Heart of Mid-Lothian

Sir Walter Scott, was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright and poet. Many of his works remain classics and include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Waverley, The Heart of Midlothian and The Bride of Lammermoor. Alison Lumsden is a senior lecturer in the School of Language & Literature at the University of Aberdeen and co-director of the Walter Scott Research Centre. She was for many years research fellow and then General Editor for the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels and has published on several Scottish authors including Robert Louis Stevenson, Nan Shepherd and Louis Grassic Gibbon. She is about to begin work on a scholarly edition of Scott's poetry. David Hewitt was formerly Regius Professor of English at the University of Aberdeen. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels, for which he edited Rob Roy (EUP, 2008), The Heart of Mid-Lothian (with Alison Lumsden; EUP, 2004), Redgauntlet (with G. A. M. Wood; EUP, 1997) and The Antiquary (EUP, 1995).

The Edinburgh Edition! aims to rescue these superb works of fiction from an unfortunate history of errors...!A huge project, very scholarly, and altogether very grand indeed! it is perhaps Scott's most profound novel, being a considered meditation on the nature of justice! the novel is, above all, a superb story with a cast of rich characters. -- Harry Reid A part of our immediate response to these exemplary volumes is to feel the discrepancy between Scott's slapdash, hearty, headlong method of composition and the painstaking toil of his editors!the Edinburgh editors have reverted to the first editions, but have also combed the manuscripts for missed readings and lost material; some of the latter, such as the portraits of Edinburgh literati in Guy Mannering, are substantial discoveries. From the outset, readers of this volume will know themselves to be in the hands of learned and accomplished editors. By comparing the first edition of Scott's famous work to the manuscript, the editors of this excellent edition produce 'an ideal first edition'! all serious readers wil find the discussion of Scott's creative method fascinating, especially the case Hewitt and Lumsden make for him as a far more careful writer than scholars have heretofore believed! The present volume offers the modern reader a version very close to that a reader in 1818 would have experienced ... Highly recommended. I recommend the book to admirers of Scott and to those who, like me, have never read his work but always felt they should. The Edinburgh Edition! aims to rescue these superb works of fiction from an unfortunate history of errors...!A huge project, very scholarly, and altogether very grand indeed! it is perhaps Scott's most profound novel, being a considered meditation on the nature of justice! the novel is, above all, a superb story with a cast of rich characters. A part of our immediate response to these exemplary volumes is to feel the discrepancy between Scott's slapdash, hearty, headlong method of composition and the painstaking toil of his editors!the Edinburgh editors have reverted to the first editions, but have also combed the manuscripts for missed readings and lost material; some of the latter, such as the portraits of Edinburgh literati in Guy Mannering, are substantial discoveries. From the outset, readers of this volume will know themselves to be in the hands of learned and accomplished editors. By comparing the first edition of Scott's famous work to the manuscript, the editors of this excellent edition produce 'an ideal first edition'! all serious readers wil find the discussion of Scott's creative method fascinating, especially the case Hewitt and Lumsden make for him as a far more careful writer than scholars have heretofore believed! The present volume offers the modern reader a version very close to that a reader in 1818 would have experienced ... Highly recommended. I recommend the book to admirers of Scott and to those who, like me, have never read his work but always felt they should.