Walter Scott

2.1. Birth and Childhood

Walter Scott was born on 15 August 1771, in a third-floor apartment on College Wynd in the Old Town, Edinburgh, a narrow alleyway leading from the Cowgate to the gates of the old University of Edinburgh. He was the ninth child of Walter Scott (1729-1799), a Writer to the Signet and a member of a cadet branch of the Clan Scott, and Anne Rutherford, a sister of Daniel Rutherford and a descendant of both the Clan Swinton and the Haliburton family. Through the Haliburtons, Walter was a cousin of the London property developer James Burton (d. 1837), who was born with the surname 'Haliburton', and of his son, the architect Decimus Burton. Walter later became a member of the Clarence Club, of which the Burtons were also members. Six of Scott's twelve siblings died in infancy.

A childhood bout of polio in 1773 left Scott lame, a condition that significantly affected his physical movement throughout his life but also deeply influenced his writing. To aid his recovery, he was sent to live in the rural Scottish Borders at his paternal grandparents' farm at Sandyknowe, near the ruin of Smailholm Tower, the ancestral family home. There, his aunt Jenny Scott taught him to read, and he absorbed from her the local speech patterns, tales, and legends that would later enrich his literary works. In January 1775, he returned to Edinburgh. That summer, he and his aunt Jenny sought spa treatment in Bath, southern England, residing at 6 South Parade. In the winter of 1776, he returned to Sandyknowe, followed by another attempt at a water cure in Prestonpans the next summer.

In 1778, Scott returned to Edinburgh to prepare for school, joining his family in their new house, one of the first built in George Square. In October 1779, he began attending the Royal High School in Edinburgh. By this time, he was able to walk and explore the city and its surrounding countryside. His reading interests included chivalric romances, poems, history, and travel books. He received private tuition in arithmetic and writing from James Mitchell, from whom he also learned about the history of the Church of Scotland, with a particular focus on the Covenanters. In 1783, his parents sent him to stay for six months with his aunt Jenny in Kelso, where he attended Kelso Grammar School and met the brothers James Ballantyne and John, who would later become his business partners and printers.

2.2. Academic and Early Legal Career

Scott began studying classics at the University of Edinburgh in November 1783, at the age of 12, which was younger than most of his fellow students. In March 1786, aged 14, he began an apprenticeship in his father's law office, aiming to become a Writer to the Signet. During his time at school and university, Scott befriended Adam Ferguson, whose father, Professor Adam Ferguson, hosted influential literary salons. At one such salon in the winter of 1786-1787, a 15-year-old Scott met the Scottish poet Robert Burns, their only encounter. Scott was the only one present who could identify the author of a print illustrating "The Justice of the Peace" as John Langhorne, for which Burns thanked him.

Deciding to pursue a legal career, Scott returned to the university in 1789-1790 to study law, taking classes in moral philosophy under Dugald Stewart and universal history under Alexander Fraser Tytler. During this second university period, Scott actively participated in student intellectual life, co-founding the Literary Society in 1789 and being elected to the Speculative Society the following year, where he later served as librarian and secretary-treasurer.

After completing his legal studies, Scott began practicing law in Edinburgh. His first professional visit as a lawyer's clerk took him to the Scottish Highlands, where he directed an eviction. He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1792. Scott experienced an unsuccessful courtship with Williamina Belsches of Fettercairn, who eventually married his friend Sir William Forbes, 7th Baronet. In February 1797, driven by the threat of a French invasion, Scott and many friends joined the Royal Edinburgh Volunteer Light Dragoons. He served with determination into the early 1800s, appointed as quartermaster and secretary, with daily drill practices starting as early as 5 a.m.

3.1. As a Poet

Scott's literary career was ignited by the fervent interest in modern German literature in Edinburgh during the 1790s; he described himself as "German-mad" in 1827. In 1796, he translated two poems by Gottfried August Bürger, `Der wilde Jäger` and `Lenore`, publishing them as "The Chase, and William and Helen." He was drawn to the German emphasis on national identity, folk culture, and medieval literature, which resonated with his own growing passion for traditional balladry, a love fostered since childhood by Thomas Percy's "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry."

Throughout the 1790s, Scott actively sought ballads from oral performance and manuscript collections during his "Border raids." With assistance from John Leyden, he compiled and published the two-volume "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border" in 1802, featuring 48 traditional ballads (26 published for the first time) and two imitations by Leyden and himself. An expanded three-volume edition followed the next year. Though Scott later repudiated the practice, for many ballads he fused different versions into more coherent texts. The "Minstrelsy" marked the beginning of numerous editorial projects over the subsequent two decades, including the medieval romance "Sir Tristrem" (1804), which he attributed to Thomas the Rhymer, and comprehensive works of John Dryden (18 volumes, 1808) and Jonathan Swift (19 volumes, 1814).

Between 1805 and 1817, Scott produced five long, six-canto narrative poems, four shorter independently published poems, and numerous small metrical pieces. He became the most popular poet of his era until Lord Byron released the first two cantos of "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" in 1812, followed by his exotic oriental verse narratives.

His first major narrative poem, "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" (1805), a medieval romance, originated from his desire to include an original long poem in the second edition of the "Minstrelsy," envisioning it as "a sort of Romance of Border Chivalry & inchantment." The distinctive irregular accent in four-beat metre was inspired by Coleridge's "Christabel," which Scott had heard recited before its publication in 1816. Scott leveraged his unparalleled knowledge of Border history and legend, cultivated since childhood, to paint a vivid and energetic picture of 16th-century Scotland. The poem captivated both the general public and antiquarian scholars with its rich notes, and it featured a strong moral theme, placing human pride within the context of the Last Judgment. The work was an immediate success, undergoing five editions within its first year. Its most celebrated lines open the final stanza:
: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.

Three years later, Scott published "Marmion" (1808), which tells a story of corrupt passions leading to the disastrous Battle of Flodden in 1513. A significant innovation in this work was the inclusion of an epistle from the author to a friend at the beginning of each of the six cantos, including William Stewart Rose, Rev. John Marriot, William Erskine, James Skene, George Ellis, and Richard Heber. These epistles explored themes of moral positives and the special delights offered by art. In an unprecedented move, publisher Archibald Constable purchased the copyright for 1.05 K GBP at the beginning of 1807, with only the first canto completed. Constable's confidence was validated by sales, with 8,000 copies sold across three editions in 1808. Although the verse of "Marmion" was considered less striking than that of "The Lay," its most familiar lines-"O what a tangled web we weave,/ When first we practice to deceive"-succinctly capture one of its central themes.

