Walter Scott, The Heart of Mid-Lothian

Annika Bautz (University of Plymouth)
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Walter Scott's sixth work of fiction appeared as

Tales of My Landlord

, second series, and comprised one novel:

The Heart of Mid-Lothian.

The work was published in July 1818, in four volumes. Scott's name did not appear on the title page; instead, the tale purported to have been left in manuscript by Peter Pattieson, schoolmaster at Gandercleugh, to his superior Jedediah Cleishbotham, who had edited it into publishable form. Contemporary readers saw through this cover and attributed the novel to the same anonymous hand that had written the immensely popular Waverley novels which had appeared in quick succession since 1814.

The Heart of Mid-Lothian

itself was expected to be extraordinarily popular: its publisher Archibald Constable printed a first edition of 10,000 copies (the averageā€¦

1974 words

Citation: Bautz, Annika. "The Heart of Mid-Lothian". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 July 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=625, accessed 29 March 2024.]

625 The Heart of Mid-Lothian 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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