Waverley
1814
(A young soldier on leave in the Highlands of Scotland finds himself embroiled in adventure with a mighty clan chieftain, his enchanting sister, and a rebel army).
All text except quotations is copyright 1999 by David Lahti, and represents his views alone. Please comment on this page in my guestbook.
CONTENTS:
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This is a memorable, imaginative, and adventuresome historical novel. It wins one over to its complex and real characters, and to the culture and history of Scotland. It illustrates the spirit of humanity and portrays the universal hope of happiness and love. I found the interspersed poems a charming and skilful complement to the story.
General Preface: To be honest, this section is a long-winded piece of armchair babble, although the first half at least is entertaining, giving us his inspiration for writing-- a romantic and noble inspiration at that. Any work can't be that bad if motivated by chivalry and imagination (if one writes well, of course). The two appendices are pieces of prepublished early work.
Introduction: In this, as in the Advertisement and Preface, Scott is tickled (ad nauseam) by his anonymity. He just can't stop talking about the fact that no one can figure out who is the author of his books!
Volume I: The setting is 1745. After getting to a rather slow start with our hero Waverley down in England and taking up with a regiment which brings him to Scotland, he finds hospitality with a family friend the Baron of Bradwardine (ch.i-xv). The action finally picks up with the travels of Waverley into Highland country-- first into the cave of the cattle drover (thief) Don Bean Lean (xvi-xvii), and then into the hearty and martial domain of the great man of the country, Fergus MacIvor (xviii-xxiv). Fergus and his beautiful sister Flora become good friends of Waverley. Among the adventures are a hearty and spirited Highland feast, a romantic interlude with Flora in an idyllic waterfall setting, and a wild deer hunt where Waverley is injured. After hearing of his father's political disgrace, and as an attempt is made by his commanding officer to do the same to him, he resigns his military post (xxv). All along, pervasive in the book, the Scots are in rebellion-- especially in spirit-- against the English Hanoverians, although the Hanoverians have held power in Britain for decades. Most Scots still hoped for a return of the Stuarts. Back to the plot, in a heartwrenching episode, Waverley proclaims his love to Flora, who rejects him, for the cause of the Stuarts (xxvi-vii). Waverley takes his leave from Fergus, and travels down into the Lowlands, where an act of self-defense among roguish peasants yields him into the hands of a Major Melville, who arrests him as he is wanted for suspicion of treason (xxviii-xxxi). The circumstances of his leave, his adventures, and his resignation being unjustly misconstrued, and despite the intercession of a clergyman Morton, Waverley is conveyed toward Stirling Castle (xxxi-xxxv). However, a peddler who detains the commander along the way turns out to be a secret agent for a bunch of Highlanders, who rescue Waverley by force of arms (xxxvi).
Volume II: Donald Bean Lean's men bring Waverley down to Edinburgh (i-iii), where at Holyrood House he meets Fergus and is introduced to the Jacobite Young Pretender, Bonnie Prince Charlie. Although heretofore not guilty of the charge of treason leveled against him, Waverley is so inspired by Charles that he pledges him his loyalty on the spot, and is given an officer's position and equipment for war against the Hanoverians (iv). The Baron of Bradwardine is there too, as well as a cold Flora. After a dinner and ball in which Waverley distinguishes himself (v-vii), all march to war, in a motley but memorable procession (viii-x). The battle is won easily by the Jacobites (xi). Among the events that follow are the amusing pedantry of Baron Bradwardine (xii), the capture of an English colonel Talbot by Waverley (xiii), and Fergus's rage at Waverley's dealings with him and for the Prince's forbidding Fergus to marry Rose Bradwardine (xiv, xvii). As for Waverley, anxiety begins to grow in him at the discovery of his former sergeant (x), also in discussion with Talbot, with whom he made fast friends and over whom he was placed in charge (xiv-xvii), and in the discovery of papers which proved his former commanding officer innocent of setting him up. He is then compared to Romeo who, when shunned by Rosalind (here Flora), began to look to Juliet (here Rose) (xviii), but he hesitates because of Fergus's interest. Talbot's wife loses a child and her health upon hearing of his capture, and in remorse and pity Waverley gets a parole for him and he is released (xix-xx). Fergus attempts to force Waverley to marry Flora despite his insistence that she rejected him, and their argument results nearly in a duel. The prince breaks them up (xxi-xxii).