Scott's meteoric poetic career reached its peak with his third long narrative, "The Lady of the Lake" (1810), which sold an impressive 20,000 copies in its first year. Reviewers generally praised it, noting the absence of defects found in "Marmion." While more conventional in structure, with its narrative entirely in iambic tetrameters and a predictable story of James V of Scotland, the poem's metrical uniformity was balanced by frequent songs and a captivating depiction of the Perthshire Highland setting, which significantly boosted local tourism. Furthermore, the poem explored a central theme later revisited in the Waverley Novels: the clash between neighboring societies at different stages of development.

His subsequent two long narrative poems, "Rokeby" (1813), set in Yorkshire during the English Civil War at the estate of his friend J. B. S. Morritt, and "The Lord of the Isles" (1815), set in early 14th-century Scotland and culminating in the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, both received generally favorable receptions and sold well, though they did not rival the immense success of "The Lady of the Lake." Scott also produced four shorter narrative or semi-narrative poems between 1811 and 1817: "The Vision of Don Roderick" (1811, celebrating Wellington's successes in the Peninsular War, with profits donated to Portuguese war victims), "The Bridal of Triermain" (published anonymously in 1813), "The Field of Waterloo" (1815), and "Harold the Dauntless" (published anonymously in 1817).

Throughout his creative life, Scott was an active reviewer. Although a Tory himself, he reviewed for "The Edinburgh Review" between 1803 and 1806. However, its advocacy for peace with Napoleon led him to cancel his subscription in 1808. The following year, at the height of his poetic career, he played a key role in establishing a Tory rival, "The Quarterly Review," to which he contributed reviews for the remainder of his life.

In 1813, Scott was offered the position of Poet Laureate. He declined, perceiving the appointment as a "poisoned chalice" due to the perceived decline in quality of work from previous titleholders, who often produced conventional and obsequious odes for royal occasions. He consulted the 4th Duke of Buccleuch, who advised him to maintain his literary independence. The position subsequently went to Scott's friend, Robert Southey.

3.2. As a Novelist

Scott's transition to novel writing began with uncertainty. The first few chapters of "Waverley" were completed around 1805, but the project was initially abandoned due to unfavorable criticism from a friend. Later, in 1808, publisher John Murray asked Scott to posthumously edit and complete an unfinished romance by Joseph Strutt, "Queenhoo Hall." Set in 15th-century England, this work was not a success, partly due to its archaic language and excessive display of antiquarian detail.

The success of Scott's Highland narrative poem, "The Lady of the Lake," in 1810, inspired him to resume work on "Waverley," specifically envisioning his hero, Edward Waverley, journeying to Scotland. Though announced for publication at that stage, it was again set aside, only to be resumed in late 1813 and finally published in 1814. Only 1,000 copies were initially printed, but the novel was an immediate success, prompting the addition of 3,000 more copies across two further editions in the same year. "Waverley" became the first of 27 novels (eight of which were published in pairs). By the time the sixth novel, "Rob Roy," was released, the print run for its first edition had increased to 10,000 copies, a number that became the norm.

Given Scott's established reputation as a poet and the cautious emergence of "Waverley," he initially followed the common practice of publishing anonymously. He maintained this anonymity until his financial ruin in 1826, with most of his novels appearing as "By the Author of Waverley" or under the series title "Tales of My Landlord." The reasons for his anonymity remain debated, with at least eleven possibilities suggested, but as Scott himself famously remarked, "such was my humour."

Scott was an almost exclusively historical novelist, with only one of his 27 novels, "St. Ronan's Well", having a wholly modern setting. The historical scope of his works ranged from 1794 in "The Antiquary" back to 1096 or 1097, the time of the First Crusade, in "Count Robert of Paris". Sixteen of his novels are set in Scotland. The first nine, from "Waverley" (1814) to "A Legend of Montrose" (1819), all feature Scottish locations and 17th- or 18th-century settings. Scott possessed an unparalleled mastery of his source material, drawing upon oral tradition and an expansive library of written sources, many of which were rare or unique. These pre-1820 novels, in particular, have garnered significant attention from modern critics.

Notable Scottish-set novels include:

• "Waverley" (1814), which portrays the Jacobite rising of 1745 and its Highland clans as outdated idealists.
• "Old Mortality" (1816), which depicts the 1679 Covenanters as fanatical and often ridiculous, prompting John Galt to offer a contrasting view in his 1823 novel "Ringan Gilhaize."
• "The Heart of Mid-Lothian" (1818), featuring the low-born heroine Jeanie Deans, who undertakes a perilous journey to Richmond in 1737 to secure a royal pardon for her sister, falsely accused of infanticide.
• "The Bride of Lammermoor" (1819), a tragic account of a declining aristocratic family, with Edgar Ravenswood and his fiancée falling victim to the wife of an upstart lawyer during a political power struggle before the Acts of Union 1707.

In 1820, Scott made a bold shift in period and location with "Ivanhoe" (1820), setting it in 12th-century England. For this work, he relied on a limited range of printed sources, synthesizing material from different centuries and crafting an artificial form of speech inspired by Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. The resulting novel, as much myth as history, remains his most widely known work. Eight of his subsequent 17 novels also feature medieval settings, though most are set towards the end of the era, for which Scott had a richer supply of contemporaneous sources. His familiarity with Elizabethan and 17th-century English literature, partly from his editorial work on pamphlets, allowed him to create vibrant depictions of society in four works set during that period: "Kenilworth" (1821), "The Fortunes of Nigel" and "Peveril of the Peak" (1821), and "Woodstock" (1826). Among his later fictions, three short stories are generally highly esteemed: "Wandering Willie's Tale" in "Redgauntlet" (1824), and "The Highland Widow" and "The Two Drovers" in "Chronicles of the Canongate" (1827).

