articles, which discuss writers as diverse as Sir Thomas Browne and Walter Savage Landor, or Samuel Richardson and Charlotte Brontë, remain of great interest to scholars of early modern, Romantic and Victorian literature http://www.cambridge.org/se/academic/subjects/literature/english-literature-1830...

I do like these volumes. Albeit, in the end, you get Stephen's assessment as a literary critic of his particular subject, you get much more: biographical sketches, literary context, historical and political contexts. So they are therefore rather comprehensive and enlightening, for me at least. I think the reason why these volumes are plentiful is precisely because of what we have been discussing above; that the authors examined, are not as widely read as once they were, which is a pity of course. It may be because I am a traditional conservative reader that I find these volumes so fascinating, opening up new areas of reading that otherwise might have remained hidden to me.

>148 LesMiserables:

Thank you Stephen. That's now in my wishlist. What does colophon of the FS edition of Hours in a Library state. Trying to see how the Cambridge Library Collection version compares.

"The essays in Hours in a Library were first published in the Cornhill and Fraser's magazines and in the Fortnightly Review. They were first collected in book form in three volumes published in 1874, 1876 and 1879. The text of the second three-volume edition of 1892, which included additional essays, has been followed here.

Introduction {c} The Folio Society Ltd 1991.

Set in Linotron Sabon by Fakenham Photosetting Ltd. Printed in Great Britain at the Bath Press, Avon on Monument Wove paper, and bound there in full buckram. Design by Caroline Archer."

It does seem among the easier of Folio Society sets to find and, after finding, pay for. My own, near-fine but for slightly foxed page edges, set me back £3.20 plus £7.50 postage in 2013.

>149 ironjaw: FS edition of Hours in a Library

To give another idea of price there one on eBay.co.uk, expiring this afternoon, for £15.95 BIN including postage.

Fantastic, thank you all.

Good work. Beat me to it. Very nice volumes too, aesthetically speaking,.

> 133

I should think it did. I can't be the only one who follows up the finishing of some novel with a viewing of at least its best-known or most well-done film, when available. The reverse is also true in that when I come across a good film, I'll read the book from which it was based.

I would love to see the FS publish more Scott. He was one of the giants of imaginative literature - a real romantic with a great imaginative mind. His "fall from grace", if one can call it that, is inexplicable - although there are signs of a Scott revival.

I came across an unknown Scott title when I was browsing in Southerans in London a few weeks ago - Scott's Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft. Not a work of fiction but a series of letters in which Scott discourses on various occult topics (and dismisses them of course). It looked fascinating and is just the sort of eccentric and oddball title that I like. I would love to see a Folio edition.

ABE UK has quite a few copies of 'Hours in a Library' with one in 'As New' condition for £5.00.

>155 Quicksilver66:

Yes, he had a breadth of knowledge which was the foundation for his novels. It is quite startling to me how some folk complain of his lengthy introductions. These are great lessons in historical and political circumstances directly relevant to his plots.

http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/works/prose/witchcraft.html
http://www.online-literature.com/walter_scott/demonology-and-witchcraft/

I've read only a few of his works, 'Ivanhoe' following a visit to Conisborough castle and 'Rob Roy' after watching the film. I found them hard going at first but enjoyed them once I got into the groove.
I found the most entertaining volume related to him to be 'A memoir of Sir Walter Scott' by James Hogg, published in 1987 by FS. It's no hagiography but Scott comes out of it as a character that would be great to have at a party. One wonders, as Hogg does, how he found time to write so prolifically.

>159 LesMiserables:
One wonders, as Hogg does, how he found time to write so prolifically.

I fear his output was driven by financial obligation after the Crash of 1825 when three score banks went under in England alone, but this was truly a Global Financial Crisis. As the financial interest in Ballantyne Publishers, they amongst other big publishers went down.

"Many of the old order of British publishers, those responsible for the mainstays of literary ‘high’ Romanticism, such as John Murray, Constable and Ballantyne, Taylor and Hessey, and Hurst and Robinson were severely shaken if not undone by the crisis. Romantic-era publishers were in the habit of paying their authors handsomely for their labours—as was their gentlemanly due—sometimes in the realm of hundreds of guineas, and often extended credit at terms much lower than those of the banks. To defray these advances, the publishers themselves were frequently in debt to prominent bankers and, at times, less than scrupulous creditors. As a result, when the banking crisis came, the publishers found themselves unwittingly caught in the downward spiral." http://www.branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=alexander-j-dick-on-the-financial-c...

I'm bumping this thread specifically for Mole.

Found this interesting site on illustrations used in Scott's novels.
http://illustratingscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/index.html

I've only read Ivanhoe but I would certainly be interested in reading more Scott.

> 162
Same here.

>162 sviswanathan:
>163 treereader:

You're in luck - Folio have previously published Waverley and Rob Roy. You'll pick them up cheaply enough on the secondary market.

