Old Mortality (Penguin English Library ; El 98) - Softcover

Scott, Walter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140430989 ISBN 13: 9780140430981

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1975

Synopsis

The story opens dramatically with the repercussions of the murder of the Archbishop of St.Andrews by a group of "Covenanting Whigs" and spans ten years of tumult: from the defeat of John Graham of Claverhouse by the covenanters at Drumclog, and the victory of the Duke of Monmouth over the Covenanters at Bothwell Bridge, to the aftermath of the batle at Killiecrankie in 1689.

About this title

About the Author

Sir Walter Scott was born in Edinburgh in 1771. Educated for the law, he obtained the office of sheriff-depute of Selkirkshire in 1799 and in 1806 the office of clerk of session, a post whose duties he fulfilled for some twenty-five years. His lifelong interest in Scottish antiquity and the ballads which recorded Scottish history led him to try his hand at narrative poems of adventure and action. The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), Marmion (1808), and The Lady of the Lake (1810) made his reputation as one of the leading poets of his time. A novel, Waverley, which he had begun in 1805, was published anonymously in 1814. Subsequent novels appeared with the note “by the author of Waverley”; hence his novels often are called collectively “the Waverley novels.” Some of the most famous of these are Old Mortality (1816), Rob Roy (1817), Ivanhoe (1819), Kenilworth (1821), and Quentin Durward (1823). In recognition of his literary work Scott was made a baronet in 1819. During his last years he held various official positions and published biographies, editions of Swift and Dryden, tales, lyric poetry, and various studies of history and antiquity. He died in 1832.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 1975
• ISBN 10: 0140430989
• ISBN 13: 9780140430981
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 608