As the number of his novels grew, they were republished in smaller collections: "Novels and Tales" (1819, from "Waverley" to "A Tale of Montrose"), "Historical Romances" (1822, from "Ivanhoe" to "Kenilworth"), "Novels and Romances" (1824 [1823], from "The Pirate" to "Quentin Durward"), and two series of "Tales and Romances" (1827, from "St Ronan's Well" to "Woodstock"; 1833, from "Chronicles of the Canongate" to "Castle Dangerous"). In his final years, Scott meticulously marked up interleaved copies of these collected editions to produce a definitive version, officially known as the "Waverley Novels," often referred to as his 'Magnum Opus' or 'Magnum Edition'. Scott provided each novel with an introduction and notes, making mostly piecemeal adjustments to the text. This innovative and profitable venture, issued in 48 elegant monthly volumes between June 1829 and May 1833 at a modest price of five shillings (0.6 GBP), was aimed at a broad readership, achieving an astonishing print run of 30,000 copies.

In the "General Preface" to the "Magnum Edition," Scott stated that a key factor prompting him to resume work on the "Waverley" manuscript in 1813 was his desire to accomplish for Scotland what Maria Edgeworth had done for Ireland. He believed her "Irish characters have gone so far to make the English familiar with the character of their gay and kind-hearted neighbours of Ireland, that she may be truly said to have done more towards completing the Union, than perhaps all the legislative enactments by which it has been followed up." The majority of Scott's readers were English; for instance, with "Quentin Durward" (1823) and "Woodstock" (1826), approximately 8,000 of the 10,000 copies of the first edition were sent to London. In his Scottish novels, lower-class characters often speak Scots, but Scott carefully avoided making the dialect too dense, allowing readers unfamiliar with it to grasp the general meaning without understanding every word. Some scholars also argue that despite his formal support for the Union with England (and Ireland), his novels contain a powerful nationalist subtext for attuned readers. Scott's new career as a novelist in 1814 did not mean he abandoned poetry. The Waverley Novels frequently feature original verse, including well-known songs such as "Proud Maisie" from "The Heart of Mid-Lothian" and "Look not thou on Beauty's charming" from "The Bride of Lammermoor." Most chapters in his novels are preceded by an epigram or "motto," many of which are his own compositions, often imitating other writers like Beaumont and Fletcher.

3.3. Key Themes and Literary Techniques

Crucial to Scott's historical thinking was the concept that diverse societies, regardless of their historical period, can progress through similar developmental stages, and that fundamental human nature remains constant. As he articulated in the first chapter of "Waverley," there are "passions common to men in all stages of society, and which have alike agitated the human heart, whether it throbbed under the steel corslet of the fifteenth century, the brocaded coat of the eighteenth, or the blue frock and white dimity waistcoat of the present day." One of Scott's significant achievements was his ability to create vivid, detailed portrayals of various stages of Scottish, British, and European society, while simultaneously demonstrating that despite differences in outward form, the underlying human passions mirrored those of his own time. This approach allowed his readers to appreciate the depiction of unfamiliar historical societies while readily relating to the characters.

Scott was particularly fascinated by striking moments of transition between different societal stages. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, discussing Scott's early novels, observed that their "long-sustained interest" stemmed from "the contest between the two great moving Principles of social Humanity - religious adherence to the Past and the Ancient, the Desire & the admiration of Permanence, on the one hand; and the Passion for increase of Knowledge, for Truth as the offspring of Reason, in short, the mighty Instincts of Progression and Free-agency, on the other." This dynamic is evident in "Waverley," where the hero is initially captivated by the romantic allure of the Jacobite cause, personified by Bonnie Prince Charlie and his followers, before ultimately accepting that such enthusiasms belong to a bygone era and embracing the more rational, conventional reality of Hanoverian Britain. Another illustration can be found in 15th-century Europe, with the yielding of the old chivalric worldview of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, to the pragmatic, Machiavellian approach of Louis XI of France.

Scott was also intrigued by the simultaneous existence of different stages of societal development within a single country. When Waverley first encounters Highland customs after a cattle raid on his Lowland host, he finds it "seemed like a dream... that these deeds of violence should be familiar to men's minds, and currently talked of, as falling with the common order of things, and happening daily in the immediate neighbourhood, without his having crossed the seas, and while he was yet in the otherwise well-ordered island of Great Britain." A more intricate exploration of this theme appears in Scott's second novel, "Guy Mannering" (1815), set in 1781-1782, which "offers no simple opposition: the Scotland represented in the novel is at once backward and advanced, traditional and modern - it is a country in varied stages of progression in which there are many social subsets, each with its own laws and customs."

Scott's compositional process can be traced through his largely preserved manuscripts, fragmentary proofs, correspondence, and publisher's records. He did not create detailed plans for his stories; the "Author"'s remarks in the Introductory Epistle to "The Fortunes of Nigel" likely reflect his own experience: "I think there is a dæmon who seats himself on the feather of my pen when I begin to write, and leads it astray from the purpose. Characters expand under my hand; incidents are multiplied; the story lingers, while the materials increase - my regular mansion turns out a Gothic anomaly, and the work is complete long before I have attained the point I proposed." Despite this seemingly improvisational method, his manuscripts rarely show major deletions or changes in direction, indicating his clear control over the narrative. This control was vital because as soon as he had made significant progress with a novel, he would send batches of manuscript to be copied (to maintain his anonymity), and these copies were then sent for typesetting. He would receive proofs in batches, making many changes at that stage, though these were almost always local corrections and enhancements.

4.1. Recovery of the Honours of Scotland

Prompted by Scott's initiative, the Prince Regent (the future George IV) issued a Royal Warrant on 28 October 1817, granting Scott and other officials permission to search for the Scottish Crown Jewels ("Honours of Scotland"). These regalia had been hidden during the Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell but were later used to crown Charles II. While they were not used for subsequent monarchs, they were regularly brought to sittings of Parliament to represent the absent monarch until the Acts of Union 1707. Stored in Edinburgh Castle, their large locked box remained unopened for over a century, leading to rumors that they were "lost" or had been removed. On 4 February 1818, Scott, along with a small military team, opened the box and "unearthed" the Honours from the Crown Room of Edinburgh Castle. Through Scott's efforts, his friend Adam Ferguson was appointed Deputy Keeper of the Scottish Regalia on 19 August 1818.

