Walter Scott The Antiquary Paperback Book

It was early in a fine summers day, near the end of the eighteenth century, when a young man, of genteel appearance, having occasion to go towards the northeast of Scotland, provided himself with a ticket in one of those public carriages which travel between Edinburgh and the Queensferry...So begins Scotts personal favourite among his novels, in characteristically wry and urbane style, as a mysterious young man calling himself Lovel travels idly but fatefully toward the Scottish seaside town of Fairport. Here he is befriended by the antiquary Jonathan Oldbuck, who has taken refuge from his own personal disappointments in the obsessive study of miscellaneous history. Their slow unravelling of Lovels true identity will unearth and redeem the secrets and lies which have devastated the guilthaunted Earl of Glenallan, and will reinstate the tottering fortunes of Sir Arthur Wardour and his daughter Isabella. First published in 1816 in the aftermath of Waterloo, The Antiquary deals with the problem of how to understand the past so as to enable the future. Set in the tense times of the wars with revolutionary France, it displays Scotts matchless skill at painting the social panorama and in creating vivid characters, from the earthy beggar Edie Ochiltree to the loqacious and shrewdly humorous Antiquary himself. The text is based on Scotts own final, authorized version, the Magnum Opus edition of 1829. ABOUT THE SERIES For over 100 years Oxford Worlds Classics has made available the... | Walter Scott The Antiquary Paperback Book