Waverley or Tis Sixty Years Since - The Works of Sir Walter Scott (Hardcover)

1901. Sir Walter Scott was a master of diverse talents. He was a man of letters, a dedicated historian and historiographer, a well-read translator of foreign texts, and a talented poet. Deriving most of his material from his native Scotland, its history and its legends, Scott invented and mastered what we know today as the historical novel. This is the first in the Waverly series and in many ways established the pattern that Scott would follow throughout: a young English protagonist of romantic inclinations joins his regiment in Scotland; while on leave, he visits the estate of a family friend, the kindly Baron Bradwardine, a lovable, pedantic antiquarian of Jacobite leanings, and is attracted to his host's daughter, Rose. However, while visiting Glennaquoich, the Highland hideout of freebooter Donald Bean Lean, he falls in love with Flora, sister of a young chieftain, Fergus Mac-Ivor, a staunch adherent of the Stewarts. Arrested and cashiered for supposed disloyalty to the Hanoverian regime, Edward Waverley is rescued from prison by Rose and participates in the adventures of Bonnie Prince Charlie and his adherents. Fortunately for the politically naive youth, at the Battle of Preston-pans he rescues a Colonel Talbot, who after the debacle of Culloden in 1746 secures pardons for Waverley and the Bradwardines. Flora rejects the vacillating Waverley in favor of convent life after her brother's execution for treason. The protagonist marries Rose instead, and assists her father in the rehabilitation of his estate. See the many other works by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.