4.2. Baronetcy and Royal Visit of 1822

The Scottish patronage system facilitated negotiations that led to the Prince Regent granting Scott the title of baronet. In April 1820, Scott received the baronetcy in London, becoming Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet.

Following George IV's accession to the throne, the city council of Edinburgh, at the sovereign's request, invited Scott to stage-manage the King George IV's visit to Scotland in 1822. Despite having only three weeks to prepare, Scott devised a spectacular and comprehensive pageant. Drawing inspiration from his vivid depiction of Queen Elizabeth's reception in his novel "Kenilworth," Scott and his "production team" orchestrated what would now be considered a major public relations event. The King was dressed in tartan and greeted by his subjects, many of whom also wore similar tartan ceremonial dress. This specific form of dress, which had been proscribed after the Jacobite rising of 1745, was deliberately re-popularized by Scott and became a seminal, potent, and ubiquitous symbol of Scottish identity. The event was designed not only to impress the King but also, in part, to heal the historical rifts that had destabilized Scottish society.

5.1. The Financial Crisis of 1825

In 1825, a UK-wide banking crisis triggered the collapse of the Ballantyne printing business, in which Scott was the sole partner with a financial stake. The immense debt of 130.00 K GBP led to his very public financial ruin. Rather than declare bankruptcy or accept financial support from his numerous admirers and supporters (including the King himself), Scott placed his house and income in a trust belonging to his creditors, vowing to write his way out of debt. Adding to his personal burdens, his wife, Charlotte, died in 1826.

5.2. Final Years and Death

Despite his financial misfortunes and personal grief, or perhaps fueled by them, Scott maintained a prodigious literary output. Between 1826 and 1832, he produced six novels, two short stories, and two plays, along with eleven non-fiction works or volumes, and began keeping a detailed journal. His non-fiction contributions during this period included "The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte" (1827), two volumes of the "History of Scotland" (1829 and 1830), and four installments of the popular "Tales of a Grandfather - Being Stories Taken From Scottish History," written annually from 1828 to 1831, among others. Inspired by the diaries of Samuel Pepys and Lord Byron, Scott also kept a personal journal from 1825 to 1832, which was posthumously published in 1890 as "The Journal of Sir Walter Scott".

By 1831, Scott's health was severely declining. On 29 October 1831, in a vain search for recovery, he embarked on a voyage to Malta and Naples aboard HMS Barham, a frigate provided by the Admiralty. He received a warm welcome and was celebrated wherever he traveled. On his journey home, he boarded the steamboat `Prins Frederik` from Cologne to Rotterdam. While on board, he suffered a final stroke near Emmerich. After receiving local treatment, a steamboat transported him to the steamship `Batavier`, which departed for England on 12 June. By coincidence, Mary Martha Sherwood was also on board and later wrote about their encounter. After landing in England, Scott was transported back to Abbotsford, where he died on 21 September 1832, at the age of 61.

Scott was laid to rest in Dryburgh Abbey, where his wife had been interred earlier. Lady Scott had been buried as an Episcopalian; at Scott's own funeral, three ministers of the Church of Scotland officiated at Abbotsford, and the service at Dryburgh was conducted by an Episcopal clergyman. Although Scott died in debt, his novels continued to sell robustly, and the debts encumbering his estate were fully discharged shortly after his death.

6.1. Religious Beliefs and Freemasonry

Walter Scott was raised as a Presbyterian within the Church of Scotland. In 1806, he was ordained as an elder in Duddingston Kirk and for a period served as a representative elder for the burgh of Selkirk in the General Assembly. In his adult life, he also adhered to the Scottish Episcopal Church; although he seldom attended formal church services, he regularly read the Book of Common Prayer services for family worship. Scott was notably one of the last individuals to be publicly cursed by the Muggletonian movement, a consequence of his vocal opposition to Muggletonianism. Scott's father was a Freemason, a member of Lodge St David, No. 36 (Edinburgh). Following his father's death, Scott also became a Freemason in the same Lodge in 1801.

6.2. Abbotsford House

When Scott was a boy, he occasionally traveled with his father from Selkirk to Melrose, a setting for some of his later novels. At a particular spot, his father would halt the carriage and lead his son to a stone marking the site of the Battle of Melrose (1526).

From 1804, during the summers, Scott resided at Ashestiel, a large house situated on the south bank of the River Tweed, about 3.7 mile ^{(6 km)} north of Selkirk. When his lease on this property expired in 1811, he purchased Cartley Hole Farm, located downstream on the Tweed, nearer Melrose. The farm, colloquially known as "Clarty Hole" (meaning muddy or dirty hole), was famously renamed "Abbotsford" by Scott, in reference to a nearby ford historically used by the monks of Melrose Abbey.

Following a modest enlargement of the original farmhouse between 1811 and 1812, extensive expansions were undertaken in 1816-1819 and 1822-1824. Scott famously described the completed building as "a sort of romance in Architecture" and "a kind of Conundrum Castle to be sure." Working with architects William Atkinson and Edward Blore, Scott became a pioneer of the Scottish Baronial style of architecture, and Abbotsford itself is elaborately adorned with turrets and stepped gabling. Sunlight, filtering through windows enriched with heraldic insignia, illuminated suits of armor, hunting trophies, a library containing over 9,000 volumes, fine furniture, and exquisite paintings. The house's beauty was further enhanced by oak and cedar paneling and carved ceilings featuring coats of arms in their correct colors.

It is estimated that the construction of Abbotsford House cost Scott more than 25.00 K GBP. He continued to acquire land until his estate encompassed nearly 0.4 K mile^{2 (1.00 K km2)}. In 1817, as part of his land purchases, Scott bought the nearby mansion of Toftfield for his friend Adam Ferguson and his siblings to reside in, and at the ladies' request, he bestowed upon it the name Huntlyburn. Ferguson commissioned Sir David Wilkie to paint the Scott family, resulting in the painting "The Abbotsford Family." Completed in 1817, this artwork depicts Scott seated with his family portrayed as country folk, with his wife and two daughters dressed as milkmaids. Ferguson is shown standing to the right with a feather in his cap, and Scott's uncle, Thomas Scott (1731-1823), is visible in the background. The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1818. Abbotsford later lent its name to the Abbotsford Club, founded in 1834 in memory of Sir Walter Scott.

