One of the main forces in early nineteenth-century literature, Sir Walter Scott was notonly among the greatest novelists of his time, but influenced generations of writers,including literary giants such as Stendhal and Tolstoy. Though chiefly rememberedfor his historical epics Ivanhoe, Rob Roy and Guy Mannering, Scott penned anumber of short stories which have been unjustly eclipsed by the enduring fame ofhis longer works.Mostly set in the Highlands of Scotland and presenting a vast array of memorablecharacters, the stories in this collection are tinged with an element of thesupernatural or explore themes of murder and guilt, revealing the author's greattalent in the shorter-fiction form. This volume also includes a long excerpt fromScott's Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, which questions how much credit canbe given to ghost stories and alleged supernatural occurrences.
