Walter Scott and Short Fiction

'Scott's shorter fiction has been seriously neglected. This is the first book-length study to explore its significance and development. By situating Scott's work in the shorter form in the context of a much wider engagement with the short story in Scotland, Cook also widens our understanding of this important genre and its origins. This study is particularly welcomed as we celebrate Scott 250 and re-assess our understanding of Scott and his legacies in so many different ways.' Alison Lumsden, University of Aberdeen A study of Walter Scott's short stories, novellas and tales This book is the first extensive study of seventeen works of short fiction by one of Scotland's most influential writers of all time. It examines the author's only collection of short stories, Chronicles of the Canongate, periodical and gift-book pieces, and interpolated tales that appeared in the novels. Through careful readings of, amongst others, the Highland stories ('The Highland Widow' and 'The Two Drovers'), his Indian novella (The Surgeon's Daughter), Gothic keepsakes ('My Aunt Margaret's Mirror' and 'The Tapestried Chamber'), and his Calabrian tale Bizarro, this book offers new insights into the production and consumption of short stories, novellas, tales, sketches and other forms of fiction in the early nineteenth century and beyond. Daniel Cook is Reader in English and Associate Director of the Centre for Scottish Culture at the University of Dundee. He is the author of Thomas Chatterton and Neglected Genius, 1760-1830 (2013) and Reading Swift's Poetry (2020). He has edited essay collections including The Afterlives of Eighteenth-Century Fiction (2015) and a forthcoming anthology in the Oxford World's Classics series titled Scottish Literature, 1730-1830. Cover image: Canongate Tolbooth, Archibald Burns (c) National Galleries of Scotland. Gift of Mrs. Riddell in memory of Peter Fletcher Riddell, 1985 Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN 978-1-4744-8713-9 Barcode