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Waverley

English BooksWhale Edition by Walter Scott

The first Waverley novel follows Edward Waverley through Jacobite Scotland, divided loyalties, romance, and political rebellion.

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Waverley

Waverley is Walter Scott’s foundational historical novel, tracing an English officer’s passage into Highland Scotland during the Jacobite rising of 1745. Through clan politics, romantic illusion, military conflict, and cultural change, the novel established a new model for historical fiction and made Scotland’s past a subject of international literary fascination.

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Author died in 1832; original English text is in the public domain.

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Waverley

Walter Scott

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CHAPTER I

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The title of this work has not been chosen without the grave and solid deliberation which matters of importance demand from the prudent. Even its first, or general denomination, was the result of no common research or selection, although, according to the example of my predecessors, I had only to seize upon the most sounding and euphonic surname that English history or topography affords, and elect it at once as the title of my work and the name of my hero. But, alas! what could my readers have expected from the chivalrous epithets of Howard, Mordaunt, Mortimer, or Stanley, or from the softer and more sentimental sounds of Belmour, Belville, Belfield, and Belgrave, but pages of inanity, similar to those which have been so christened for half a century past? I must modestly admit I am too diffident of my own merit to place it in unnecessary opposition to preconceived associations; I have, therefore, like a maiden knight with his white shield, assumed for my hero, WAVERLEY, an uncontaminated name, bearing with its sound little of good or evil, excepting what the reader shall hereafter be pleased to affix to it. But my second or supplemental title was a matter of much more difficult election, since that, short as it is, may be held as pledging the author to some special mode of laying his scene, drawing his characters, and managing his adventures. Had I, for example, announced in my frontispiece, 'Waverley, a Tale of other Days,' must not every novel-reader have anticipated a castle scarce less than that of Udolpho, of which the eastern wing had long been uninhabited, and the keys either lost, or consigned to the care of some aged butler or housekeeper, whose trembling steps, about the middle of the second volume, were doomed to guide the hero, or heroine, to the ruinous precincts? Would not the owl have shrieked and the cricket cried in my very title-page? and could it have been possible for me, with a moderate attention to decorum, to introduce any scene more lively than might be produced by the jocularity of a clownish but faithful valet, or the garrulous narrative of the heroine's fille-de-chambre, when rehearsing the stories of blood and horror which she had heard in the servants' hall? Again, had my title borne, 'Waverley, a Romance from the German,' what head so obtuse as not to image forth a profligate abbot, an oppressive duke, a secret and mysterious association of Rosycrucians and Illuminati, with all their properties of black cowls, caverns, daggers, electrical machines, trap-doors, and dark-lanterns? Or if I had rather chosen to call my work a 'Sentimental Tale,' would it not have been a sufficient presage of a heroine with a profusion of auburn hair, and a harp, the soft solace of her solitary hours, which she fortunately finds always the means of transporting from castle to cottage, although she herself be sometimes obliged to jump out of a two-pair-of-stairs window, and is more than once bewildered on her journey, alone and on foot, without any guide but a blowzy peasant girl, whose jargon she hardly can understand? Or, again, if my Waverley had been entitled 'A Tale of the Times,' wouldst thou not, gentle reader, have demanded from me a dashing sketch of the fashionable world, a few anecdotes of private scandal thinly veiled, and if lusciously painted, so much the better? a heroine from Grosvenor Square, and a hero from the Barouche Club or the Four-in-Hand, with a set of subordinate characters from the elegantes of Queen Anne Street East, or the dashing heroes of the Bow-Street Office? I could proceed in proving the importance of a title-page, and displaying at the same time my own intimate knowledge of the particular ingredients necessary to the composition of romances and novels of various descriptions;--but it is enough, and I scorn to tyrannise longer over the impatience of my reader, who is doubtless already anxious to know the choice made by an author so profoundly versed in the different branches of his art.

