Walter Scott on Monarchy

Tara Ghoshal Wallace is Professor Emerita of English at the George Washington University. Her books include Imperial Characters: Home and Periphery in Eighteenth-Century Literature (2010), Jane Austen and Narrative Authority (1995) and she is the editor of Fanny Burney, A Busy Day (1984) and co-editor of Women Critics 1660–1820 (1995).

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction: The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte: Commencing HistoryPart I. Crusading Kings1. Ivanhoe: Constructing a National Myth2. The Talisman: The King’s Two Bodies under Stress3. The Betrothed: Sovereign Power and the Clash of CulturesPart II. Rival Queens4. The Abbot: Romancing the Sovereign Body5. Kenilworth: Performance and Power in Elizabeth’s EnglandPart III. Stuart Ways of Ruling6. The Fortunes of Nigel: Ungainly Sovereignty as Saving Grace7. Peveril of the Peak: Plotting the King’s Two Bodies8. Woodstock: The Once and Future KingPart IV. Hanoverian Mercy9. Waverley: Dynastic Exigencies and Filial Service10. Redgauntlet: Jacobite Delusions and Hanoverian Hopes11. The Heart of Midlothian: Contesting the Royal Right of MercyConclusion: Anne of Geierstein and the Failure of Royal AmbitionWorks CitedIndex

Beautifully crafted and a pleasure to read, Walter Scott on Monarchy effects a substantial reorientation of Scott’s ground-breaking Waverley Novels. Rereading the series as a sustained reflection on sovereignty and governmentality, it offers fresh insights and constitutes a significant intervention in the current reconsideration of Romantic-era genres and historical thought.