7.1. Critical Reception

Walter Scott's critical reputation has evolved considerably. During his lifetime, he enjoyed immense popularity and was widely read, both in Britain and abroad. For instance, Alessandro Manzoni praised his historical novels as among the most widely read and enjoyed works. However, his critical standing began to decline in the latter half of the 19th century as serious writers shifted from Romanticism to realism, and Scott's works increasingly came to be regarded as suitable primarily for children. This trend intensified in the 20th century. For example, in his seminal 1927 study "Aspects of the Novel," E. M. Forster sharply criticized Scott's writing style as clumsy and slapdash, his characters as "flat," and his plots as thin. In contrast, the novels of Scott's contemporary Jane Austen, initially appreciated by a discerning few (including Scott himself), steadily rose in critical esteem, despite being criticized at the time for their "feminine" and narrow subject matter, which, unlike Scott's, avoided grand historical themes.

Nevertheless, Scott's importance as an innovator remained recognized. He is widely acclaimed as the inventor of the modern historical novel genre, a form that, while some trace its origins to Jane Porter whose work predates Scott's, was undeniably popularized and codified by his success. He served as a colossal inspiration for countless imitators and genre writers across Britain and continental Europe. In the cultural sphere, Scott's Waverley Novels played a significant role in rehabilitating the public perception of the Scottish Highlands and its culture, which had previously been viewed by the English as a barbaric breeding ground for bandits, religious fanaticism, and Jacobite uprisings. Scott also served as chairman of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and was a member of the Royal Celtic Society. His personal contribution to the reinvention of Scottish culture was enormous, even if his re-creations of Highland customs were at times fanciful. Through his novels, the violent religious and political conflicts of Scotland's recent past could be seen as belonging to history, which Scott, as indicated by the subtitle of "Waverley" ("'Tis Sixty Years Since"), defined as events occurring at least 60 years prior. His advocacy for objectivity and moderation, and his strong repudiation of political violence from any side, resonated powerfully in an era when many conservative English speakers feared a French-style revolution on British soil. Scott's orchestration of King George IV's visit to Scotland in 1822 was a pivotal event aimed at inspiring a view of his home country that highlighted the positive aspects of its past while allowing the age of quasi-medieval blood-letting to be laid to rest, envisioning a more constructive and peaceful future.

After decades of relatively little scholarly attention, a revival of critical interest in Scott began in the mid-20th century. While F. R. Leavis had dismissed Scott as a thoroughly bad novelist and a negative influence in "The Great Tradition" (1948), György Lukács ("The Historical Novel," 1937, trans. 1962) and David Daiches ("Scott's Achievement as a Novelist," 1951) offered a Marxian political interpretation of Scott's fiction that generated considerable interest. These were followed in 1966 by Francis R. Hart's major thematic analysis, "Scott's Novels: The Plotting of Historic Survival," covering most of his novels. Scott has proven particularly amenable to Postmodern approaches, especially to the concept of the interplay of multiple voices highlighted by Mikhail Bakhtin, as suggested by the title of the selected papers from the Fourth International Scott Conference in Edinburgh in 1991, "Scott in Carnival." Scott is now increasingly recognized not only as the principal inventor of the historical novel and a key figure in the development of Scottish and world literature, but also as a writer of depth and subtlety who challenges and entertains his readers.

7.2. Memorials and Commemoration

During his lifetime, Scott's portrait was painted by renowned artists such as Sir Edwin Landseer, Sir Henry Raeburn, and James Eckford Lauder. In 1824, a portrait by C. R. Leslie was later engraved by M. I. Danforth in 1829. After Watts Souvenir of 1829 was published, close friends and family hailed it as "the best engraving that had yet appeared of the likeness of the author of Waverley." Post-Scott's life, in 1833, W. J. Thompson painted a miniature for a gold memorial locket.

In Edinburgh, the most iconic memorial is the 61.1-meter-tall Scott Monument, a Victorian Gothic spire designed by George Meikle Kemp. Completed in 1844, 12 years after Scott's death, it dominates the south side of Princes Street. Scott is also commemorated on a stone slab in Makars' Court, outside The Writers' Museum in the Lawnmarket, Edinburgh, alongside other prominent Scottish writers. Quotes from his work are visibly inscribed on the Canongate Wall of the Scottish Parliament Building in Holyrood. A tower dedicated to his memory stands on Corstorphine Hill in the west of the city, and Edinburgh's Waverley railway station, opened in 1854, is named after his first novel.

Other significant memorials to Walter Scott include monuments in Glasgow and New York City.

In Glasgow, the Walter Scott's Monument holds a central position in George Square, the city's main public square. Designed by David Rhind in 1838, the monument features a large column topped by a statue of Scott. A statue of Scott can also be found in New York City's Central Park. Numerous Masonic Lodges have been named after Scott and his novels, including Lodge Sir Walter Scott, No. 859 (Perth, Australia) and Lodge Waverley, No. 597 (Edinburgh, Scotland).

The annual Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction was established in 2010 by the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, whose ancestors had close ties to Sir Walter Scott. With a prize of 25.00 K GBP, it is one of the largest awards in British literature, and the presentation ceremony takes place at Scott's historic home, Abbotsford House.

Scott is also credited with playing a crucial role in safeguarding the Scottish banknote. In 1826, widespread outrage arose in Scotland over the UK Parliament's attempt to ban the production of banknotes smaller than five pounds. Scott responded by writing a series of influential letters to the "Edinburgh Weekly Journal" under the pseudonym "Malachi Malagrowther." His powerful advocacy for the right of Scottish banks to issue their own banknotes generated such public support that the Government was compelled to withdraw the proposed legislation. This successful campaign is commemorated by his enduring image on the front of all notes issued by the Bank of Scotland, with the image on the 2007 series banknotes based on the portrait by Henry Raeburn.

