Introductions and Notes from the Magnum Opus

INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES FROM THE MAGNUM OPUS WAVERLEY TO A LEGEND OF THE WARS OF MONTROSE Edited by J. H. Alexander with P. D. Garside and Claire Lamont Between 1829 and 1833 the first complete edition of Scott's fiction appeared, in 48 volumes issued one a month, each illustrated with two engravings, and with introductions and notes by Scott himself. The introductions are semi-autobiographical essays in which he muses on his own art and the circumstances which gave rise to each work. His notes illustrate his text, sometimes with simple glosses, sometimes by quotations from historical sources, but most strikingly with further narratives which parallel rather than explain incidents and situations in the fiction. These volumes constitute the first systematic representation of Scott's contributions to his last great edition, the edition which defined the final shape of Scott's fiction for the nineteenth century. They conclude the publication of the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels, and as they include addenda and corrigenda covering the whole 28 volumes of Scott's fiction in the Edition, they are indispensable to the set. But above all they illustrate the parabolic imagination of the man who made the historical novel an intellectual force. Before their retirement, J. H. Alexander was Reader in English at the University of Aberdeen, P. D. Garside was Professor of Bibliography and Textual Studies at the University of Edinburgh, and Claire Lamont was Professor of English at the University of Newcastle.