Table of contents

Inside this edition

  1. 01Full text
  2. 02CHAPTER I
  3. 03INTRODUCTORY
  4. 04CHAPTER II
  5. 05WAVERLEY-HONOUR--A RETROSPECT
  6. 06CHAPTER III
  7. 07EDUCATION
  8. 08CHAPTER IV
  9. 09CASTLE-BUILDING
  10. 10CHAPTER V
  11. 11CHOICE OF A PROFESSION
  12. 12CHAPTER VI
  13. 13THE ADIEUS OF WAVERLEY
  14. 14CHAPTER VII
  15. 15A HORSE-QUARTER IN SCOTLAND
  16. 16CHAPTER VIII
  17. 17A SCOTTISH MANOR-HOUSE SIXTY YEARS SINCE
  18. 18CHAPTER IX
  19. 19MORE OF THE MANOR-HOUSE AND ITS ENVIRONS
  20. 20CHAPTER X
  21. 21ROSE BRADWARDINE AND HER FATHER
  22. 22CHAPTER XI
  23. 23THE BANQUET
  24. 24part to pledge their courtesy would be extremely ill received.
  25. 25part in the conversation without the least respect to his neighbour.
  26. 26CHAPTER XII
  27. 27REPENTANCE AND A RECONCILIATION
  28. 28part of his time in the predicament of intoxication, he hath no title
  29. 29CHAPTER XIII
  30. 30A MORE RATIONAL DAY THAN THE LAST
  31. 31CHAPTER XIV
  32. 32A DISCOVERY--WAVERLEY BECOMES DOMESTICATED AT TULLY-VEOLAN
  33. 33CHAPTER XV
  34. 34A CREAGH, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
  35. 35part of which descended from his head to his shoulders, and part from
  36. 36CHAPTER XVI
  37. 37AN UNEXPECTED ALLY APPEARS
  38. 38CHAPTER XVII
  39. 39THE HOLD OF A HIGHLAND ROBBER
  40. 40CHAPTER XVIII
  41. 41WAVERLEY PROCEEDS ON HIS JOURNEY
  42. 42CHAPTER XIX
  43. 43THE CHIEF AND HIS MANSION
  44. 44CHAPTER XX
  45. 45A HIGHLAND FEAST
  46. 46CHAPTER XXI
  47. 47THE CHIEFTAIN'S SISTER
  48. 48CHAPTER XXII
  49. 49HIGHLAND MINSTRELSY
  50. 50CHAPTER XXIII
  51. 51WAVEELEY CONTINUES AT GLENNAQUOICH
  52. 52CHAPTER XXIV
  53. 53A STAG-HUNT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
  54. 54[FOOTNOTE:
  55. 55CHAPTER XXV
  56. 56NEWS FROM ENGLAND
  57. 57SIR,--
  58. 58CHAPTER XXVI
  59. 59AN ECLAIRCISSEMENT
  60. 60part of Flora. Indeed, between his ideas of patriarchal power and those
  61. 61CHAPTER XXVII
  62. 62UPON THE SAME SUBJECT
  63. 63CHAPTER XXVIII
  64. 64A LETTER FROM TULLY-VEOLAN
  65. 65ROSE COMYNE BRADWARDINE.
  66. 66CHAPTER XXIX
  67. 67WAVERLEY'S RECEPTION IN THE LOWLANDS AFTER HIS HIGHLAND TOUR
  68. 68CHAPTER XXX
  69. 69CHAPTER XXXI
  70. 70AN EXAMINATION
  71. 71CHAPTER XXXII
  72. 72A CONFERENCE AND THE CONSEQUENCE
  73. 73CHAPTER XXXIII
  74. 74A CONFIDANT
  75. 75CHAPTER XXXIV
  76. 76THINGS MEND A LITTLE
  77. 77CHAPTER XXXV
  78. 78A VOLUNTEER SIXTY YEARS SINCE
  79. 79APPENDICES TO THE GENERAL PREFACE
  80. 80NO. I
  81. 81WHICH WAS TO HAVE BEEN ENTITLED
  82. 82THOMAS THE RHYMER
  83. 83CHAPTER I
  84. 84THE LORD OF ENNERDALE
  85. 85G----, F.R.S.E.
  86. 86part of the company.
  87. 87CETERA DESUNT
  88. 88NO. II
  89. 89CONCLUSION OF MR. STRUTT'S ROMANCE OF QUEENHOO-HALL
  90. 90BY THE AUTHOR OF WAVERLEY
  91. 91CHAPTER IV
  92. 92A HUNTING PARTY--AN ADVENTURE--A DELIVERANCE
  93. 93CHAPTER V
  94. 94MANHOOD--PATE OF GASTON SAINT CLERE--CONCLUSION
  95. 95NO. III
  96. 96ANECDOTE OF SCHOOL DAYS
  97. 97UPON WHICH MR. THOMAS SCOTT PROPOSED TO FOUND A TALE OF FICTION
  98. 98part of his dress, being a pair of old green livery breeches, which was
