Kenilworth (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Scott, Sir Walter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140436545 ISBN 13: 9780140436549

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1999

Synopsis

In the court of Elizabeth I, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, is favoured above all the noblemen of England. It is rumoured that the Queen may chose him for her husband, but Leicester has secretly married the beautiful Amy Robsart. Fearing ruin if this were known, he keeps his lovely young wife a virtual prisoner in an old country house. Meanwhile Leicester's manservant Varney has sinister designs on Amy, and enlists an alchemist to help him further his evil ambitions. Brilliantly recreating the splendour and pageantry of Elizabethan England, with Shakespeare, Walter Ralegh and Elizabeth herself among its characters, Kenilworth (1821) is a compelling depiction of intrigue, power struggles and superstition in a bygone age.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY J. H. ALEXANDER
-- Based on the acclaimed Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels
-- The first authoritative edition drawn from Scott's original texts
-- With a special introduction for the Penguin Classic edition

'No historian's Queen Elizabeth was ever so perfectly a woman as the fictitious Elizabeth of Kenilworth, ' wrote Thomas Hardy. Scott's magnificent novel re-creates the drama, and the strange mixture of assurance and profound unease of the Age of Elizabeth through the story of Amy Robsart. A woman of great beauty and integrity, Amy is married to the Earl of Leicester, one of the Queen's favourites, who must keep Amy confined to Cumnor Place and the marriage a secret, or incur royal displeasure.

Rich in character, melodrama and romance, Kenilworth (1821) is rivalled only by the great Elizabethan dramas. Scott amply justified V. S. Pritchett's accolade: 'the single Shakespearean talent of the English novel'.

About the Author:

Walter Scott (1771-1832) was an extremely influential novelist, establishing the form of the historical novel and the short story. He wrote both dramas and novels, including The Antiquary and The Tale of Old Mortality.

J. H. Alexander is currently a Reader in English at the Unversity of Aberdeen and has published critical studies of Walter Scott's poetry. For the Edinburgh edition of the Waverley novels he has also edited The Bride of Lammermoor and A Legend of the Wars of Montrose.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0140436545
• ISBN 13: 9780140436549
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 528