179- ] English Literature
Walter Scott – Summary
Walter
Scott was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, August 15, 1771. His father was a farmer
and his mother, Anne Rutherford, was the daughter of Dr. John Rutherford, who
was one of the founders of the medical school of Edinburgh. Mrs. Scott was fond
of poetry and anecdotes and it was from her that Walter received inspiration.
Walter
was one of ten children. The other children's only claim to fame was that they
had, "good health and untamable spirits." In contrast, Walter was
afflicted at twenty-one months with something which a biographer describes as,
"a paralytic affection, superinduced, or at least aggravated by scrofulous
habit of body." It is, sufficient to say that it made him lame and
doubtless pushed him into more academic pursuits.
He
spent much time with his grandparents, but it was "Aunt Jenny" who
took a special interest in him and influenced him to write. His visits to an
uncle, Dr. Rutherford, professor of botany at the University of Edinburgh,
brought him into contact with scholarly people.
His
parents were very religious and imposed strict piety upon all their children.
Walter was never very deeply affected religiously, however. His works, which
contain much about the church, seek neither to elevate nor to censure it, but
rather to depict it, for it was history and not philosophy that interested him
most.
His
first novel, Waverly, was published anonymously. Although Scott probably never
intended that "Laurence Templeton" should be taken as a real person,
he was attempting to remain in anonymity by the use of the name. His publishers
persuaded him to allow further novels to be designated as "by the author
of Waverly," and for this reason some of his novels were called the
"Waverly Novels." Although he published biographies of Swift and
Dryden and some history, as well as poems and novels, his chief claim to
distinction is his contribution to Romanticism and the historical novel.
He
suffered from many physical ailments, one particularly serious one in
adolescence, which made him, in his own words, "a glutton of books."
Scott became seriously ill before Ivanhoe was finished and dictated much of it
from his sickbed.
His
popularity, both socially and as a writer, was almost unparalleled. He was
married in 1797 to Margaret Charlotte Carpenter, who bore him three sons and
two daughters. Scott received his title and baronetcy from King George IV in
the spring of 1820. He died, Sir Walter Scott, in 1832.
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