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The Antiquary
First Edition, First Impression:
The Antiquary. By the Author of "Waverley" and "Guy
Mannering". In Three Volumes. Vol. I (II-III). Edinburgh:
Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. For Archibald Constable and
Co. Edinburgh; and Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, London,
1816.
Composition | Synopsis | Reception | Links
Composition
Scott signed a contract to write a new novel,
known almost from the outset as The Antiquary,
in January 1815. By Scott's own standards, progress was
slow. Contracted to be published by 4 June 1815, the novel
did not appear until 4 May 1816. In one of the most active
years of Scott's life, a number of other social and literary
commitments appear to have intervened. Scott visited London
in April 1815 and, in August, took advantage of the re-opening
of the Continent by visiting the battlefield of Waterloo
and proceeding to Paris through Belgium and occupied France.
Two works were inspired by his travels and published by
the end of the year: the narrative poem The
Field of Waterloo and the travelogue Paul's
Letters to His Kinsfolk. Scott's private correspondence
for 1815 give a sense of constant public activity, ranging
from meetings with dignitaries such as the Prince Regent,
Wellington, Castlereagh and the Czar of Russia, to putting
in bids for more land around Abbotsford.
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By the end of the year, Scott was being pressed by
his publishers. They had given their tacit blessing to his trip
to the Continent, anticipating profits from The Field of Waterloo and Paul's
Letters to His Kinsfolk, which they were happy to see appear
before The Antiquary. They had, however, paid Scott significant
advances for the elusive novel, and Constable, in particular, was
in severe financial difficulty. In a letter of 22 December 1815
to his friend J.B.S. Morritt, Scott confessed that he was yet to
begin work on the novel and had produced only 'a very general sketch' (Letters,
IV, 145). It seemly likely, however, that the plot had already
been mentally elaborated, as the eventual penning of the novel
was exceptionally rapid. Scott probably began writing on 30 December
and had completed The Antiquary by mid-March 1816.
The action of The Antiquary can be precisely
dated to July and August 1794, approximately a decade after the
action of Guy Mannering. In
Scott's conception, as expressed in the 'Advertisement' at the
head of the first edition, the novel completed 'a series of fictitious
narratives, intended to illustrate the manners of Scotland at three
different periods. WAVERLEY embraced the age of our fathers, GUY
MANNERING that of our own youth, and the ANTIQUARY refers to the
last ten years of the eighteenth century'. Scott powerfully evokes
a nationwide fear of French invasion and Republican insurrection
as well as the underlying economic confidence of the times. The
antiquarian Jonathan Oldbuck, who Scott claimed to have based on
his childhood friend George Constable, is largely a self-portrait.
In the debates concerning the Roman colonization of Scotland, the
fantastic Scottish history of Hector Boece, and the authenticity
of James Macpherson's Poems of Ossian, Scott relives the
quarrels and enthusiasms of his youth. Oldbuck's unsuccessful courtship
of Eveline Neville recalls something of Scott's own unhappy experience
with Williamina Belsches.
Perhaps because it involved the recollection of scenes of his early
life, The Antiquary remained Scott's personal favourite
among his novels.
The geographical location of the action, conversely,
is indefinite. Most topographical references point to a composite
setting somewhere in North-East Scotland. Some sequences, however,
imply that the narrative takes place on the North Coast, bolstering
the theory that the swindler Dousterswivel was modelled on the
German adventurer Rudolf Erich Raspe (author of The Surprising
Adventures of Baron Munchausen) who tricked Sir John Sinclair
into a fallacious mining enterprise on his Caithness lands.
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Synopsis
The hero, known as Major Neville, is believed to be the illegitimate
son of Edward Neville, brother to the Earl of Glenallan. He meets
and falls in love with Isabella Wardour in England, who, mindful
of her father's hatred of illegitimacy, rejects his suit. Under the
assumed name of Lovel, he follows her home to Fairport, Scotland,
meeting en route Jonathan Oldbuck, Laird of Monkbarns, a neighbour
of Isabella's father, Sir Arthur Wardour. Oldbuck, the antiquary
of the title, takes an interest in Lovel who is a sympathetic listener
to his learned discourses and whose misfortunes in love remind him
of his own. As a young man Oldbuck had been hopelessly attached to
Eveline Neville, now wife to the Earl of Glenallan. Lovel saves Sir
Arthur and Isabella from drowning when surprised by the tide but
is forced to leave Fairport after wounding Oldbuck's nephew Captain
Hector M'Intyre, a rival for Isabella's hand, in a duel. In his absence
Lovel distinguishes himself as a soldier and secretly rescues Sir
Arthur from the financial ruin to which his reliance on his unscrupulous
German agent Dousterswivel would have led him. Lovel finally returns
to Fairport and is unexpectedly revealed to be the son and heir of
the Earl of Glenallan (and of Oldbuck's unrequited love Eveline).
In this new guise, he wins Isabella's hand.
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Reception
Published in an edition of 6,000 copies on May 4,
1816, The Antiquary was even more successful than its predecessors,
sold out within three weeks. It went through a further nine editions
in Scott's lifetime. It was received with similar critical acclaim
to Guy Mannering. John Wilson Croker, writing for the Quarterly,
even thought that the absence of supernatural elements gave The
Antiquary the edge over Guy Mannering. There was particular
praise for the character of the beggar Edie Ochiltree who plays
an important role in bringing the relationship between Lovel and
Isabella to a happy conclusion. The only new criticism came from The
British Lady's Magazine which suggested that Scott was merely
repeating his characters with different names. Most critics, however,
were pleasantly surprised that the author's creative vein had not
been exhausted by his previous novels.
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Last updated: 19-Dec-2011
© Edinburgh University Library
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