Sir Walter Scott

-
Standard Name: Scott, Sir Walter
Birth Name: Walter Scott
Titled: Sir Walter Scott
Nickname: The Great Unknown
Used Form: author of Kenilworth
The remarkable career of Walter Scott began with a period as a Romantic poet (the leading Romantic poet in terms of popularity) before he went on to achieve even greater popularity as a novelist, particularly for his historical fiction and Scottish national tales. His well-earned fame in both these genres of fiction has tended to create the impression that he originated them, whereas in fact women novelists had preceded him in each.
Head-and-shoulders painting of Sir Walter Scott by Sir Henry Raeburn, 1822. Scott is wearing a black coat, high collar, and yellow waistcoat adorned with a heavy watch-chain. Scottish National Galleries, Edinborough.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Literary responses Ann Radcliffe
Anna Seward , in letters which were to be published in AR 's lifetime, mixed her praise of her gothic oeuvre with some trenchant criticism.
Norton, Rictor. Mistress of Udolpho: The Life of Ann Radcliffe. Leicester University Press, 1999.
221-2
Nathan Drake called Radcliffe the Shakespeare of Romance Writers...
Literary responses Margaret Holford
Elizabeth Isabella Spence praised this poem in print not long after its appearance (though she conceded that its view of Wallace was not so accurate as that of Jane Porter 's almost contemporaneous rendering in...
Literary responses Henrietta Rouviere Mosse
George Saintsbury found the title ridiculous and the novel worthy of the title. He blamed it for blocks of spiritless and commonplace historic narrative, and for such anachronisms the gentle and elegant heroine being educated...
Literary responses Mary Matilda Betham
Charles Lamb pronounced MMB 's poem (before publication) to be very delicately pretty as to sentiment,
qtd. in
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
while Charlotte Bedingfield felt it would considerably raise MMB 's literary fame.
qtd. in
Betham, Ernest, editor. A House of Letters. Jarrold and Sons, 1905.
156
Allan Cunningham called it full...
Literary responses Margaret Holford
The reception of this second long poem was far less favourable than that of Wallace. The Monthly Review denied it literary merit while granting it some potential literary-historical interest. The poem was, wrote the...
Literary responses Christian Isobel Johnstone
Scott gave this novel qualified praise. He seemed to see it in the light of a legitimate competitor but not a serious rival. Read Elizth. de Bruce—it is very clever but does not show...
Literary responses Joanna Baillie
The Eclectic Magazine raised her confidence about her Scots songs by pronouncing that she was easily the equal in the genre of Scott or Campbell , and inferior only to Burns himself.
Baillie, Joanna. “Introduction”. The Selected Poems of Joanna Baillie, 1762-1851, edited by Jennifer Breen, Manchester University Press, 1999, pp. 1-25.
13
Literary responses Harriet Martineau
The Athenæum gave this almost a full-page review (far more than it had yet accorded any of the Illustrations). It compared HM 's work in detail with that of Sir Walter Scott and more...
Literary responses Ann Taylor Gilbert
T he Critical, warming to the Taylors' work, said the authors of this little book had a better claim to the name of poet than many of higher pretensions.
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
3d ser. 8 (1806) : 440
Literary responses Elizabeth Siddal
In the most sustained consideration of the literary material, Constance Hassett argues that what has been read as autobiographical is on the contrary a typically Victorian tonality.
Hassett, Constance W. “Elizabeth Siddal’s Poetry: A Problem and Some Suggestions”. Victorian Poetry, Vol.
35
, No. 4, 1 Dec.–28 Feb. 1997, pp. 443-70.
Hassett pursues the theme of muteness in...
Literary responses Lady Charlotte Bury
Assessments of LCB 's work during her lifetime varied wildly. Sir Walter Scott quoted her in print; Sydney Morgan respected her work; but to most people her social identity eclipsed her literary one. Her early...
Literary responses Joanna Baillie
The Critical Review assumed the author was male. It thought the versification monotonous but warmly praised both preface and plays.
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
24 (1798): 1-22
Initial reaction from individuals (mostly favourable) concentrated on the puzzle of authorship...
Literary responses Mary Augusta Ward
Beatrice Webb called this novel the most useful bit of work that has been done for many a long day. You have managed to give the arguments for and against factory legislation and a fixed...
Literary responses Harriet Martineau
The overall reception of this novel was better than that of Deerbrook, although the nobility of the hero was felt to be exaggerated.
Roberts, Caroline. The Woman and the Hour: Harriet Martineau and Victorian Ideologies. University of Toronto Press, 2002.
76-7
The Athenæum was downright hostile to the book's subject: Do...
Literary responses Catherine Fanshawe
CF 's immediately posthumous reputation rested, like her writings themselves, on oral tradition. She had the admiration of William Cowper and Walter Scott , as well as Joanna Baillie , Anne Grant , and Mary Berry

Timeline

No timeline events available.

Texts

No bibliographical results available.