Scott, Walter

Born in Edinburgh , in the family of a wealthy Scottish lawyer Walter Scott (1729-1799) and Anne Rutherford (1739-1819), daughter of a professor of medicine at the University of Edinburgh . He was the ninth child in the family, but when he was six months old, only three survived. In a family of 13 children, 6 survived.

In January 1772 he became ill with childhood paralysis , lost the mobility of his right leg and remained lame forever. Twice - in 1775 and 1777 - was treated in the spa towns of Bath and .

His childhood is closely connected with the area of ​​the Scottish borderlands , where he spent time on his grandfather's farm in Sandinow , as well as in his uncle's house near Kelso . Despite his physical handicap, at an early age he amazed those around him with a lively mind and phenomenal memory.

In 1778 he returned to Edinburgh . Since 1779 he studies at Edinburgh school, in 1785 he enters Edinburgh College . In college, he became interested in mountaineering , grew stronger physically, and gained popularity among peers as an excellent storyteller.

I read a lot, including ancient authors, was fond of novels and poetry, highlighted the traditional ballads and legends of Scotland . Together with his friends he organized “Poetic Society” at the college, studied German and got acquainted with the work of German poets.

The year 1792 became important for Scott: at the University of Edinburgh, he passed the exam for the title of lawyer ^[7] . Since that time, he has become a respectable person with a prestigious profession and has his own legal practice.

In the early years of independent law practice, he traveled a lot around the country, simultaneously collecting folk legends and ballads about the Scottish heroes of the past. He became interested in translations of German poetry and anonymously published his translations of Gottfried Burger 's ballad Lenora.

In 1791, he met his first love - William Belshes, daughter of an Edinburgh lawyer. For five years, trying to achieve the reciprocity of William, but the girl kept him in limbo and ultimately preferred him to William Forbes, the son of a wealthy banker, whom she married in 1796. Unrequited love became a strong blow for a young man; particles of the image of Williamina subsequently repeatedly appeared in the heroines of the novels of the writer.

In 1797 he married Charlotte Carpenter (Charpentier; 1770-1826). The couple had four children (Sofia, Walter, Anna and Charles).

Having gained world fame thanks to literary works, Scott devoted a lot of time to legal, political and social activities. He worked as a clerk of the session court (since 1806), deputy sheriff of Selkirk district. A permanent member of the conservative party, was an active member . In 1820-1832 he was the President of the Royal Edinburgh Society , in 1827-1829 he was Vice-President of the .

In life, he was an exemplary family man, a good man, sensitive, tactful, grateful; He loved his Abbotsford estate, which he rebuilt into a small castle; loved trees, pets, a good feast in the family circle.

In 1830, he suffered the first stroke, which paralyzed his right arm. In the years 1830-1831, Scott suffered two more strokes.

He died of a heart attack on September 21, 1832.

The Scott Abbotsford estate has a museum of the writer.

Walter Scott began his career with poetry. The first literary performances of W. Scott were in the late 90s of the 18th century : in 1796, translations of two ballads by the German poet G. Burger “Lenora” and “The Wild Hunter” were published, and in 1799 - translation of the drama by I. V. Goethe “ Goetz von Berlichingen. "

The first original work of the young poet was the romantic ballad "John's Evening" ( 1800 ). It was from this year that Scott began to actively collect Scottish folklore and, as a result, in 1802 published a two-volume collection of "Songs of the Scottish Border." The collection includes several original ballads and many revised South Scottish legends. The third volume of the collection was published in 1803 . The whole reading public of Great Britain was most conquered not by his poems, which were innovative at that time, and not even his poems, but, first of all, by the world's first novel in verses “ Marmion ” (in Russian, it first appeared in 2000 in the publication “Literary Monuments”).

The romantic poems of 1805-1817 brought him the glory of the greatest poet, made popular the genre of lyric epic poem, which combines the dramatic plot of the Middle Ages with picturesque landscapes and a lyrical song in the style of a ballad: “Song of the Last Minstrel” ( 1805 ), “ Marmion ” ( 1808 ) , " Virgin of the Lake " ( 1810 ), " Rockby " ( 1813 ) and others. Scott became the true founder of the historical poem genre.

