The Abbot

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time. 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. Born in College Wynd in the Old Town of Edinburgh in 1771, the son of a solicitor, Scott survived a childhood bout of polio in 1773 that left him lame. To cure his lameness he was sent in 1773 to live in the rural Borders region at his paternal grandparents' farm at Sandyknowe, adjacent to the ruin of Smailholm Tower, the earlier family home. Here he was taught to read by his aunt Jenny, and learned from her the speech patterns and many of the tales and legends that characterised much of his work.
more

The Waverley Novels are a long series of books by Sir Walter Scott. For nearly a century they were among the most popular and widely-read novels in all of Europe. Because he did not publicly acknowledge authorship until 1827, they take their name from Waverley , which was the first. The later books... bore the words "by the author of Waverley" on their title pages. More loosely, the term is used to refer to all of his novels. The Tales of my Landlord series was not advertised as "by the author of Waverley" and thus is not always included in this list. Originally printed by James Ballantyne on the Canongate in Edinburgh, brother of one of Scott's close friends, John Ballantyne . Some of the early editions were lavishly illustrated by George Cattermole. The two definitive editions are the 48-volume set published between 1829 and 1833 by Robert Cadell , based on previous editions, with new introductions and appendices by Scott, and the 30-volume set, based on manuscripts, published by the Edinburgh University Press and Columbia University Press in the 1990s.
more