THE MAN WHO INVENTED SCOTLAND?

ON THE HistoryExtra PODCAST

“Walter Scott has no business to write novels, especially good ones.”

So opined Jane Austen in 1814. “It is not fair,” continued the author of the recently, and anonymously, published Pride and Prejudice. “He has fame and profit enough as a poet, and should not be taking the bread out of other people’s mouths. I do not like him, and do not mean to like Waverley if I can help it – but fear I must.”

Austen’s fears were entirely justified. Scott, already a highly celebrated poet who had been offered, but declined, the position of Poet Laureate, published his first work of fiction, Waverley, or, ‘Tis Sixty Years Since, to immediate and unprecedented success. Austen was indeed impressed, and she was far from alone. The first edition of the historical novel about the 1745 Jacobite uprising led by Charles Edward Stuart, better known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, sold out in less than a month. A second edition followed suit within weeks. It brought both the author and publisher profits previously unseen in the publishing world.

launched Scott’s popular career as a novelist. From 1814, he wrote, on average, more than a novel a year, reaching 27 in total, which were published in immensely high print runs by contemporary standards. By the middle of the 19th