The Scottish Chiefs

This has been on my reading list and shelf for ages but when I finally pulled it out I found it was version "edited" by Kate Douglass Wiggin. She states in the into that she doesn't like abridged versions and then goes on to explain her editing took out passages. I call that abridged. I read it anyhow but perhaps someday I will find the complete version.

However, that someday might be a long time from now because I did not enjoy this anywhere near as much as I wanted to. I got lost in the haze of names at times and the basic plot seemed to be Wallace saves the day with great battle, awful Scottish Lords plot against him, repeat and repeat. There was also a strong streak of what felt like 19th century Christianity that seemed very out of show more place. I wanted adventure and I mostly got overwrought melodrama. So much just didn't make much sense. Lady Mar was a fairly impressive villian but it was the same thing each time. I don't know why anyone continued to believe her. She did seem the only human character, everyone was pretty much a plaster saint. So maybe a while before I seek out the complete version. show less

Just grazed this one. But the flavor is apparent from the first few chapters. "Marion and Death!"

"I mean not to offend you, noble lady," continued he; "had I a wife lovely as yourself, and I in like circumstances, I hope in the like manner would defend my life and honor. I knew not the particulars of the affair in which Arthur Heselrigge fell, till I heard it from your lips. I can easily credit them, for I know his unmanly character. Wallace is a Scot, and acted in Scotland as Gilbert Hambledon would have done in England, were it possible for any vile foreigner to there put his foot upon the neck of a countryman of mine"

2115 The Scottish Chiefs or, The Life of Sir William Wallace, by Miss Jane Porter (read 20 Dec 1987) I remember 45 years ago or so my father remarking about what a good book this is. It was first published in 1810. It is a dashing book, much better than the author's Thaddeus of Warsaw, which I read 20 Sep 1987, and though the book is not strictly accurate historically, it tells the story of Sir William Wallace from 1296 to his death in 1305 with verve and enthusiasm. Wallace died in 1305, but to give the story a happy ending the last chapter is devoted to the 1313 battle of Bannockburn. This old-fashioned story, reminiscent for me of Scott's novels written a few years later, was fun to read and I really enjoyed it.

This is the first book I truly fell in love with -- at the age of 15. In the best Victorian tradition, William Wallace is a hero beyond compare (and Mel Gibson, in his violent movie, doesn't come close to capturing the character Jane Porter portrays).

I liked this book. Which is one reason I was disappointed in Braveheart. The movie is a pale shadow of the story here. :)

Beautiful illustrations by N. c. Wyeth.

Beautiful book made even more glorious by N. C. Wyeth's illustrations.