>164 folio_books:

And The Bride of Lammermoor. It's still a thin selection, but now that I think of it the programme is accelerating: it took them 37 years to publish a first Scott title, then 16 to the second, then 10 to the third. Maybe something next Autumn, for a seven year gap this time? ;)

>165 terebinth:

Lamentable, but we must move forward!

I guess Folio will never publish anything close to the EUP volumes so I reckon that that will have to be road I will have to go down.

>166 LesMiserables:

You may know this already, but just to say that the EUP set prints the earliest editions, i.e. without the copious notes Scott wrote for the collected "Magnum Opus" edition which have been included in every other edition since. There are a few word changes too where Scott made later revisions. However, the last two EUP volumes print the Magnum notes all together. Also, the texts are presented "clean", with all editorial matter, footnotes, etc., relegated to the back of each book.

Hi Jonathan, yes I read that in >19 boldface: above (8 years ago!)
I see they are selling the whole set on EUP for £1,880.00 https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-edinburgh-edition-of-the-waverley-...

It's on the expensive side per volume although there is a bulk discount in the set, but I'm sure it's worth it. I'll just have to see if I have the funds, which is another story altogether.

>166 LesMiserables:

I may possibly buy one of those one day. The background material would certainly be of interest, but for a reading edition I'm perfectly happy to have Scott's introductions from the Magnum Opus edition in place at the head of each novel, and his sometimes lengthy notes at the end of each chapter, rather than all bundled off into two additional hefty volumes.

As with Henry James, for whom I turned to the LOA after a couple of Folio purchases, life isn't even close to being long enough to wait for the FS to publish as much as I'm minded to read. In Scott's instance we're blessed by his popularity having been more or less unrivalled in the past and not nearly so evident now: there are so many wonderful old sets of the novels awaiting homes at less than extortionate prices.

Walter Savage Landor is another such drug on the market, and has been for a long time. I think I remember reading George Macy, Limited Editions Club founder, saying that their selection of Landor's Imaginary Conversations was among the twelve finest books the LEC had published, and among the twelve hardest to sell. I'd long coveted the 1927-36 edition of Landor in sixteen large volumes, on excellent paper, bound in buckram and limited to 525 sets, and could hardly believe my good fortune when that came my way for £50. His many strong advocates among writers over the years - Ezra Pound and George Moore come to mind - seem never to have won him many readers, or a place on any modern syllabus. Then, who reads George Moore these days? It's a good thing I'm not in charge of the Folio Society's publishing programme, it would be doomed...

>169 terebinth:

I have capitalised on the LOAs treatment of Henry James. I have currently 15 volumes, all uniform, authoritative text.

>170 LesMiserables:

I'm only two volumes behind you, but may need to go into retreat for a year or so if I'm ever to read them all.

>168 LesMiserables: "Hi Jonathan, yes I read that in >19 boldface: boldface: above (8 years ago!)"

Yes, I do tend to bang on . . . and on!

>172 boldface:

Not so. :-) Merely highlighting the maturity of this thread!

>87 Osbaldistone:

Os, you may be interested in a recent correspondence I had with an academic of the Acquisition and Scottish Literary Collections department of Edinburgh University Library, regarding the best way to approach Scott, or indeed a reading strategy of which novels to read in what order. I happened to mention your suggestion you mentioned in #87 and considered you might be interested in his reply...

Well, I should have remembered that there was a fairly recent collection of essays entitled ‘Approaches to Teaching Scott’s Waverley Novels’, ed. Evan Gottlieb and Ian Duncan (Modern Language Association of America, 2009). It’s my impression, though, that the contributors’ focus is more on finding a place for Scott on the contemporary academic curriculum and overcoming students’ resistance by setting his work in contexts with which they might be more familiar. I don’t think anyone considers the question of an ideal reading order. Your acquaintance’s suggestion certainly makes a lot of sense in terms of familiarizing oneself with the language and the historical background to the major Scottish novels. I could, however, imagine some Scott scholars insisting, for example, that one should Waverley before Rob Roy as Rob Roy revisits some of the same themes from a more disillusioned perspective, or that one ought to read the novels on the Reformation (The Abbot, The Monastery) and the religious wars of the 17th century (Old Mortality, A Legend of Montrose) for a fuller understanding of the historical context … Outside of the classroom I think it all depends on one’s own interests and personal perspective. If you do follow that particular order, though, I think it’s worth expanding the trilogy into a Jacobite quartet and following Waverley with Redgauntlet.

...The idea of a reading order did bring around some pause for reflection on how the academic part of the Scott readership would respond to the suggestion of the 'ideal' approach...

As all but two of the Waverley Novels (The Monastery and its sequel The Abbot) are self-standing works with no recurring characters, I ‘m not sure that I could make an argument for reading them in any particular order. In terms of the development of Scott’s themes, it might perhaps make sense to read them in order of publication, but I think that most Scott scholars or enthusiasts just follow their personal line of interest (Scottish novels, medieval novels, novels set abroad, etc.). It certainly doesn’t look as if any established Scott expert has ever recommended an order of reading. If you like, I could put the question to the main discussion list for Scott scholars but I expect it would provoke a lively discussion with no general agreement! I certainly don’t think there’s any harm in just dipping into them at random.

