Walter Scott’s historical novels dominated the literary marketplace for much of the nineteenth century. As an author of short fiction, in which he also excelled, he has received far less attention. Walter Scott and Short Fiction is the first extended study of The Author of Waverley’s only collection of short stories, Chronicles of the Canongate; periodical and gift-book pieces; and interpolated tales that appeared in the novels, such as ‘The Fortunes of Martin Waldeck’, a devilish folk story, and ‘Wandering Willie’s Tale’, which remains one of the most widely anthologised short prose works eve ... More

Walter Scott’s historical novels dominated the literary marketplace for much of the nineteenth century. As an author of short fiction, in which he also excelled, he has received far less attention. Walter Scott and Short Fiction is the first extended study of The Author of Waverley’s only collection of short stories, Chronicles of the Canongate; periodical and gift-book pieces; and interpolated tales that appeared in the novels, such as ‘The Fortunes of Martin Waldeck’, a devilish folk story, and ‘Wandering Willie’s Tale’, which remains one of the most widely anthologised short prose works ever written. Through extensive readings of 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’), his Calabrian tale Bizarro, and other texts, this book offers new insights into the production and consumption of the short story, the novella, the tale, the sketch, and other forms of fiction in the early nineteenth century and beyond.