Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott(1771-1832) was a prolific Scottish writer, considered the inventor of the genre of historical fiction. He originally had a great success with romantic narrative poetry.

Life

Walter Scott was the son of an Edinburgh lawyer, who was a strict Calvinist, though his mother seems to have had a less stern outlook and an interest in ballads, proverbs and tales. At the age of 18 months he lost the use of his right leg, and was sent to live with his paternal grandfather near Kelso in the Scottish Borders. He never fully recovered the use of this leg, but otherwise for the first part of his life was healthy and strong. From the age of three he was brought up mainly in Edinburgh. Scott was from an early age enthralled by tales and the Scottish ballads. He studied as a lawyer and was admitted to the Bar in 1792. His collecting of Border and other ballads, which he "improved" if the improvement occurred to him, began in these years. In 1797 he married Charlotte Charpentier, and in the same year was appointed Sheriff-depute of Selkirkshire, the appointment, like most at that time, being largely due to influence. In 1802/3 his ballad-collecting activities resulted in the publication of The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, a milestone in his life and a significant development in Scottish literature. Until now he had been based in Edinburgh, but in 1804 the Lord Lieutenant of Selkirkshire insisted on his residing in the county, though in 1806 he was also appointed Clerk of Session, which involved attendance in Edinburgh. (This did not add to his income until 1812, when his predecessor accepted a pension instead of the salary for the office.) He rented a house at Ashestiel. In 1805 he published his first major poetical work The Lay of the Last Minstrel, the verse form being said to have been derived from hearing a recitation of Coleridge's Christabel. Of this, his biographer Lockhart wrote: "In the history of British Poetry, nothing had ever equalled the demand for the Lay of the Last Minstrel." The success of this and later poems of the same nature led to his introduction to English literary and court circles. In the same year he took a one-third share in James Ballantyne' printing firm, the beginning of a disastrous entanglement with that firm and the publishing businesses of John Ballantyne and Archibald Constable. He continued with his narrative poetry until 1817, reaching the height of his popularity in this field in 1810 with The Lady of the Lake, which took his story-telling into the Scottish Highlands for the first time. In 1812, however, his fame was eclipsed by the even greater success of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by Lord Byron, with whom Scott later became friendly while visiting London.

Scott had started a historical novel, Waverley, in 1805, but laid it aside. He resumed it in 1813 and it appeared anonymously, and successfully, in 1814. Most subsequent works were said to be by the Author of Waverley, and were known as the Waverley novels. These were also very successful. The second novel, Guy Mannering, followed immediately, and, Scott being driven on by financial problems in the Ballantyne printing business, The Antiquary came straight after that. The first nine novels, and many thereafter, relate to Scottish history, but from 1819 when Ivanhoe appeared, he started to introduce themes from English history and occasionally from continental history and the crusades. In 1812, with an increase in his income from the legal work, he bought a farmhouse called Cartley Hole, renamed it Abbotsford, and started developing it and acquiring land around it. Old Mortality came out in 1816. From 1817 to 1819 he suffered a period of illness and pain, though in these years he succeeded in producing such well known works as Rob Roy and The Heart of Midlothian, in addition to others. In 1820 he was made a baronet, and in 1822 virtually organised King George IV's visit to Scotland, considered very successful.

Scott's literary achievements had produced a considerable income for him, but he had been generous in spending it, and had also increased his commitments in land purchasing, confident of his ability to earn. In 1826 he was involved in the financial collapse of the publishing and printing firms in which he was a sleeping partner, and came to an agreement with creditors rather than be made bankrupt, an agreement for them to receive the future income from most of his writing. This catastrophe was followed by the death of his wife. In 1827 he acknowledged the authorship of the Waverley novels, which had become manifest by the terms of his agreement with his creditors. The same year saw the publication of his Life of Napoleon Buonaparte, which sold as well as his novels. Although his health now began to deteriorate, he continued to write novels, and brought out a new edition of existing ones, with introductions and notes. To add to his troubles, his popularity in the Borders, hitherto great, was badly damaged by his opposition to the first Reform Act, and on one occasion his carriage was actually stoned. He died in 1832, having cut short a tour of Mediterranean countries, in order to die at home.

Influence

According to C. S. Lewis, Scott was the first writer to depict the past as really different from the present. Although he was very popular in Britain, his influence was possibly greater in continental Europe, particularly France, where his Quentin Durward sold well. He had a clear influence on Dumas, Mérimée and even Hugo. Mark Twain considered his influence pernicious.