Regardless, the idea of even considering anything other than reading Scott in line with date of publication, may appear to be tinkering around the edges of what should just be a straightforward and enjoyable endeavour. However the recent conversation with EclecticIndulgence on Rob Roy had me considering how best to evangelise the new generation of Scott readers, who may just give up before they discover the brilliance of his writing.

This may happen early on in his books when unfamiliar readers encounter his comprehensive historical contextualisation as a prelude to character development. So it may not be a redundant exercise to consider exactly what works are more approachable to the novice Scott reader, insofar as they may hook and reel in the reader to explore his other novels. In some sense the abridgements for younger readers tend to do this very well and I still recall reading such an edition when I was a wee boy myself. This suggests to me that it is the particular Scott composition that readers may mistake as being cumbersome, that creates a literary phantom that cannot or should not be overcome in this day and age. I can't say I have found this myself: I adore the sentence structure and grammatical exactness of Scott's writing, as it is both precise but uncomplicated. This is a personal opinion of course but given Scott's literary stardom in his own life, across the whole of the West, and read widely by all class of men, suggests that if language accessibility was not an issue then, then it should not be an issue now.

I have had a look at the Evan Gottlieb and Ian Duncan (Modern Language Association of America, 2009) overview and I may purchase this as an interesting aside to enjoying the novels.

Synopsis
Scott’s Waverley novels, as his fiction is collectively known, are increasingly popular in the classroom, where they fit into courses that explore topics from Victorianism and nationalism to the rise of the publishing industry and the cult of the author. As the editors of this volume recognize, however, Scott’s fictions present unusual challenges to instructors. Students need guidance, for instance, in navigating Scott’s use of vernacular Scots and antique styles, sorting through his historical and geographical references, and distinguishing his multiple authorial personas. The essays in this volume are designed to help teachers negotiate these and other intriguing features of the Waverley novels. Part 1, “Materials,” guides instructors in selecting appropriate editions of the Waverley novels for classroom use. It also categorizes and lists background and critical studies of Scott’s novels and recommends additional readings for students, as well as multimedia instructional resources.

The essays in part 2 examine the novels’ relation to Scottish history, Scott’s use of language, and concepts of Romantic authorship; consider gender, legal, queer, and multicultural approaches; recommend strategies for teaching Scott alongside other authors such as Jane Austen; and offer detailed ideas for introducing individual novels to students—from imagining Ivanhoe in the context of nineteenth-century medievalism to reconsidering how the ethical issues raised in Old Mortality reflect on religion and violence in our own day.

Contents
PART ONE: MATERIALS

Evan Gottlieb

Critical Backgrounds (5)
Some Results of the Survey (7)
Editions (9)
The Instructor’s Library (11)
Readings for Students (12)
Aids to Teaching (13)
Map of Scotland, circa 1900 (15)

PART TWO: APPROACHES

Introduction (19) Ian Duncan

General Approaches
Scottish History in the Waverley Novels (26) Douglas Mack and Suzanne Gilbert
“Something Glee’d”: The Uses of Language in Scott’s Waverley Novels (38) Janet Sorensen
The Author of Waverley and the Problem of Romantic Authorship (50) James P. Carson
Teaching the Waverley Novels: An Intertextual Approach (59) Samuel Baker

Course Contexts

“The Poetry of Pure Memory”: Teaching Scott’s Novels in the Context of Romanticism (67) Celeste Langan
Home and Away with Walter Scott (77) Simon Edwards
Scott, the History of the Novel, and the History of Fiction (88) Ian Duncan
Sir Walter and Plain Jane: Teaching Scott and Austen Together (97) Evan Gottlieb
Teaching the Female Body as Contested Territory (105) Diane Long Hoeveler
Proof and Truth: Teaching the Waverley Novels in the Law and Literature Class (115) Clare A. Simmons
The Limits of Diversity: Using Scott’s “The Two Drovers” to Teach Multiculturalism in a Survey or Nonmajors Course (123) Kenneth McNeil

Case Studies
“ ’Twas Thus the Latest Minstrel Sung”: Listening to Waverley with an Un/Conventional Ear (130) Caroline McCracken-Flesher
Framing the Covenanters (Again): Teaching Old Mortality in Context (140) Antony J. Hasler
Teaching The Heart of Mid-Lothian (150) David Hewitt
“This Monstrous Passion”: Teaching The Bride of Lammermoor and Queer Theory (157) Oliver S. Buckton
Imagining the Middle Ages and Renaissance in Ivanhoe and Kenilworth (164) Graham Tulloch
Thinking Globally: The Talisman and The Surgeon’s Daughter (170) Tara Ghoshal Wallace

>175 EclecticIndulgence:

But that would no longer be Scott! Here is a short but relevant piece to consider https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/jul/07/sir-walter-scott-fiction

One further thing to consider, and I suspect that it may open me up to a charge of literary snobbery, that Scott is worth the time investment. His writing stands heads and shoulders above the vast majority of novelists up the present day.

