The Novels of Walter Scott and His Literary Relations

Using a wealth of diverse source material this book comprises an innovative critical study which, for the first time, examines Scott through the filter of his female contemporaries. It not only provides thought-provoking ideas about their handling of, for example, the love-plot, but also produces a different, more sombre Scott. "By means of close and ingenious readings of the Scottish novels by Scott's female contemporaries - Brunton, Ferrier, Johnstone - this study enhances and extends our understanding of just how rich and complex, if not to say how radical in every sense, was his own fictional art. While engaging fully with current criticism in the field, it keeps a sharp eye on Scott's legacy among the nineteenth century novelists both British and European who followed him. In doing so it raises important questions about the role and representation of violence in the making of the modern state, and many of the paradoxes inherent in the idea of the British union. As we should expect from the first modern editor of Johnstone's Clan-Albin the author deals expertly with the contradictions which characterize her work and, by exploring her overtly radical political agenda, is able to expose how the maintenance of Christian fortitude in both Brunton and Ferrier may in fact complement elements of a proto-feminist sensibility. This in turn bears on the discussion of the re-structuring of models of masculinity in the period and the treatment of military and 'manly' courage and the rendering of female desire manifest not only in Scott's 'heroic romance', but more widely in European fiction."--Simon Edwards, Principle Lecturer in English Literature, University of Roehampton, London 'Monnickendam takes us beyond Scott and Hogg with a refreshingly important reclamation of women's writing and its importance to the national tale in Scotland.' - Murray Pittock, Bradley Professor of English Literature, University of Glasgow, UK.