[Don't read this paragraph unless you want the ending revealed:]
Fergus one night beholds the Bodach Glas, a grey specter which foretells doom. Fergus makes his peace and friends again with Waverley. The next day, a skirmish with the English separates Waverley and Fergus. Fergus is presumed dead, and Waverley escapes in disguise as a cleric to a Williams's residence. The Scots had retreated after going south, against Fergus's wishes. As Fergus had thought all lost, he had bid Waverley escape (xxiii-iv). Waverley, after hearing of his uncle's trial date being fixed (for treason) unless Waverley shows up to take his place, takes a carriage immediately for London (xxv). He stays with Colonel Talbot, who tells him that the worry about his uncle is untrue, and that Donald Bean Lean has been captured and hanged, but not before admitting that Waverley had not been treasonous when with him. Waverley then goes back to Scotland to see that Rose is well provided for (xxvi). He finds that the Jacobites have been routed, the Prince wanted with a price on his head, Fergus captured, and (in a heartfelt and lamentable description) Bradwardine’s mansion Tully-Veolan burned and destroyed (xxvii). [From here to the end the action and emotion grow ever more climactic and powerful-- tears are to be expected.] Waverley finds the dispossessed Baron living in a nearby hovel, and discovers that Rose had been responsible for Waverley's own rescue from his arrest (xxviii-ix). Waverley also discovers that Talbot had used his influence to grant both Waverley and the Baron complete pardons, and that Waverley was free to come home to his inheritance without fear (xxx). He asks the Baron permission to marry Rose, and is answered with a touching display of affection. The courtship commences with gaiety (xxxi). He leaves to visit Fergus, whom he reaches just as the chieftain is being condemned to death, a sentence he bears with dignity and boldness. Waverley says his last tearful goodbye to an emaciated Flora, who blames her own strong will and encouragement for Fergus's condemnation, and would retire to a nunnery (xxxii). Fergus is conveyed to the executioner in an unforgettable scene (xxxiii). From this horror Waverley finds joy finally in return to his home and family, and then in his wedding to Rose (xxxiv). Finally the Baron regains his estate, Talbot completely restores Tully-Veolan, and all join in a happy feast beneath a stirring painting of Fergus MacIvor and Waverley on the field of battle, in their Highland plaids.
"Painters talk of the difficulty of expressing the existence of compound passions in the same features at the same moment: It would be no less difficult for the moralist to analyze the mixed motives which unite to form the impulse of our actions."
-Vol.I, ch.ii.
"A romantic lover is a strange idolater, who sometimes cares not out of what log he frames the object of his adoration".
-Vol.I, ch.v.
"But patriotism, as it is the fairest, so it is often the most suspicious mask of other feelings".
-Vol.I, ch.vi.
"'I would not have you opine, Captain Waverley, that I am by practice or precept an advocate of ebriety, though it may be that, in our festivity of last night, some of our friends, if not perchance altogether ebrii, or drunken, were, to say the least, ebrioli, by which the ancients designed those who were fuddled, or, as your English vernacular and metaphorical phrase goes, half-seas-over. Not that I would so insinuate respecting you, Captain Waverley, who, like a prudent youth, did rather abstain from potation; nor can it be truly said of myself, who, having assisted at the tables of many great generals and marechals at their solemn carousals, have the art to carry my wine discreetly, and did not, during the whole evening, as ye must have doubtless observed, exceed the bounds of a modest hilarity.'"
-Baron Bradwardine, Vol.I, ch.xii.
"'...to take a tree from the forest, a salmon from the river, a deer from the hill, or a cow from a Lowland strath, is what no Highlander need ever think shame upon.'"
-Evan (one of Donald Bean Lean's men), Vol.I, ch.xviii.
"Shall this be a long or a short chapter?--This is a question in which you, gentle reader, have no vote however much you may be interested in the consequences."
-Vol.I, ch.xxiv.
"'The woman whom you marry, ought to have affections and opinions moulded upon yours. Her studies ought to be your studies;--her wishes, her feelings, her hopes, her fears, should all mingle with yours. She should enhance your pleasures, share your sorrows, and cheer your melancholy.'"
-Flora MacIvor, Vol.I, ch.xxvii.
"'Once more, will you take the plaid, and stay a little while with us among the mists and the crows, in the bravest cause ever sword was drawn in?'"
-Fergus MacIvor, Vol.I, ch.xxviii.
"'O, indolence and indecision of mind! if not in yourselves vices, to how much exquisite misery and mischief do you frequently prepare the way!'"
-Waverley, Vol. II, ch.ix
"It was not fear, it was not ardour,--it was a compound of both, a new and deeply energetic impulse, that with its first emotion chilled and astounded, then fevered and maddened his mind. The sounds around him combined to exalt his enthusiasm; the pipes played, and the clans rushed forward, each in its own dark column."
-Vol.II, ch.xi.
"'...think sometimes on the friends you have lost.'"
-Flora MacIvor, Vol.II, ch.xxxii.
"'But I am no boy, to sit down and weep, because the luck has gone against me. I knew the stake which I risked; we played the game boldly, and forfeit shall be paid manfully.'"
-Fergus MacIvor, Vol.II, ch.xxxiii.
...you yearn to participate in romance and battle in the Scottish countryside, and to raise glasses with barons and chieftains on the side.
If you like this, you'd also like...
(for the Scottish adventurer:)
-Henry the Minstrel, The Wallace (1460).
-Sir Walter Scott, Lord of the Isles (1815).
-Sir Walter Scott, Rob Roy (1817).
-Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped (1886).
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