As the Sports Journalist Michele Tafoya says, "Taking the high road is never a mistake."

I was on the look out in my local libraries for Scott's The Antiquary as my own edition is rather lessened by the meagre font size.

I managed to track down a set at another campus of the University I work for and I picked it up yesterday.

Printed in Edinburgh by T&C Constable for T&C and EC Jack Causewayside 1901

The two volumes are part of a limited edition of 1040 copies, all hand numbered. This set is No.189.

All good so far. I thus began reading the preface but found that as I did so, that a great number of the pages were not cut.

Okay, a production fault, but it suddenly struck me, that this particular volume of this 116 year old edition had been unread, literally until I started to separate the pages with a steel rule.

I attach some pictures.

>177 LesMiserables:
Stephen, I get the vague impression that Sir Walter Scott may be your favourite author.
Did you know that there is a statue to him in Centennial Place in central Brisbane?
You should visit and pay homage ;-)

>178 wcarter:

I'm not sure that he is or isn't. I'm a huge fan of Tolkien and Stevenson, but Scott is up there with them but I wouldn't like to be pressed to decide on a superlative!

Do you mean Centenary Place in Fortitude Valley? I did stumble across it one day whilst on an appointment and whilst I was seated on the benches, it suddenly dawned on me Robert Burns was just yards away.

>177 LesMiserables:

A beautiful edition, and I hope you find much to relish in the book. I'm sure the uncut pages aren't a production fault, it's just the way a great many books were delivered then and for some time after. I've had to cut the pages of a great number of older books over the years, including, surprisingly, almost every gathering in those I've so far read of the 37 volumes of the LEC Shakespeare.

>180 terebinth:

I'm sure the uncut pages aren't a production fault, it's just the way a great many books were delivered then and for some time after.

Really? I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for educating me on this, I'll have to look into it. What do you use to cut?

>179 LesMiserables:
Yes, that's the one I meant.

>181 LesMiserables:
See http://www.librarything.com/topic/158576

I use the blunt edge - not the serrated one! - of a curious old bone-handled knife here, perhaps by design a cake knife, with engraved and hallmarked blade - in practice probably pretty similar to a steel rule! Many opinions exist as to what's best to use, I can only say that I've had no mishaps or (to me) disagreeable results so far and so my old implement is safe in its role, but there was a lively debate on the George Macy (LEC) group here - https://www.librarything.com/topic/158576

One of the first books I bought, an unvalued 1879 first edition of Herbert Spencer's Data of Ethics, needed many of its pages opening, as have many others since. In and around the book business, "uncut" refers to any book whose pages haven't been trimmed to give a uniform edge during the binding process, "unopened" is the term for those with pages that need the attentions of a knife.

(Ah - Warwick has remembered the very same thread).

Very interesting, thanks to both of you.

My book knife, but not a recommendation ;)



There are a remarkable number of ways to cut pages - I'll admit surprise both at the suggestion of a playing card, which I'd have thought might yield to the paper, and at dlphcoracl's method involving keeping the knife blade at around 45 degrees to the page. I generally hold the pages together when cutting, and the paper - after usually somewhere between 70 and 150 years with a fold in it - gives way leaving a smooth enough edge.

When James Thin the Edinburgh Bookseller was still going strong he had an upstairs room that was practically wall to wall complete second-hand Scott sets. I'd be surprised if a majority had been cut. There's nothing new about books as furniture, especially in a kippers and piano culture.

>188 Jayked:

And I think that's the reason why some books on the summaries of the classics are popular: pretence at dinner parties or the pub.

I've lost count of the books and sets I've bought which were still uncut after a hundred years or more. As terebinth says, uncut and unseparated pages were normal with high-end and/or scholarly books. "Octavo" books, for example, are so-called because the large sheets they're printed on are folded into eight leaves (i.e. sixteen pages). Because of the folding some closed folds end up on the fore-edge or top edge of the bound book. It also follows, of course, that not every page needs cutting. The sixteen pages make a gathering and are numbered/lettered on the first (occasionally second) leaf of each gathering: A, B, C, etc. If necessary the lettering continues AA, BB, etc.

>190 boldface:

Thanks Jonathan. So how do you cut the pages?

I'm using a steel rule but I suppose a decent letter opener or a knife like >186 terebinth: would do too.

> 191

I sharpen a large flat kitchen knife on a steel, lay the book down flat and insert the blade between the leaves from the bottom edge. Keeping the text block flat at all times I slice upwards along the outer edge at an angle of about 45 deg or slightly less. With a bit of practice and a very sharp knife, you can slice with confidence. I NEVER use a serrated edge which can easily rip the page if you're not very careful.

>192 boldface:

Interesting, but I'm having trouble visualising this: are the pages to be cut flat against the text block except in the immediate vicinity of the knife? For me, the pages are quite flat, so is the knife: the knife is not sharp, and isn't serrated either (if the edge I use appears to be in the photo above, that's an effect of digitisation), and while one hand is employing the knife the other is holding down the text block so that cutting doesn't impose any strain on the binding.

