A young English soldier, Edward Waverley, is sent to Scotland and finds himself torn between his love for Flora MacIvor and his duty to his country. Involves the Jacobite rising of 1745-6, the last civil war fought on British soil, and the unsuccessful attempt to restore the Stuarts to the throne. Scott is credited with inventing the historical novel in its modern form. If you read Devoney Looser's new book about the Porter sisters, Sister Novelists, you might disagree with this claim. However that may be, this is an important part of literary history, and Scott and his publishers did a great job exploiting the claim that it heralded a new genre. The book took took the world by storm the same year that Jane Austen's Mansfield Park and Frances Burney's The Wanderer were published. All three novels changed literary history. Introduction by Kathryn Sutherland, edited by Clarie Lamont, and with very helpful notes and glossary. Oxford University Press. Oxford World's Classics. 2015. NEW. $14.00