The prose of the then famous poet began with the novel Waverly, or Sixty Years Ago ( 1814 ). Walter Scott, with his poor health, had a phenomenal capacity for work: as a rule, he published at least two novels a year. Over the course of more than thirty years of literary activity, the writer has created twenty-eight novels, nine poems, many short stories, literary and critical articles, and historical works.

At forty-two, the writer first presented his historical novels to the court of readers. Like his predecessors in this field, Walter Scott owes a lot to the authors of "Gothic" and "antique" novels, especially the activities of Mary Edgeworth , whose work reflects Irish history. But Scott was looking for his own path. "Gothic" novels did not satisfy him with excessive mysticism, and "antique" ones were incomprehensible to the modern reader.

After a long search, Walter Scott created the universal structure of the historical novel, redistributing the real and the fictional in such a way as to show that it is not the life of historical persons, but the constant movement of history that no outstanding person can stop, is a real object worthy of the attention of the artist. Scott's view on the development of human society is called "Providentialist" (from lat. Providentia - God's will). Here Scott follows Shakespeare. The historical chronicle of Shakespeare comprehended national history, but at the level of "history of kings."

Walter Scott translated the historical personality into the background plane, and brought fictional characters to the forefront of events, whose fate is affected by a change in era. Thus, Walter Scott showed that the driving force behind history is the people, the people’s life itself is the main object of Scott's artistic research. Its antiquity is never blurred, foggy, fantastic; Walter Scott strove for accuracy in depicting historical realities, because it is believed that he developed the phenomenon of “historical color”, that is, he skillfully showed the originality of a certain era.

Scott's predecessors portrayed “history for the sake of history”, demonstrated their outstanding knowledge and thus enriched the knowledge of readers, but for the sake of knowledge itself. Not so with Scott: he knows the historical era in detail, but always connects it with a modern problem, showing how a similar problem found its solution in the past. Consequently, Walter Scott is the creator of the historical novel genre; the first of them - Waverly ( 1814 ) - appeared anonymously (the following novels until 1827 came out as the works of the author of Waverley).

At the heart of Scott's novels are events that are associated with significant socio-historical conflicts. Among them are Scottish "Scottish" novels (which are written on the basis of Scottish history) - Guy Mannering ( 1815 ), Antiquary ( 1816 ), Puritans ( 1816 ), Rob Roy ( 1818 ), The Legend of Montrose ”( 1819 ),“ Perth Beauty ”( 1828 ).

The most successful among them are the Puritans and Rob Roy. The first depicts the uprising of 1679 , which was directed against the Stuart dynasty restored in 1660 ; the hero of "Rob Roy" - the people's avenger, "Scottish Robin Hood."

In 1818, a volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica appeared with Scott's article Chivalry.

After 1819, the contradictions in the writer's worldview intensified. To raise acutely, as before, the question of the class struggle Walter Scott no longer dares. However, the theme of his historical novels has become noticeably wider. Going beyond Scotland, the writer turns to the ancient times of the history of England and France. The events of English history are depicted in the novels “Aivengo” ( 1819 ), “Monastery” ( 1820 ), “Abbot” ( 1820 ), “ Kenilworth ” ( 1821 ), “ Woodstock ” ( 1826 ).

The novel " Quentin Dorward " ( 1823 ) is devoted to events in France during the reign of Louis XI . The scene of the novel "The Talisman" ( 1825 ) is the eastern Mediterranean era of the Crusades .

If we summarize the events of Scott's novels, we will see a special, peculiar world of events and feelings, a gigantic panorama of the life of Scotland, England and France, for several centuries, from the end of the 11th to the beginning of the 19th century .

In the work of Scott of the 1820s, while maintaining a realistic foundation, there is a significant influence of romanticism (especially in “Ivanhoe” - a novel from the era of the XII century ). A special place is occupied by the novel from modern life "Saint-Ronan Waters" ( 1824 ). Critical tones show the bourgeoisie of the nobility, the titled nobility is satirically portrayed.