During and immediately after World War I, a movement led by President Wilson and other prominent figures sought to instill patriotism in American schoolchildren, particularly immigrants, and to emphasize America's connection to the literature and institutions of Great Britain. Selected readings from Scott's works were included in middle school textbooks for this purpose. "Ivanhoe" continued to be required reading for many American high school students until the late 1950s. A bust of Scott is displayed in the Hall of Heroes of the National Wallace Monument in Stirling. Twelve streets in Vancouver, British Columbia are named after Scott's books or characters. In The Inch district of Edinburgh, developed in the early 1950s, approximately 30 streets are named after Scott himself (Sir Walter Scott Avenue) and characters or places from his poems and novels, such as Saddletree Loan (after Bartoline Saddletree in "The Heart of Mid-Lothian"), Hazelwood Grove (after Charles Hazelwood in "Guy Mannering"), and Redgauntlet Terrace (after the 1824 novel "Redgauntlet").

7.3. Influence on Literature and Arts

Walter Scott had an immense and pervasive impact across Europe. His historical fiction revolutionized literature by creating "for the first time a sense of the past as a place where people thought, felt and dressed differently." His historical romances influenced a vast array of writers, including Balzac, Dostoevsky, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Dumas, and Pushkin. His unique interpretation of history was eagerly embraced by Romantic nationalists, particularly in Eastern Europe. Early French translations by Auguste Defauconpret were also highly influential.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon was a great admirer of Scott and penned two tributes to him upon his death: "On Walter Scott" in the "Literary Gazette" and "Sir Walter Scott" in "Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book," both in 1832. Towards the end of her life, she began "The Female Picture Gallery," a series of character analyses based on the women in Scott's works.

Victor Hugo, in his 1823 essay "Sir Walter Scott: Apropos of Quentin Durward," articulated Scott's profound literary power:
:Surely there is something strange and marvelous in the talent of this man who disposes of his reader as the wind disposes of a leaf; who leads him at his will into all places and into all times; unveils for him with ease the most secret recesses of the heart, as well as the most mysterious phenomena of nature, as well as the obscurest pages of history; whose imagination caresses and dominates all other imaginations, clothes with the same astonishing truth the beggar with his rags and the king with his robes, assumes all manners, adopts all garbs, speaks all languages; leaves to the physiognomy of the ages all that is immutable and eternal in their lineaments, traced there by the wisdom of God, and all that is variable and fleeting, planted there by the follies of men; does not force, like certain ignorant romancers, the personages of the past to colour themselves with our brushes and smear themselves with our varnish; but compels, by his magic power, the contemporary reader to imbue himself, at least for some hours, with the spirit of the old times, today so much scorned, like a wise and adroit adviser inviting ungrateful children to return to their father.

Alessandro Manzoni's "The Betrothed" (1827) shares thematic similarities with Scott's historical novel "Ivanhoe," though distinctly original. Scott himself acknowledged Manzoni's greatness, telling him in Milan that if Manzoni was his pupil, then "The Betrothed" was his best work. In contrast, Charles Baudelaire's 1847 novella "La Fanfarlo" features the poet Samuel Cramer criticizing Scott as "Oh that tedious author, a dusty exhumer of chronicles! A fastidious mass of descriptions of bric-a-brac... and castoff things of every sort, armor, tableware, furniture, gothic inns, and melodramatic castles where lifeless mannequins stalk about, dressed in leotards." However, Cramer himself is ultimately portrayed as a deluded romantic.

Jane Austen, in a letter to her nephew James Edward Austen on 16 December 1816, playfully referenced Scott: "You & I must try to get hold of one or two, & put them into our Novels;- it would be a fine help to a volume; & we could make our Heroine read it aloud of a Sunday Evening, just as well as Isabella Wardour in The Antiquary, is made to read the History of the Hartz Demon in the ruins of St Ruth- tho' I believe, upon recollection, Lovell is the Reader." In Austen's 1817 novel "Persuasion," Anne Elliot and Captain James Benwick discuss the "richness of the present age" of poetry, debating the merits of "Marmion" and "The Lady of the Lake."

While researching her historical novel "The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck" (1830), Mary Shelley wrote to Walter Scott on 25 May 1829, seeking information about any works or manuscripts concerning Perkin Warbeck. She concluded her letter with profound admiration:
:I hope you will forgive my troubling you. It is almost impertinent to say how foolish it appears to me that I should intrude on your ground, or to compliment one all the world so highly appreciates. But as every traveller when they visit the Alps endeavours, however imperfectly, to express their admiration in the Inn's album, so it is impossible to address the Author of Waverley without thanking him for the delight and instruction derived from the inexhaustible source of his genius, and trying to express a part of the enthusiastic admiration his works inspire.

In Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" (1847), St. John Rivers gives Jane a copy of "Marmion" for "evening solace." Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" was influenced by Scott's novels, particularly "Rob Roy" (1817), with its setting in the "wilds of Northumberland" and characters like Cathy Earnshaw sharing similarities with Diana Vernon. In Anne Brontë's "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" (1848), the narrator, Gilbert Markham, presents an elegantly bound copy of "Marmion" to Helen Graham, the "tenant of Wildfell Hall," whom he is courting. In George Eliot's "Middlemarch" (1871), Mr. Trumbull praises Scott, stating, "You will not get any writer to beat him in a hurry, I think-he will not, in my opinion, be speedily surpassed."

Thomas Hardy, in his 1888 essay "The Profitable Reading of Fiction," remarked on the structural perfection of "The Bride of Lammermoor," highlighting its unique quality among Scott's works:
:Tested by such considerations as these there are obviously many volumes of fiction remarkable, and even great, in their character-drawing, their feeling, their philosophy, which are quite second-rate in their structural quality as narratives. Their fewness is remarkable, and bears out the opinion expressed earlier in this essay, that the art of novel-writing is as yet in its tentative stage only.... The Bride of Lammermoor is an almost perfect specimen of form, which is the more remarkable in that Scott, as a rule, depends more upon episode, dialogue, and description, for exciting interest, than upon the well-knit interdependence of parts.
Many other British novelists influenced by Scott include Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Charles Kingsley, and Robert Louis Stevenson, as well as children's writers like Charlotte Yonge and G. A. Henty.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, in an 1820 letter to his sister Elizabeth, expressed his enjoyment of Scott's poetry and eagerness to read more of his novels: "I have bought the Lord of the Isles and intend either to send or bring it to you. I like it as well as any of Scott's other poems... I shall read The Abbot, by the author of Waverley, as soon as I can hire it. I have read all of Scott's novels except that, I wish I had not, that I might have the pleasure of reading them again." Edgar Allan Poe, an admirer of Scott, was particularly captivated by "The Bride of Lammermoor," calling it "that purest, and most enthralling of fictions," and "the master novel of Scott." In a speech delivered in Salem, Massachusetts, on 6 January 1860, to raise funds for the families of John Brown and his followers, Ralph Waldo Emerson cited Brown as an example of true chivalry, suggesting that "Walter Scott would have delighted to draw his picture and trace his adventurous career."

