Quentin Durward

by Walter Scott, J. H. Alexander (Editor), G A M Wood (Editor)

Overview

Find Out What Scott Really WroteGoing back to the original manuscripts, a team of scholars has uncovered what Scott originally wrote and intended his public to read before errors, misreadings and expurgations crept in during production. Quentin Durward is a young Scotsman seeking fame and fortune in the France of Louis XI in the fifteenth century. He knows little and understands less, but Scott represents his ignorance and naiveté as useful to 'the most sagacious prince in Europe' who needs servants motivated solely by the desire for coin and credit and lacking any interest in France which would interfere with the execution of his political aims. In Quentin Durward Scott studies the first modern state in the process of destroying the European feudal system.By far the most important of Scott's sources for Quentin Durward is the splendid Memoirs of Philippe de Comines. Comines, who has more than a walk-on role in the novel itself, was trusted councillor of Charles the Bold of Burgundy until 1472, when

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780748605798
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	04/05/2001
Series:	Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels
Pages:	595
Product dimensions:	5.43(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

J. H. Alexander is Reader Emeritus in English at the University of Aberdeen G A M Wood is Formerly Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Stirling

Table of Contents

	Introduction| 0		Walter Scott	vii
	Historical Background of Quentin Durward	xxi
	Hints and Questions for the Study of Quentin Durward	xxvi
	Collateral Reading References	xxx
	Tabular View of Scott's Life and Works	xxxi
	Quentin Durward	1
	Scott's Introduction	479
	Notes	489
	Vocabulary	527

Editorial Reviews

The Edinburgh Edition respects Scott the artist by 'restoring' versions of the novels that are not quite what his first readers saw. Indeed, it returns to manuscripts that the printers never handled, as Scott's fiction before 1827 was transcribed before it reached the printshop. Each volume of the Edinburgh edition presents an uncluttered text of one work, followed by an Essay on the Text by the editor of the work, a list of the emendations that have been made to the first edition, explanatory notes and a glossary … The editorial essays are histories of the respective texts. Some of them are almost 100 pages long; when they are put together they constitute a fascinating and lucid account of Scott's methods of compostion and his financial manoeuvres. This edition is for anyone who takes Scott seriously.

Alexander and Wood give us a Quentin Durward that corresponds to no previous version of the novel. It is a social text for our moment in time which, given the publication history of the Waverley Novels, is eminently appropriate. This is the fifth volume of the EEWN to be edited by J. H. Alexander. In each the scholarly apparatus has been superb, and this edition of Quentin Durward is no exception, The Explanatory Notes, Historical Notes, Glossary, Map and Essay on the Text make this an indispensable work. For the study of Scott's first fictional foray on to the European continent.

Willl certainly be the definitive scholarly edition of Scott for the foreseeable future. The notes and emendation lists … evince years of thorough, diligent research into manuscripts, editions, sources, references, and allusions. The information will give the serious reader inestimable help in understanding Scott.

From the Publisher