>192 boldface:

I'd love to see you do this on video! youtube?

>193 terebinth: "are the pages to be cut flat against the text block except in the immediate vicinity of the knife?"

Yes. It works best if you can keep everything as flat as possible. If it's practical, once the knife is inserted between the joined pages at the bottom, I hold the knife in position with my right hand (I'm right handed) and close the book over it with my left hand slipped in just enough to take the weight. The idea is that the two joined pages to be cut should remain as flat against each other and the rest of the text block as possible so that the knife cuts exactly along the fold.

>194 LesMiserables:

I don't think my video skills would be up to it, but the important points are:

1. Use a smooth, sharp and thin flat-bladed knife angled against the cut at 45 degrees or less.

2. While cutting, keep the two joined pages as flat and undistorted as possible in relation to each other and also to the rest of the text block.

Some info on traditional paper knives here:
https://regencyredingote.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/a-paper-knife-was-not-a-letter...

>196 Jayked:

Great link thanks.

The correct technique by which to use a paper knife to cut the folds in loose sheets of paper was the same as that used to cut the folds in the leaves in a book. The paper knife should always be placed inside the fold to be cut, with the full length of the blade against the fold. The blade should then be pressed firmly and evenly against the fold until the paper fibers give way. The motion should always be smooth and steady, as any sawing or chopping motion is likely to result in jagged or torn edges. The flat of the paper knife blade can be used to sharpen the crease in a fold in the leaves of a book, just as it can when folding a loose sheet of paper prior to cutting. Sharper creases will result in a cleaner cut.

I read this to mean that the blade is pushed rather than run against the crease.

It's hard to find agreement on what these days is an uncommon task. Try out your technique on some folded sheets of writing paper. I've found it a mistake to use a really sharp edge, such as an x-acto knife; it's too easy for the knife to move off track and damage the page. The knife I use couldn't possibly cut your finger, and is close to being dull, but it slices folded paper easily. It's made of brass and has a rounded tip. My wife picked it up on a cruise to Greece, so I don't know if it would be generally available. Apologies for the quality of the image -- I just set it on the photocopier.

Okay, I finally have this down to a tee. After trying a number of different methods and implements, I have found a way that gives a clean cut with no fraying. I am right handed.

#1. Lie book on flat surface, with spine to the left.
#2. Place a plastic ruler with a non sharp edge within the two pages to be cut. Make sure the page to be cut has a sharp crease. Crease it with finger if need be.
#3. Either keep the book closed or open it but leave a reasonable number of pages on the right hand side, so as to have some space between what your left hand will be lightly pressing on and the page to be cut.
#4. Move the rule with the right hand to the centre of the page you are going to cut keeping it parallel with spine.
#5. Just before I cut, my left hand will be palm down pressing the front cover or pages directly on top of the page about to be cut. My right hand will be holding the rule below the book at the bottom edge with the rule up and into the page I am going to cut.
#6. Depending on the weight of the ruler depends on the firmness you will move the rule to the right to cut the page.
#7. My ruler is light so holding book firmly but not so much as to restrict the movement of the rule, I give a quick movement from middle to the right of the book with the rule and as it meets the creased line of the page to be cut.

The result is a clean page cut without frays. I have found that the cuts are much cleaner than when I use a sharp steel rule.

>198 Jayked:
>199 LesMiserables:

Great, if that works for you. Maybe it's best for each person to experiment for themselves. My method works for me and I've lost count of the number of books I've had to operate on. Luckily, I've never got frayed or torn edges or cuts in the wrong places.

>198 Jayked:

I imagine that's very like my knife in practice. I can run it across my palm pressing quite hard on the blade and it doesn't threaten to cut the skin, but it passes smoothly through old folded paper and never produces a tear, while I've met many in books opened by others.

>200 boldface:

I agree and it depends on the book, the tool and the man. There is more than one way to skin a cat. 🐱

>199 LesMiserables: #2: I use a 300mm (architect's) plastic scale rule which is similar to a plastic ruler, but the rule is bevelled in section, thinning on both sides to a blunt but firm edge, so it makes an accurate and tidy cut. I wouldn't use a ruler. I adapted this from being shown years ago how designers cut lenths off a roll of tracing paper - fold, press tightly down the fold, then cut continuously down the fold with a scale. This is much easier and less risky than cutting the tracing paper with a blade, and a scale is generally close at hand.

What a joy to revisit this old thread! And how one's persuasions can shift in a decade!!

Anyway Mole, just another reminder that in 2 years it will be Scott 250.

An LE please or a Fine set.

All with tasteful illustrations. Nothing that jars.

For the LE my preference would be in full leather in a solander box. My top picks would be The Antiquary, Waverley, Heart of Midlothian, Rob Roy.

I was just thinking that FS should publish more Sir Walter Scott novels. Actually surprised how few of.his novels they have printed and same for LEC, EP and Franklin Library.

