CHARACTERISTICS OF ROMANTIC LITERATURE 1.Imagination and emotion are more important than reason and formal rules; imagination is a gateway to transcendent experience and truth. 2. Along the same lines, intuition and a reliance on “natural” feelings as a guide to conduct are valued over controlled, rationality. 3.- Romantic literature tends to emphasize a love of nature, a respect for primitivism, and a valuing of the common, "natural" man; Romantics idealize country life and believe that many of the ills of society are a result of urbanization. 4.-There was emphasis on introspection, psychology, melancholy, and sadness. The art often dealt with death, transience and mankind’s feelings about these things. The artist was an extremely individualistic creator whose creative spirit was more important than strict adherence to formal rules and traditional procedures.

The Father of Historical Novels Sir Walter Scott

Full nameSir Walter SCOTT Gendermale Date of birth 15 August 1771, Edinburgh, Midlothian, ScotlandEdinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland Date of death21 September 1832 Relevance of this person novelist; author of stories used with slide sets Texts linked to this person Poems (1) Walter Scott, Marmion (1808) Stories (1) Walter Scott, Kenilworth in Lantern readings original and selected 1 (1873)MarmionKenilworth Person record: SCOTT, Sir Walter ( )SCOTT, Sir Walter

A Short Biography Walter Scott was born in Edinburgh, as the son of a solicitor Walter Scott and Anne, a daughter of professor of medicine. An early illness - polio - left him lame in the right leg. Six of his 11 brothers and sisters died in infancy. However, Scott grew up to be a successful man.

At the age of eight he returned to Edinburgh. He attended Edinburgh High School ( ) and studied at Edinburgh University arts and law ( , ). At the age of sixteen he had already started to collect old ballads and later translated into English Gottfried Bürger's ballads 'The Wild Huntsman' and 'Lenore' and 'Goetz of Berlichingen' (1799) from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's play.

Scott was apprenticed to his father in 1786 and in 1792 he was called to the bar. In 1799 he was appointed sheriff depute of the county of Selkirk. Scott married in 1797 Margaret Charlotte Charpentier, daughter of Jean Charpentier of Lyon in France. They had five children.

In appeared Scott's first major work, “Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border”. As a poet Scott rose into fame with the publication of “The Lay of the Last Minstrel” (1805) about an old border country legend. He had burned its first version, when his friends did not like it. Scott returned to the poem in 1802, when a horse had kicked him and he spent three days in bed. “The Lay of the Last Minstrel” became a huge success and made him the most popular author of the day. In 1810 appeared “the Lady of the Lake” and in 1813 “Rokeby”. Scott's last major poem, “The Lord of the Isles”, was published in 1815.

Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er, Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking, Dream of battled fields no more, Days of danger, nights of waking. (from The Lady of the Lake, 1810)

In the 1810s Scott published several novels anonymously or under the pseudonym Jebediah Cleisbotham or 'Author of Waverley.' From this period date such works as “Waverley” (1814), dealing with the rebellion of 1745, which attempted to restore a Scottish family to the British throne. The book set the classic pattern of the historical novel. It had a hero, whose loyalty is split between two rulers and two ways of life.

In the 1820s appeared KENILWORTH (1821), THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL (1822), PEVERIL OF THE PEAK (1823), QUENTIN DURWARD (1823), THE TALISMAN (1825), WOODSTOCK (1826), THE SURGEON'S DAUGHTER (1827), ANNE OF GEIERSTEIN (1829). After the financial crash of the author's anonymity was destroyed, and he was exposed to the general public as Sir Walter Scott.

Scott's historical novels fall into three groups; those set in the background of Scottish history, from Waverly to A Legend of Montrose; a group which takes up themes from the Middle Ages and Reformation times, from Ivanhoe to Talisman, and his remaining books, from Woodstock onwards. Scott's dramatic work include HALIDON HILL (1922), MACDUFF'S CROSS (1823), THE DOOM OF DEVORGOIL, A MELODRAMA (1830), and AUCHINDRANE (1830), which was founded on the case of Mure of Auchindrane in Pitcairn's Ancient Criminal Trials.

In 1820 Scott was created a baronet. A few years later he founded the Bannatyne Club, which published old Scottish documents. Scott visited France in 1826 to collect material for his LIFE OF NAPOLEON, which was published in 9 volumes in A few years earlier Scott had started to keep his Journal, recording in undiscourageable spirit his deteriorating health and other misfortunes.

His wife, Lady Scott, died in 1826, and the author himself had a stroke in Next year Scott sailed to Italy. In Malta he wrote one novel and a short story, and in Naples he collected old songs and ballads. After return to England in 1832, he died on September 21. Scott was buried beside his ancestors in Dryburgh Abbey. From the profits of his writings all his debts were ultimately paid.

Writer and poet, a born storyteller and master of dialogue, one of the greatest historical novelists, whose favorite subject was his native Scotland. Scott wrote twenty-seven historical novels. His influence is seen among others in the works of James Fenimore Cooper, Alexander Dumas, and Alexander Pushkin.

Monument To Sir Walter Scott

Druburgh Abbey Tomb of Sir Walter Scott