Walter Scott, página 4 de 23

Un nativo de Edimburgo, caballero y pícaro, noble y rufián, de nombre Chrystal Croftangry, cuenta a un público que él siente cercano -como si estuviera en una taberna escocesa una noche de invierno alrededor de un fuego- una serie de historias que acontecen en su ciudad y en su país. El libro se va tejiendo como al modo de unas 1001 noches escocesas. De las historias que se nos cuentan, todas bastante amenas, destacan por su patetismo y fondo trágico "La viuda de las tierras altas" y "Los dos pastores". Quizás el verdadero protagonista del libro, además de los hombres y mujeres de Escocia, sea el arte de contar historias interesantes, historias que parten de la anécdota local para llegar a tipos y verdades universales.

Translator: Auguste Baptiste Defauconpret

Contents: / Amboyna / The state of Innocence / Aureng-Zebe / All for Love / (Note: 1808 edn.)

(Note: Vols. III & IV of Tales of the Crusaders)

Rob Roy is one of Walter Scotts most famous and acclaimed novels, telling the story of the legendary outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor and his thrilling adventures in the Scottish Highlands. Set around the time of the first Jacobite uprising, the characters must navigate a harsh landscape in which danger is constantly present and no one can be trusted. The protagonist is Francis Osbaldistone who travels to Scotland to reclaim stolen documents and rescue his family from financial ruin. On his journey, Francis encounters forbidden romance, violent rebellions, possible ghosts, and the titular Rob Roy. This sprawling novel is an incredible romantic tale as it follows a hero on a perilous adventure to defeat deceitful villains and rescue his true love. Rob Roy has some gothic elements, such as spectral figures but remains true to Scotts acclaimed romanticism as he vividly and lyrically portrays Scotlands natural beauty. A gripping novel that is sure to entertain and enthral fans of romantic and historical literature.

The Monastery is a novel by Walter Scott that tells the story of the Monastery of Kennaquhair and its mysterious occupants and supernatural situations. The monastery is on the brink of destruction as not only are Protestant soldiers marching on it but its inhabitants are plagued by betrayal and infighting. The tale revolves around Halbert and Edward, two troublesome brothers who are both in love with the same woman, Mary. Tensions are already high in the abbey due to sightings of a celestial spectre before Piercie Shafton, an Englishman on the run for treason, arrives to seek solitude. Piercie is one of Scotts funniest characters as he pompously pursues Mary, much to the chagrin of Halbert, who challenges Piercie to a duel that will determine the fate of the monastery and all its occupants. The Monastery is written in the gothic tradition as the haunting White Lady plagues the characters. Scotts romantic style is still present as the White Lady is an incredibly poetic character and he uses lyrical prose to portray an abbey on the verge of ruin. The Monastery is a highly dramatic story, laced with political intrigue, social satire, and haunting imagery that will stick with readers long after they have finished it. This thrilling novel will have readers on the edge of their seats awaiting the fate of the monastery and its citizens and is recommended for fans of gothic literature.

Count Robert of Paris is Walter Scotts penultimate novel from his celebrated Waverley series. It is a historical novel set in Constantinople during the First Crusade. The story revolves around the titular Count Robert who is captured by the Byzantine emperor and challenged to a duel to the death. Count Robert and his friend Hereward must escape their treacherous captors and reunite with their true loves, but they face many dangerous challenges along the way. This novel is a gripping read, brimming with romance, power struggles, political intrigue, and fanaticism that threatens to destroy the very foundations of civilization. Scotts incredible romantic prose is on display in this tale as he elegantly describes Byzantine Constantinople. The historical aspect of the story focuses on the clash between cultures as Scott poetically displays the precarious relationship between the crusaders and the Byzantine emperor. This novel is a thrilling adventure through the streets of exotic Constantinople and should be read by fans of historical fiction.

Few novels can match Rob Roy for suspense and narrative daring, or in the swirl of colour of its characters. Scott's tour de force of family intrigue has two heroes. Francis Osbaldistone, dispatched in disgrace from London, joins his foxhunting cousins at their ancestral seat in Northumberland. His suspicions of villainous Rashleigh Osbaldistone, and the request of Diana Vernon, the cousin whom Francis loves, draw in Scott's other hero the brave, bitter Highlander and enigmatic outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor. Set on the eve of the Jacobite rising of 1715, Rob Roy (1817), in some ways the quintessential English-Scottish encounter, does not give up its secrets until the very last page.

From Lands End to John OGroats, from Maine to Florida, from France to Russia, readers found Scotts novels irresistible. It was Waverley that may be considered as the instrument of that success - the historical novel, properly speaking, did not exist before Scott wrote it. In Waverley, his highly readable story of a romantic young man in the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, Scott blends realism and romance, the old world and the new, Enlightenment and Romanticism. Waverley stands ultimately for peace and stability, for social and political cohesion and harmony - qualities which may, consciously or unconsciously, account for its immense popularity.