>205 RRCBS:
Well I think so too, especially works as popular as Heart of Midlothian. I can't fathom it.

I'm really enjoying The Antiquary and is certainly up there with Heart of Midlothian, Waverley and Rob Roy. I'll reserve my final judgement until the end.

For those interested, I emailed FS asking about plans to produce additional SWS books and here is the response:

Thank you for enquiring about the possibility of more of Sir Walter Scott's novels (not reprints) from Folio Society.

We are considering this in relation to the 2021 anniversary marking 250 years since his birth, but we have no firm plans as yet.

>209 RRCBS:

I'm pretty sure that confirms a 3 vol. box set of select titles, 1/4 leather, illustrated by Tim Laing (Radetzky March). Probably Ivanhoe, The Talisman and The Antiquary - 325USD.

> 210

Hoping for The Heart of Midlothian...already have the EP Talisman and the LEC Ivanhoe.

Coincidentally just came across this in Philip Larkin's Letters to Monica:
"Guy Mannering must be a good book if it can entertain you in such circumstances....I suppose I might try. I don't think I recovered from being advised to read The Heart of Midlothian -- was it? At different times I've tried that, and The Antiquary, and Old Mortality. All fell from my nerveless fingers. I want WS to be good -- heavens, one wants anyone to be good, especially a nice voluminous chap like Scott -- but I don't know, there seemed nothing in his books, no imagination, humour, malice, style, perception, story even."
FWIW Guy Mannering was the first WS prescribed for me in high school, as less turgid than some of the others.

>210 The_Toad_Revolt_of84:
>211 RRCBS:

That's fair, so The Heart of Midlothian/The Talisman/The Antiquary, hitting different series and not being one they've already published.

I feel rather excited by this news. I've been badgering them for years!

Got to be The Heart of Midlothian, The Antiquary and Ivanhoe

All OVERDUE

Well, it may have been 12 years since I wrote to Folio requesting something for Scott's 250th anniversary in August this year.

Where did those 12 years go?

And here we are, with arguably nothing substantial to show from Folio, of whom I expected better of to be quite frank, on the impending milestone of one who was without argument, the absolute rock star of the literary world in his day.

>216 LesMiserables:

Times and opinions change.

From today's perspective, the literary star of the Regency period is of course that now revered Hampshire spinster who never missed Sunday church, who died far too young, and wanted to have her books published without the reading public even knowing her name.

It was Jane who developed the modern novel and arguably wrote better novels than any English writer since.

BTW, who is this Walter Scott chappie you keep championing....

>217 English-bookseller:
Scott was the literary star of the Regency period who died too young through overwork, and published his early works without the reading public knowing his name.
He it was who developed the historical novel, arguably better than any writer since. His name is celebrated beyond Britain, featuring e.g. in the works of Balzac and Flaubert.
Though I have to admit I don't read him.

>218 Jayked:

The dates for the birth and death of Sir Water Scott 15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832 show his life was not that short for the period. His life may of course have been shortened through stress and overwork.

Compare to Jane Austen who died aged 41 her dates being 1775 to 1817.

Everybody likes Sir Walker Scott (who appears a genuinely good man) but who reads him to the extent of ever finishing his books?

>219 English-bookseller: I loved Ivanhoe and The Talisman, and liked Kenilworth and The Bride of Lamermoor. I tried to read Waverley but I didn't like the title character and I found the narrative style annoying, so I never finished it. Possibly I prefer his medieval historical novels to his Scottish ones, but I'll need to read a few more of the Scottish ones to know for sure. I own, but have not yet read, Rob Roy, The Heart of Midlothian, and Guy Mannering.

My Ivanhoe is an Easton Press DLE; my Talisman and Kenilworth are regular Easton Press; my Waverley is Franklin Library; my Rob Roy and Bride of Lamermoor are Folio Society; my Heart of Midlothian is a 1963 Collins softbound in good shape and my Guy Mannering is a 1968 Everyman's Library also in good shape.

>219 English-bookseller:
The chief impediment to reading Scott is his style, longwinded and Latinate. He was quite capable of brevity, as some of his short poems show, and his championship of Scots ballads. That he chose a different style for his novels might be due to the notion that writing, especially romantic, novels was no work for a gentleman. Hence too the anonymity. The rolling periods and classical vocabulary are proof of education. Like Scott, Lords Brougham, Jeffrey and Cockburn had attended the Royal High School and were connected through the Speculative Society and the Edinburgh Review, known for its acerbic views on the likes of Byron and Keats. Best to test the waters carefully?

Interesting perspectives. I would challenge the label of long-winded as rather that of the master of setting context with a thorough exposition of the scene to unfold.

His Scottish novels are his best in my opinion. It would be difficult for me to compare and order and of these selected magnificent works: Waverley, Rob Roy, Heart of Midlothian, The Antiquary, Guy Mannering. But if I had to grab one for a week in seclusion it would probably be Waverley.

