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Loading... The Fair Maid of Perth (1828)by Sir Walter Scott
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. A bit slow paced but we have to consider that this is an early example of a manly tale of bood and gore. Set in Perth, close to the ethical , geological and ethnic boundary called "The Highland Line," we have an iiitial plot of virtue attacked by a scion of the careless nobility, in fact the heir to the Sots' throne. He has a lust for the daugter of a prosperous craftsman. She, of course has considerations of her own, and has a mind to take to the cloister rather than face the problems of 1396 Perth. But, as the politicians of the Scots' court have just come up with an interesting way to reduce the threat to law and order, and amuse the staid folk of Perth,with a spectacle little found since the fall of Rome, a combat to the death between two clans fielding 30 men each, and placed in front of an audience, there are a set of machinations in play., The work was published in 1828, and Scott was an experienced novelist by then, so, virtue is rewarded, and the schemers against maidenly virtue are punished, while the fans of gore get some of what they want, and a signpost is set for later writers like Bernard Cornwell, who deal with the mixture of public poloicy and private revenge. ( ) I read this long ago and still recall the grim old clansman saying "another for Hector" as his sons go in to die one after the other in defense of their unworthy chief. At least, I think that's the way it was. I do know it was about an incident in which the Scottish king tried to settle a feud by a combat of a fixed number (30?) on a side between 2 clans no reviews | add a review
Belongs to SeriesChronicles of the Canongate, publication order (1828, 2nd set) Waverley Novels (1402) Waverley Novels, publication (1828) Belongs to Publisher SeriesEveryman's Library (132) Is contained inContainsHas the adaptationNotable Lists
Find out what Scott really wrote going back to the original manuscripts, a team of scholars has uncovered what Scott originally wrote and intended his public to read before errors, misreadings and expurgations crept in during production. The Fair Maid of Perth centres on the merchant classesof Perth in the fourteenth century, and their commitment to the pacific values of trade, in a bloody and brutal era in which no right to life is recognised, in which the Scottish nobles fight for control of the weak Scottish monarchy, and clans are prepared to extinguish each other to gain supremacyin the central Highlands. It is a remarkable novel, in part because late in his career Scott has a new subject, and in part because he employs a spare narrative style that is without parallel in the rest of his oeuvre. Far too many critics, from his son-in-law J.G. Lockhart to the present day, have written off late Scott,and seen his last works as evidence of failing powers. Readers of the Edinburgh Edition of The Fair Maid of Perth will see that these critics are mistaken, for in it we witness a luminous creative intelligence working at high pressure to produce a tightly organised and deeply moving novel. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.7Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Early 19th century 1800-37LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. Columbia University PressAn edition of this book was published by Columbia University Press. |