In the 1820s, a number of Scott's works on historical and historical-literary topics were published: “The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte” ( 1827 ), “History of Scotland” ( 1829 - 1830 ), “The Death of Lord Byron” ( 1824 ). The book "The Biography of the Novelists" ( 1821 - 1824 ) provides an opportunity to clarify Scott's creative relationship with 18th century writers, especially Henry Fielding , whom he himself called the "father of an English novel."

Scott's novels fall into two main groups. The first is dedicated to the recent past of Scotland, the period of the civil war - from the Puritan revolution of the 16th century to the defeat of mountain clans in the middle of the 18th century and later: Waverly ( 1814 ), Guy Manning ( 1815 ), Edinburgh Prison ( 1818 ) , “Scottish Puritans” ( 1816 ), “ Lammermoor Bride ” ( 1819 ), “Rob Roy” ( 1817 ), “Monastery” ( 1820 ), “Abbot” ( 1820 ), “Saint-Ronan Waters” ( 1823 ), “ Antiquary "( 1816 ) and others.

In these novels, Scott unfolds an unusually rich realistic character. This is a whole gallery of Scottish types of the most diverse social strata, but mainly of the townspeople, peasantry and the declassified poor. Brightly concrete, speaking in a rich and diverse folk language, they make up a background that can only be compared with Shakespeare's “Falstaff background”. Against this background, a lot of brightly comedic, but next to the comic figures, many plebeian characters are artistically equal with heroes from the upper classes. In some novels - they are the main characters, in the "Edinburgh Dungeon" the heroine is the daughter of a small peasant tenant. Scott, in comparison with the " sentimental " literature of the 18th century, takes a further step towards the democratization of the novel and at the same time gives more vivid images. But more often the main characters are conditionally idealized young people from the upper classes, sometimes deprived of great vitality.

The second main group of Scott's novels is devoted to the past of England and continental countries, mainly to the Middle Ages: “Aivengo” ( 1819 ), “Quentin Dorward” ( 1823 ), “Kenilworth” ( 1821 ), “Karl Smely, or Anna Geyerstein, the Virgin of the Darkness” ( 1829 ) and others. There is no that intimate, almost personal acquaintance with a still living legend, the realistic background is not so rich. But it is here that Scott especially unfolds his exceptional flair of past eras, which made Augustin Thierry call him "the greatest master of historical divination of all time." Scott's historicism is primarily external historicism, the resurrection of the atmosphere and color of the era. This side, based on solid knowledge, Scott especially struck his contemporaries, not used to anything like that.

The picture of the “classical” Middle Ages given to him in Aivengo ( 1819 ) is now somewhat outdated. But such a picture, which at the same time was thoroughly believable and revealed such a reality unlike the present, was not yet in the literature. This was a real discovery of a new world. But Scott's historicism is not limited to this external, empirical side. Each of his novels is based on a certain concept of the historical process at a given time.

Thus, Quentin Dorward ( 1823 ) not only gives a vivid artistic image of Louis XI and his entourage, but reveals the essence of his politics as a stage in the struggle of the bourgeoisie against feudalism. The concept of “Ivanhoe” ( 1819 ), where the national struggle of the Saxons against the Normans was put forward as the central fact for England at the end of the 12th century , turned out to be unusually fruitful for the science of history - it was an impetus for the famous French historian Augustin Thierry .

When evaluating Scott, one must remember that his novels generally preceded the works of many historians of his time.

For the Scots, he is more than just a writer. He revived the historical memory of this people and opened Scotland to the rest of the world and, above all, to England. Before him, in England proper, especially in its capital London , Scottish history was almost not interested, considering the highlanders "wild." Scott's works, which appeared immediately after the Napoleonic Wars , in which the Scottish regiments covered themselves with fame, forced the educated circles of Great Britain to radically change their attitude towards this poor but proud country.