  99. 99NOTES
  100. 100NOTE I
  101. 101NOTE 2
  102. 102NOTE 3
  103. 103NOTE 4
  104. 104NOTE 5
  105. 105NOTE 6
  106. 106NOTE 7
  107. 107NOTE 8
  108. 108NOTE 9
  109. 109NOTE 10
  110. 110NOTE 11
  111. 111NOTE 12
  112. 112NOTE 13
  113. 113NOTE 14
  114. 114NOTE 15
  115. 115NOTE 16
  116. 116NOTE 17
  117. 117NOTE 18
  118. 118NOTE 19
  119. 119NOTE 20
  120. 120NOTE 21
  121. 121NOTE 22
  122. 122NOTE 23
  123. 123NOTE 24
  124. 124NOTE 25
  125. 125GLOSSARY
  126. 126END OF VOLUME I WAVERLEY
  127. 127BY SIR WALTER SCOTT
  128. 128VOLUME II
  129. 129WAVERLEY
  130. 130OR 'TIS SIXTY YEARS SINCE
  131. 131CHAPTER XXXVI
  132. 132AN INCIDENT
  133. 133CHAPTER XXXVII
  134. 134WAVERLEY IS STILL IN DISTRESS
  135. 135CHAPTER XXXVIII
  136. 136A NOCTURNAL ADVENTURE
  137. 137CHAPTER XXXIX
  138. 138THE JOURNEY IS CONTINUED
  139. 139CHAPTER XL
  140. 140AN OLD AND A NEW ACQUAINTANCE
  141. 141CHAPTER XLI
  142. 142THE MYSTERY BEGINS TO BE CLEARED UP
  143. 143CHAPTER XLII
  144. 144A SOLDIER'S DINNER
  145. 145CHAPTER XLIII
  146. 146THE BALL
  147. 147CHAPTER XLIV
  148. 148THE MARCH
  149. 149part of the King's Park which lies towards the village of Duddingston.]
  150. 150CHAPTER XLV
  151. 151AN INCIDENT GIVES RISE TO UNAVAILING REFLECTIONS
  152. 152CHAPTER XLVI
  153. 153THE EVE OF BATTLE
  154. 154CHAPTER XLVII
  155. 155THE CONFLICT
  156. 156CHAPTER XLVIII
  157. 157AN UNEXPECTED EMBARRASSMENT
  158. 158CHAPTER XLIX
  159. 159THE ENGLISH PRISONER
  160. 160CHAPTER L
  161. 161RATHER UNIMPORTANT
  162. 162CHAPTER LI
  163. 163INTRIGUES OF LOVE AND POLITICS
  164. 164part of tempter on this occasion. His motives were shortly these. Of an
  165. 165CHAPTER LII
  166. 166INTRIGUES OF SOCIETY AND LOVE
  167. 167CHAPTER LIII
  168. 168FERGUS A SUITOR
  169. 169CHAPTER LIV
  170. 170'TO ONE THING CONSTANT NEVER'
  171. 171CHAPTER LV
  172. 172A BRAVE MAN IN SORROW
  173. 173CHAPTER LVI
  174. 174EXERTION
  175. 175CHAPTER LVII
  176. 176THE MARCH
  177. 177CHAPTER LVIII
  178. 178THE CONFUSION OF KING AGRAMANT'S CAMP
  179. 179CHAPTER LIX
  180. 180A SKIRMISH
  181. 181CHAPTER LX
  182. 182CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS
  183. 183CHAPTER LXI
  184. 184A JOURNEY TO LONDON
  185. 185CHAPTER LXII
  186. 186WHAT'S TO BE DONE NEXT?
  187. 187CHAPTER LXIII
  188. 188DESOLATION
  189. 189CHAPTER LXIV
  190. 190COMPARING OF NOTES
  191. 191CHAPTER LXV
  192. 192MORE EXPLANATION
  193. 193part him and the treasure, he voluntarily offered to take an oath that
  194. 194CHAPTER LXVI
  195. 195SHAKSPEARE
  196. 196CHAPTER LXVII
  197. 197CHAPTER LXVIII
  198. 198SHAKSPEARE
  199. 199CHAPTER LXIX
  200. 200CAMPBELL
  201. 201CHAPTER LXX
  202. 202DULCE DOMUM
  203. 203CHAPTER LXXI
  204. 204CHAPTER LXXII
  205. 205A POSTSCRIPT WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN A PREFACE
  206. 206HENRY MACKENZIE, BY AN UNKNOWN ADMIRER OF HIS GENIUS.
  207. 207THE END
  208. 208NOTES
  209. 209part to give no quarter. It was visible a cartel would be of great
  210. 210GLOSSARY

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