Guy Mannering The Astrologer - Softcover

Scott, Sir Walter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 143829722X ISBN 13: 9781438297224

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2009

Synopsis

Guy Mannering or The Astrologer is a novel by Sir Walter Scott, published anonymously in 1815.
According to an introduction that Scott wrote in 1829, he had originally intended to write a story of the supernatural, but changed his mind soon after starting.
The book was a huge success, selling out the day after its first edition.
Guy Mannering is set in the 1760s to 1780s, mostly in the Galloway area of southwest Scotland, but with episodes in Cumberland, Holland, and India. It tells the story of Harry Bertram, the son of the Laird of Ellangowan, who is kidnapped at the age of five by smugglers after witnessing the murder of a customs officer. It follows the fortunes and adventures of Henry and his family in subsequent years, and the struggle over the inheritance of Ellangowan.
The novel also depicts the lawlessness that existed at the time, when smugglers operated along the coast and thieves frequented the country roads.

About this title

About the Author

Walter Scott (1771-1832) was born and educated in Edinburgh. He is credited with establishing the form of the historical novel.

Claire Lamont is a professor of English Romantic Literature at University of Newcastle and series editor for Walter Scott in Penguin Classics.

P. D. Garside (editor) is a reader in English at University of Wales, Cardiff.

Jane Millgate is a professor of English at Victoria College, University of Toronto, Canada. She is the author of Walter Scott: The Making of the Novelist.

Review

The volumes have been carefully and critically edited from the original manuscripts and now the texts, which in each case capture large numbers of readings never before printed and clear away elements of corruption in existing editions, are as close to what Scott originally wrote as the skills of the editorial team can make them. The Edinburgh Edition respects Scott the artist by 'restoring' versions of the novels that are not quite what his first readers saw. Indeed, it returns to manuscripts that the printers never handled, as Scott's fiction before 1827 was transcribed before it reached the printshop. Each volume of the Edinburgh edition presents an uncluttered text of one work, followed by an Essay on the Text by the editor of the work, a list of the emendations that have been made to the first edition, explanatory notes and a glossary! The editorial essays are histories of the respective texts. Some of them are almost 100 pages long; when they are put together they constitute a fascinating and lucid account of Scott's methods of compostion and his financial manoeuvres. This edition is for anyone who takes Scott seriously. The Edinburgh Edition is essential to any Scott scholar![the student] will turn first to the superbly specific textual essays that follow the readings. Unique to this handsome edition is Scott's graphic depiction of characters from Edinburgh's literary scene. The latest additions to the monumental Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels ! all three editors maintain consistently high quality in preparing what will surely be the standard edition of Scott's complete novels ! as might be expected, the Essays on the Text are of central importance in the editions, because of the minutely detailed yet lucid accounts of the textual choices made. The volumes have been carefully and critically edited from the original manuscripts and now the texts, which in each case capture large numbers of readings never before printed and clear away elements of corruption in existing editions, are as close to what Scott originally wrote as the skills of the editorial team can make them. The Edinburgh Edition respects Scott the artist by 'restoring' versions of the novels that are not quite what his first readers saw. Indeed, it returns to manuscripts that the printers never handled, as Scott's fiction before 1827 was transcribed before it reached the printshop. Each volume of the Edinburgh edition presents an uncluttered text of one work, followed by an Essay on the Text by the editor of the work, a list of the emendations that have been made to the first edition, explanatory notes and a glossary! The editorial essays are histories of the respective texts. Some of them are almost 100 pages long; when they are put together they constitute a fascinating and lucid account of Scott's methods of compostion and his financial manoeuvres. This edition is for anyone who takes Scott seriously. The Edinburgh Edition is essential to any Scott scholar![the student] will turn first to the superbly specific textual essays that follow the readings. Unique to this handsome edition is Scott's graphic depiction of characters from Edinburgh's literary scene. The latest additions to the monumental Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels ! all three editors maintain consistently high quality in preparing what will surely be the standard edition of Scott's complete novels ! as might be expected, the Essays on the Text are of central importance in the editions, because of the minutely detailed yet lucid accounts of the textual choices made.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 143829722X
• ISBN 13: 9781438297224
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 292