• Scott received most of his vast knowledge not at school and university, but through self-education. Everything that interested him was forever imprinted in his phenomenal memory. He did not need to study special literature before writing a novel or poem. A tremendous amount of knowledge allowed him to write on any chosen topic.
• Scott's novels originally came out without the name of the author, and was incognito only revealed in 1827.
• In 1825, a financial panic broke out on the London Stock Exchange, and creditors demanded payment of bills. Neither Scott publisher nor James Ballantyne , the owner of the printing house, were able to pay in cash and declared themselves bankrupt. However, Scott refused to follow their example and claimed responsibility for all the accounts on which he had his signature, which amounted to 120,000 pounds, with Scott's debts making up only a small part of this amount. The exhausting literary work, to which he doomed himself to pay off a huge debt, took his years of life from him.
• Scott's novels were very popular in Russia among the reading public, and therefore were relatively quickly translated into Russian. So, the novel “Karl the Brave, or Anna Geyerstein, the Virgin of the Darkness”, published for the first time in Great Britain in 1829, was already published in 1830 in St. Petersburg , in the Printing House of the Headquarters of a separate building of the internal guard .
• The famous writer and historical novelist Ivan Lazhechnikov (1790-1869) was called the "Russian Walter Scott."
• The term "freelancer" (lit. "free spearman") was first used by Walter Scott in the novel "Ivanhoe" to describe the "medieval hired warrior."
• In 1971, on the 200th birthday of the writer, the Royal Mail of Great Britain issued a 7.5 pence postage stamp.

• Waverly, or Sixty Years Ago ( 1814 )
• Guy Mannering, or Astrologer ( 1815 )
• Black Dwarf ( 1816 )
• Antique ( 1816 )
• Puritans ( 1816 )
• Edinburgh Dungeon ( 1818 )
• Rob Roy ( 1818 )
• Aivengo ( 1819 )
• The Legend of Montrose ( 1819 )
• Lammermoor Bride ( 1819 )
• Abbot ( 1820 )
• Monastery ( 1820 )
• Kenilworth ( 1821 )
• The Adventures of Nigel ( 1822 )
• Певерил Пик ( 1822 )
• Пират ( 1822 )
• Квентин Дорвард ( 1823 )
• Сент-Ронанские воды ( 1824 )
• Редгонтлет ( 1824 )
• Талисман ( 1825 )
• Обручённая ( 1825 )
• Вудсток, или Кавалер ( 1826 )
• Два гуртовщика ( 1827 )
• Вдова горца ( 1827 )
• Комната с гобеленами ( 1828 )
• Пертская красавица, или Валентинов день ( 1828 )
• Карл Смелый, или Анна Гейерштейнская, дева Мрака ( 1829 )
• Граф Роберт Парижский ( 1831 )
• Замок опасный ( 1831 )
• Осада Мальты ( 1832 )

• Песни шотландской границы ( 1802 )
• Песнь последнего менестреля ( 1805 )
• Мармион ( 1808 )
• Дева озера ( 1810 )
• Видение дона Родерика ( 1811 )
• Рокби ( 1813 )
• Поле Ватерлоо ( 1815 )
• Властитель островов ( 1815 )

• Жизнеописания романистов ( 1821 — 1824 )
• Смерть лорда Байрона ( 1824 )
• Жизнь Наполеона Бонапарта ( 1827 )
• Рассказы из истории Франции ( 1827 )
• Дедушкины рассказы ( 1829 — 1830 )
• История Шотландии ( 1829 — 1830 )
• О демонологии и колдовстве

• Библиография Вальтера Скотта

• Вальтер Скотт. Собрание сочинений в 20 томах. — М. : Художественная литература , 1960 — 1965 .

• Биография Вальтера Скотта
• Скотт, Вальтер в библиотеке Максима Мошкова
• Quentin Dorward - text of the novel in Russian and English
• Edinburgh University Library website dedicated to Scott (Eng.)

The article is based on the materials of the Literary Encyclopedia 1929-1939 .