I can't say I've ever thought of Scott as at all dull or difficult to read: then, the English prose of Landor and Walter Pater delights me more than any other, and, for a counter-example, after a couple of pages of Lee Child, in the spirit of checking out what the FS is up to lately, it occurred to me to be very grateful indeed that my school days are long behind me and nobody in the world had any power to make me read any more. My wife isn't a devoted reader of fiction, but decided two or three months ago to venture into Scott's novels in chronological order, is finding the exercise rewarding so far, and has just come to the end of the seventh, Heart of Midlothian.

>222 LesMiserables: I will have to give Waverley another try.

>223 terebinth: and Heart of Midlothian is a great novel!

>224 Betelgeuse: I hope so. I found it one of the best of his novels I've read. But perhaps because I'm native and have an interest in that period.

>222 LesMiserables: ...His Scottish novels are his best in my opinion. It would be difficult for me to compare and order and of these selected magnificent works: Waverley, Rob Roy, Heart of Midlothian, The Antiquary, Guy Mannering...

The novelist Hugh Walpole, a lifelong reader of Scott, ponders this in the prefatory essay of his book The Waverley Pageant, published in 1832 as a centenary tribute: six hundred or so pages of favourite passages from the novels.

"{D}uring the hundred years since their appearance, one eminent critic or another has claimed one novel or another as the best of the whole series. Waverley, Guy Mannering, The Antiquary, Old Mortality, Rob Roy, the Heart of Midlothian, The Bride of Lammermoor, Ivanhoe, The Abbot, Kenilworth, Quentin Durward, Redgauntlet, The Talisman have all, in serious and responsible criticism, been awarded first place. Here are thirteen novels, then, of an almost equal excellence. What other novelist in the world - unless it be possibly Balzac - can make such a claim?

If we were to narrow the list still further and name the six of the novels generally held the finest they would be, beyond much argument: Guy Mannering, The Antiquary, Old Mortality, The Heart of Midlothian, The Bride of Lammermoor and Redgauntlet. It might possibly have been better for Scott's enduring fame had he written only these six, although the world would then have lost The Abbot, Waverley, Quentin Durward, Kenilworth, Ivanhoe, The Legend of Montrose, The Talisman, The Pirate and The Fortunes of Nigel - and indeed, in order to emphasize the extraordinary size of Scott's achievement we may omit the six masterpieces from the list, including only these others and behold! what a giant of creative force and imaginative genius he remains! Only five of the series can be reasonably accounted failures - The Black Dwarf, St. Ronan's Well, Peveril of the Peak, Count Robert of Paris and Castle Dangerous and all of these, even the last - written when he was sick to death - contain grand things. I would go further and say that had he written only these last five he would have made a deep mark on English Literature and survived these hundred years..."

I was going to say you might enjoy The Waverley Pageant, but copies seem pretty thin on the ground and presumably Walpole's hope to remind a generation of readers of the glories to be found in Scott didn't meet with much success. I would probably never have seen it myself but for the way that, shortly after I started reading a little Hugh Walpole, a collection of 44 volumes of him, nearly all first editions, collected and uniformly bound in full green Morocco leather, appeared before me at a price I couldn't resist, because nobody reads him any more, and the Scott book is included in that set.

>227 terebinth:

I remember when we briefly discussed those 44 volumes, "uniformly bound in full green Morocco leather", and I'm still envious! I've seen The Waverley Pageant around over the years but never picked up a copy. I do, however, have a much more modest volume called The Week-end Scott, being Selected Passages from the Waverley Novels, with an introductory essay by J. T. Christie who, as Wikipedia tells me, was later "headmaster of Repton School (1932–37) and Westminster School (1937–50), before becoming Principal of Jesus College, Oxford (1949–67). The book was published in 1931, runs to a mere 160 pages, and divides the extracts thematically - Character, Scottish Manners, Travel and Open Air, Women, Religion, Highlands, Philosophy of Life, Literature, Law, Love and Heroines are a few of them. In his Introduction Christie writes:

". . . Scott is out of fashion to-day. The critics who write and talk the most condemn him for dullness, often unread. And though for many, for whom books are more matter for enjoyment than for criticism, still turn to their Waverley Novels again and again, the modern generation as a whole makes little attempt to read them. It is arguable that thus they miss the chance of enjoying a real pleasure and making a lasting friendship."

He then gives a balanced assessment of Scott, good and not so good, with examples and quotes from the like of E. M. Forster (The Antiquary is a clumsily-constructed story) and Hazlitt ("{Scott} has five hundred hearts beating in his bosom"), and comes to the conclusion that the glory of Scott lies especially in his truth to character, not least in the great variety of minor and incidental characters: ". . . as soon as {they} speak, they live." He sums it up thus:

"Once the reader has accustomed himself to the leisurely style of an older fashion . . . there awaits him in the Waverleys a combination of pleasures that no other books can furnish in just that proportion. There is the pleasure of history, and of romance; the pleasure of drama and of character. And over it all there broods, or rather shines, a genius which we may not unfairly call epic—a genius which delights more in men's actions than their thoughts, that loves to describe the food they eat and their weapons of war, and gives the highest place among the virtues to courage. . . . In the novels at their best, for instance in Old Mortality, we find, besides much that is of a softer and more sophisticated strain, a swiftness and a simplicity in the narrative, a nobility and variety in the characters, that recall the fresh straightforward genius of Homer. . . ."