Henry James, in his 1864 essay "Fiction and Sir Walter Scott," praised Scott as a natural storyteller:
:Scott was a born story-teller: we can give him no higher praise. Surveying his works, his character, his method, as a whole, we can liken him to nothing better than to a strong and kindly elder brother, who gathers his juvenile public about him at eventide, and pours out a stream of wondrous improvisation. Who cannot remember an experience like this? On no occasion are the delights of fiction so intense. Fiction? These are the triumphs of fact. In the richness of his invention and memory, in the infinitude of his knowledge, in his improvidence for the future, in the skill with which he answers, or rather parries, sudden questions, in his low-voiced pathos and his resounding merriment, he is identical with the ideal fireside chronicler. And thoroughly to enjoy him, we must again become as credulous as children at twilight.
In his 1870 memoir "Army Life in a Black Regiment," New England abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson (later editor of Emily Dickinson) recounted how he documented and preserved Negro spirituals while serving as a colonel in the First South Carolina Volunteers. He noted that he was "a faithful student of the Scottish ballads, and had always envied Sir Walter the delight of tracing them out amid their own heather, and of writing them down piecemeal from the lips of aged crones."

According to Marx's daughter Eleanor Marx, Scott was "an author to whom Karl Marx again and again returned, whom he admired and knew as well as he did Balzac and Fielding." Mark Twain, in his 1883 "Life on the Mississippi," satirized the perceived impact of Scott's writings, humorously declaring that Scott "had so large a hand in making Southern character, as it existed before the American Civil War" that he was "in great measure responsible for the war." Twain coined the term "Sir Walter Scott disease" to describe a reverence for aristocracy, social acceptance of duels and vendettas, and a taste for fantasy and Romanticism, which he attributed to the South's perceived lack of advancement. Twain also targeted Scott in "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," naming a sinking boat the "Walter Scott" (1884), and in "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" (1889), the main character frequently utters "Great Scott!" as an oath, though by the end of the book, he himself becomes absorbed in the world of knights in armor, reflecting Twain's complex views.

In Lucy Maud Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables" (1908), Anne is depicted dreamily reciting the battle canto from "Marmion" while bringing in cows, exulting in its "rushing lines and the clash of spears in its imagery." The idyllic Cape Cod retreat of suffragists Verena Tarrant and Olive Chancellor in Henry James's "The Bostonians" (1886) is named Marmion, evoking what James saw as the Quixotic idealism of such social reformers.

In Virginia Woolf's "To the Lighthouse," Mrs. Ramsey observes her husband reading Scott:
:He was reading something that moved him very much... He was tossing the pages over. He was acting it - perhaps he was thinking himself the person in the book. She wondered what book it was. Oh, it was one of old Sir Walter's she saw, adjusting the shade of her lamp so that the light fell on her knitting. For Charles Tansley had been saying (she looked up as if she expected to hear the crash of books on the floor above) - had been saying that people don't read Scott any more. Then her husband thought, "That's what they'll say of me;" so he went and got one of those books?... It fortified him. He clean forgot all the little rubs and digs of the evening... and his being so irritable with his wife and so touchy and minding when they passed his books over as if they didn't exist at all...[Scott's] feeling for straight forward simple things, these fishermen, the poor old crazed creature in Mucklebackit's cottage [in The Antiquary] made him feel so vigorous, so relieved of something that he felt roused and triumphant and could not choke back his tears. Raising the book a little to hide his face he let them fall and shook his head from side to side and forgot himself completely (but not one or two reflections about morality and French novels and English novels and Scott's hands being tied but his view perhaps being as true as the other view), forgot his own bothers and failures completely in poor Steenie's drowning and Mucklebackit's sorrow (that was Scott at his best) and the astonishing delight and feeling of vigor that it gave him. Well, let them improve upon that, he thought as he finished the chapter... The whole of life did not consist in going to bed with a woman, he thought, returning to Scott and Balzac, to the English novel and the French novel.
In a letter to Hugh Walpole on 12 September 1932, Virginia Woolf further expressed her admiration: "I don't know him [Scott] accurately and minutely as you do, but only in a warm, scattered, amourous way... I shall read the Monastery again and then I shall go back to [The Heart of] Midlothian. I cant read the Bride [of Lammermoor], because I know it almost by heart: also the Antiquary (I think those two, as a whole, are my favourites)... One of the things I want to write about one day is the Shakespearean talk in Scott: the dialogues: surely that is the last appearance in England of the blank verse of Falstaff and so on! We have lost the art of the poetic speech."

John Cowper Powys described Scott's romances as "by far the most powerful literary influence of my life," evident in his historical novels "Porius: A Romance of the Dark Ages" and "Owen Glendower." In 1951, science-fiction author Isaac Asimov wrote "Breeds There a Man...?," a short story whose title vividly alludes to Scott's "The Lay of the Last Minstrel." In Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1960), the protagonist's brother is made to read Scott's "Ivanhoe" to the ailing Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose. Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s "Mother Night" (1961) prefaces its text with the first six lines of "Breathes there the man..." In "Knights of the Sea" (2010) by Canadian author Paul Marlowe, there are several references to "Marmion," an inn named after "Ivanhoe," and a fictitious Scott novel titled "The Beastmen of Glen Glammoch."

