Sir Walter Scott

Andrew Lang's vivid literary portrait of Sir Walter Scott opens with a compelling purpose: to give readers a compact view of the great poet, novelist, antiquarian, and national figure for whom a fuller life may be too long. From the start, Scott emerges not as a remote monument, but as a living force shaped by ancestry, landscape, and legend. His mixed Border, Highland, Celtic, Norman, and Anglo-Scottish roots, together with the ballads and battle tales of Sandyknowe, fed the historical imagination that would animate his poems and novels. The biography follows his childhood illness, lameness, schooldays in Edinburgh, first love, and early career, showing a stubborn, quick-minded boy who excelled in "general information" rather than formal study. It also presents Scott as a spontaneous genius: an improviser who trusted narrative momentum over polish, turned daily life into story, and found his deepest strength in instinct, memory, and Border tradition. His novels are defended as humane, energetic creations filled with unforgettable kings, rogues, servants, and especially heroines such as Jeanie Deans, Rebecca, Diana Vernon, and Lucy Ashton. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.