>228 boldface:

I don't recall meeting that volume anywhere, and judging from the handful of copies on ABE it too failed much to excite the reading public. One listing mentions that it contains 375 extracts from Scott, so they must mostly be brief indeed: The Waverley Pageant has but 76, ranging up to 20 pages in length. Hugh Walpole's assessment seems more complementary to Christie's than at odds with it:

"This Preface has the purpose merely of luring some readers back to Scott again, of begging them to try for themselves and see whether there is not much in these novels as vital and real as there was a hundred years ago. Fashions change, one way of writing succeeds another, but the plain fact of the matter is that the consecrated novelist is the rarest bird. To-day every sort of substitute for the novel serves us and very delightful some of those substitutes are. But however gay, malicious, brilliant and amusing they may be this hard business of creating a world for us, a world filled with people in whom we may believe, whom we may know better than we know our friends, is in the gift of very few.

Among the creators in this kind Walter Scott is one of the greatest."

>226 LesMiserables: My ancestry is Scottish and I've visited and loved Scotland several times. I owe Waverley a re-visit.

Wonderful contributions.

Accusations of prolixity aren't entirely a modern phenomenon. This from Mary Russell Mitford's Our Village, 1820's:
"All the news and scandal of a large county forty years ago, and a hundred years before, and ever since, all the marriages, deaths, births, elopements, law-suits and casualties of her own times, her father's, grandfather's, great-grandfather's, nephews, and grand-nephews, has she detailed with a minuteness, an accuracy, a prodigality of learning, a profuseness of proper names, a pedantry of locality, which would excite the envy of a county historian, a king-at-arms, or even a Scotch novelist."
Splendid sentence, with the sting in the tail where it belongs.

>229 terebinth: "One listing mentions that it contains 375 extracts from Scott, so they must mostly be brief indeed."

Indeed. Christie's extracts range from one word(!) to about two-thirds of a page.

I'm sure Walpole's is much the better book. He appears to have afforded his best efforts to furthering the centenary celebrations during that period of the early 1930s. He was President of The Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club (founded 1894) in 1932 and in his lifetime amassed one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of books and papers connected with his hero. Among his most important acquisitions was Scott's twenty-three bound Letter-Books, containing some 6,000 items, mostly letters written to Scott, which Walpole bought at auction for a huge sum around 1920. A selection of these was edited by Wilfred Partington and published in 1930* with an introductory 'Letter to the Reader' by Walpole in which he muses on his feeling of a special bond with Scott and the excitement and despair of book addiction. The trauma of the auction itself and the pain of perhaps being outbid and losing his prize were so much that he claims never to have attended a book sale again. Among these gems were letters from Byron and Goethe, William and Dorothy Wordsworth and Robert Southey, James Hogg (the Ettrick Shepherd), his publishers Ballantyne and Cadell, Sir Robert Peel, The Duke of Buckingham . . . the list goes on! I think he left them at his death to the National Library of Scotland.

Another Scott enterprise of that time was the only (to date) comprehensive edition of Scott's own letters, the 12-volume 'Centenary Edition' of The Letters of Sir Walter Scott, edited by Sir Herbert Grierson (1932-37).† This is hard to find complete outside libraries, although odd volumes sometimes turn up. Walpole was not involved with this enterprise, except insofar as he owned at least 70 letters himself. As an edition, it falls short, containing many inaccuracies in the notes and, unbelievably, lacking an index (beyond a list of correspondents). A full forty-two years elapsed before a book finally appeared containing corrections and updates to Grierson's notes and a complete index.‡

* The Private Letter-Books of Sir Walter Scott : Selections from the Abbotsford Manuscripts, with a Letter to the Reader from Hugh Walpole, edited by Wilfred Partington. London : Hodder and Stoughton, 1930. Fifty copies of the edition were specially hand-bound in full burgundy red leather with a cartouche of Scott's head in profile in gilt on the front cover, aeg, and signed by both Walpole and Partington. A second volume of extracts from this correspondence was published by John Murray in 1932, under the title, Sir Walter's Post-Bag : More stories and sidelights from his unpublished Letter-Books ... with a record of Scott's Correspondents, written and selected by Wilfred Partington.

† Centenary Edition of The Letters of Sir Walter Scott, 1787-1831, edited by H. J. C. Grierson, assisted by Davidson Cook, W. M. Parker, and others. London : Constable & Co. Ltd, 1932-1937.

‡ Notes and Index to Sir Herbert Grierson's Edition of The Letters of Sir Walter Scott, by James C. Corson, Hon. Librarian of Abbotsford. Oxford : At the Clarendon Press, 1979.

This may be of interest to Scott aficionados:-

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/RARE-VINTAGE-SIR-WALTER-SCOTT-NOVELS-IN-SINGLE-BOOKC...