Beyond literature, Scott had a considerable influence on composers, despite his own basic appreciation for music. Approximately 90 operas based on his poems and novels have been identified, with the most celebrated being Rossini's "La donna del lago" (1819, based on "The Lady of the Lake") and Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" (1835, based on "The Bride of Lammermoor"). Other notable operas include Donizetti's 1829 opera "Il castello di Kenilworth" (based on "Kenilworth"), Georges Bizet's "La jolie fille de Perth" (1867, based on "The Fair Maid of Perth"), and Arthur Sullivan's "Ivanhoe" (1891). Many of Scott's songs were set to music throughout the 19th century. Seven lyrics from "The Lady of the Lake" were set to music in German translations by Franz Schubert, including "Ellens dritter Gesang" (popularly known as 'Schubert's Ave Maria'). Three lyrics, also in translation, appear in Beethoven's "Twenty-Five Scottish Songs, Op. 108." Other significant musical responses include three overtures: "Waverley" (1828) and "Rob Roy" (1831) by Hector Berlioz, and "The Land of the Mountain and the Flood" (1887, alluding to "The Lay of the Last Minstrel") by Hamish MacCunn. The song "Hail to the Chief," from "The Lady of the Lake," was set to music around 1812 by songwriter James Sanderson (c. 1769 - c. 1841).

The Waverley Novels are rich with eminently paintable scenes, and many 19th-century artists responded to them. Among the outstanding paintings of Scott's subjects are: Richard Parkes Bonington's "Amy Robsart and the Earl of Leicester" (c. 1827) from "Kenilworth" in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Delacroix's "L'Enlèvement de Rebecca" (1846) from "Ivanhoe" in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and Millais's "The Bride of Lammermoor" (1878) in Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. Walter Scott also features as a character in Sara Sheridan's 2021 novel "The Fair Botanists."

8.1. Novels

The "Waverley novels" is the collective title given to the long series of Scott's novels released from 1814 to 1832, taking its name from the first novel, "Waverley." The following is a chronological list of the entire series, including sub-series:

• 1814: Waverley
• 1815: Guy Mannering
• 1816: Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk
• 1816: The Antiquary
• 1816: The Black Dwarf and Old Mortality (the 1st installment from the subset series, Tales of My Landlord)
• 1817: Rob Roy
• 1818: The Heart of Mid-Lothian (the 2nd installment from the subset series, Tales of My Landlord)
• 1819: The Bride of Lammermoor and A Legend of Montrose (the 3rd installment from the subset series, Tales of My Landlord)
• 1819 (dated 1820): Ivanhoe
• 1820: The Monastery
• 1820: The Abbot
• 1821: Kenilworth
• 1822: The Pirate
• 1822: The Fortunes of Nigel
• 1822: Peveril of the Peak
• 1823: Quentin Durward
• 1824: St. Ronan's Well
• 1824: Redgauntlet
• 1825: The Betrothed and The Talisman (a subset series, Tales of the Crusaders)
• 1826: Woodstock
• 1827: Chronicles of the Canongate (containing two short stories: "The Highland Widow" and "The Two Drovers", and a novel: "The Surgeon's Daughter")
• 1828: The Fair Maid of Perth (the 2nd installment from the subset series, Chronicles of the Canongate)
• 1829: Anne of Geierstein
• 1832: Count Robert of Paris and Castle Dangerous (the 4th installment from the subset series, Tales of My Landlord)

Other novels:

• 1831-1832: The Siege of Malta (a finished novel published posthumously in 2008)
• 1832: Bizarro (an unfinished novel or novella published posthumously in 2008)

8.2. Short Stories

• 1811: "The Inferno of Altisidora"
• 1817: "Christopher Corduroy"
• 1818: "Alarming Increase of Depravity Among Animals"
• 1818: "Phantasmagoria"
• 1827: "The Highland Widow" and "The Two Drovers" (published within Chronicles of the Canongate)
• 1828: "My Aunt Margaret's Mirror", "The Tapestried Chamber", and "Death of the Laird's Jock" (from the series The Keepsake Stories)
• 1832: "A Highland Anecdote"

8.3. Poetry

Many of the short poems or songs released by Scott (or later anthologized) were originally not separate pieces but parts of longer poems interspersed throughout his novels, tales, and dramas.

• 1796: The Chase, and William and Helen: Two Ballads, translated from the German of Gottfried Augustus Bürger
• 1800: Glenfinlas
• 1802-1803: Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border
• 1805: The Lay of the Last Minstrel
• 1806: Ballads and Lyrical Pieces
• 1808: Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field
• 1810: The Lady of the Lake
• 1811: The Vision of Don Roderick
• 1813: The Bridal of Triermain
• 1813: Rokeby
• 1815: The Field of Waterloo
• 1815: The Lord of the Isles
• 1817: Harold the Dauntless
• 1825: Bonnie Dundee

8.4. Plays

• 1799: Goetz of Berlichingen, with the Iron Hand: A Tragedy (an English-language translation of the 1773 German-language play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe entitled Götz von Berlichingen)
• 1822: Halidon Hill
• 1823: MacDuff's Cross
• 1830: The Doom of Devorgoil
• 1830: Auchindrane

8.5. Non-fiction

• 1814-1817: The Border Antiquities of England and Scotland (a work co-authored by Luke Clennell and John Greig with Scott's contribution consisting of the substantial introductory essay, originally published in 2 volumes from 1814 to 1817)
• 1815-1824: Essays on Chivalry, Romance, and Drama (a supplement to the 1815-1824 editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica)
• 1816: Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk
• 1819-1826: Provincial Antiquities of Scotland
• 1821-1824: Lives of the Novelists
• 1825-1832: The Journal of Sir Walter Scott (first published in 1890)
• 1826: The Letters of Malachi Malagrowther
• 1827: The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte, Emperor of the French. With a Preliminary View of the French Revolution. (published in 9 volumes)
• 1828: Religious Discourses. By a Layman
• 1828: Tales of a Grandfather; Being Stories Taken from Scottish History (the 1st installment from the series, Tales of a Grandfather)
• 1829: The History of Scotland: Volume I
• 1829: Tales of a Grandfather; Being Stories Taken from Scottish History (the 2nd installment from the series, Tales of a Grandfather)
• 1830: The History of Scotland: Volume II
• 1830: Tales of a Grandfather; Being Stories Taken from Scottish History (the 3rd installment from the series, Tales of a Grandfather)
• 1830: Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft
• 1831: Tales of a Grandfather; Being Stories Taken from the History of France (the 4th installment from the series, Tales of a Grandfather)
• 1831: Tales of a Grandfather: The History of France (Second Series) (unfinished; published 1996)