Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet of Abbotsford ( born August 15, 1771 in Edinburgh, † September 21, 1832 in Abbotsford ), Scottish poet and writer, was one of the - not only in Europe - the most widely read authors of his time. Many of his historical novels have become classics and have served as a template for numerous plays, operas and films.
- 2.1 Literature
- 2.2 drama, opera and film
- 2.3 Politics and Society
- 2.4 Scotland image and tourism
- 2.5 Single points 2.5.1 Walter Scott Trail
- 2.5.2 Walter Scott Price
- 2.5.3 Walter Scott as a character in a novel
- 3.1 poetry &
- 3.2 prose novels and narratives
- 3.3 Other works ( dramas, essays, biographies, etc.)
- 4.1 bibliographies
- 4.2 generally to Scott
- 4.3 Comparative studies
Life
Family, career, honors
Scott was born in Edinburgh, the ninth of twelve siblings, six of whom have died in infancy. In the second year, he became infected with polio and had therefore for the rest of his life a paralyzed leg. His father, also Walter Scott, was a lawyer: as a Writer to the Signet, a solicitor ( attorney general ) with advanced skills; his mother, Anne Rutherford, was the daughter of a professor of medicine. However, after a lawyer apprenticeship with his father, he joined the professional orientation, studied law at the University of Edinburgh and was at the age of 21 years litigator ( Advocate; see Barrister). Despite his later extensive literary work, he remained all his life working as a lawyer 14 years as Advocate, 33 years as sheriff and 24 years as Clerk of Session ( overlapping in time ). In 1797 he married Charlotte Carpenter ( born Charlotte Charpentier, daughter of French refugees), with whom he had five children: Charlotte Sophia ( 1799-1837 ), Walter ( 1801-1847 ), Anne ( 1803-1837 ), Charles ( 1805-1841 ); a child born in 1798 had lived only one day. Scott died in 1832 in his home in Abbotsford near Melrose and was buried in Dryburgh Abbey.
His literary success and his reputation earned him various honors: honorary citizen (of Edinburgh), Honorary Doctorate ( University College Dublin, from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge were offered him honorary doctorates, but he could not arrive to the ceremony ), and even bringing in the ( lower ) hereditary peerage as 1st Baronet of Abbotsford .. pinnacle of recognition as a major poet had previously been offered the chance to take over the position made vacant in 1813 the royal court poet (Poet Laureate ), which he refused, however.
Poetry &
His literary career began at the age of 25 years with nachdichtenden translations of German ballads: The Chase and William and Helen ( Gottfried August Bürger's Der wilde Jäger and Lenore ). A Erl -King arise ( in Goethe's Erlkönig ) and translations of the Götz von Berlichingen and other contemporary German drama by various authors. His great interest in the traditions of his homeland had brought him from his youth to collect folk ballads; From 1802, he published a three-volume work, The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border with machined by him and also with his own ballads.
Width notoriety achieved Scott by his from the beginning extraordinarily successful epic narrative poems, " the first bestseller in verse " with amazing print runs, starting with The Lay of the Last Minstrel in 1805, followed by Marmion 1808 and further. Songs from his The Lady of the Lake 1810 in the German translation by Adam Storck, Franz Schubert set to music ( song cycle lady of the Lake ), from Ellen's third Song (often after its opening words, but misleadingly referred to as " Schubert's Ave Maria " ) has become world famous.
Prose
The first work of Scott as a novelist was the 1814 anonymously published novel Waverley, whose action takes place in the last uprising of the Jacobites, a rebellion that went out in 1745 by Scotland and taught with the aim of a restoration of the house of Stuart against the London ruling House of Hanover. The novel made immediately caused a sensation; with him, Scott has the modern historical novel, at least for the English-speaking practically justified. Now In quick succession he wrote other historical novels and stories with Scottish themes: Guy Mannering, Old Mortality, Rob Roy and more, also published this all (and later ) without his name, only with the words " the author of Waverley " or under a pseudonym. The reason for this may have initially located in the fear of Scotts, failing to harm his reputation as a solid lawyers: In contrast to the poetry with which he had come out by then, the prose was at the time as second-rate, if not as untrustworthy. Although it was gradually to open mystery of who the, Wizard of the North ' ( The Wizard of the North) was, as the best-selling author unknown was called, Scott held on to the anonymity to 1827.
Were all settled in Scotland in the 17th or 18th century, the actions of his first novels, so Scott expanded, starting with Ivanhoe (1820 ) now the circle of his scenes in spatial and temporal variation of: Ivanhoe is set in England of the 12th century, Quentin Durward (1823 ) in France and Anne of Geier 's Stone ( 1829) in Switzerland in the 15th century. Especially with these works reached Scott and the contemporary English and continental European audience. However between, he always returned to Scottish themes in his shorter prose works such as short stories in the Chronicles of the Canongate.
Other writings
Although the fiction was at the forefront of Scott's work, but he also published literary essays, historical stories for children, a book about magic and witches and further, in particular a nine -volume biography of Napoleon. These writings were mostly very successful; of the Napoleon Biography German, French, Italian and Danish editions appeared in the year of first publication. The relatively insignificant role in Scott's work played a few plays that he published in the decade before his death.
Participation in public life
Scott also took intensive part in public life and engaged largely in certain political and social issues and projects. So he headed in 1818 the successful search for the decades nearly forgotten Scottish Crown Jewels -. 1820, he was elected President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh -. 1822 he arranged and organized the successful visit of the infamous King George IV in Edinburgh. It was the first visit by a British monarch on Scottish soil after more than 170 years - perhaps the highlight of the reign years of this king -. 1826 attacked Scott with his Letters of Malachi Malagrowther directly in the political events of the day one, as the Scottish central banking are aligned with the English should, and so prevented the abolition of the Scottish banknotes. ( Remember also that today's bank notes of the Bank of Scotland: All values carry a portrait of Scott on the front. )
Economic activity and financial crises
The economic success of his works allowed Scott 1805 entry into the printing of his school friend James Ballantyne, later, the establishment of a publishing house with the brothers Ballantyne, each as a silent partner. There his works were printed and temporarily also laid. This brought Scott additional revenue, but also put him as a co-partner with unlimited liable ( liability limitations for shareholders knew the then Scottish law does not yet) significant hazards. A first financial crisis, exacerbated by the high spending Scotts for the acquisition of later Abbotsford mentioned property, 1813 could only be overcome by closing the publisher, sale of rights, loans from relatives and the outstanding success of his prose work, which in 1814, he focused work he focused on.
An elaborate, hospitable and generous lifestyle, but especially the expansion and equipping of Abbotsford, devoured huge amounts and resulted in Scott, despite the significant sales of his books, always further cash requirements. So he demanded and received substantial advances from his publisher Archibald Constable and nunmehrigen also used the print shop, whose co-owner, he was to borrowings and high profit withdrawals. This gave the publisher as well as the printing lasting liquidity problems that have been bridged by further loans, only apparently backed by mutually drawn and adopted accommodation bill. However, in the large British financial crisis of 1825/26 it came to the suspension of payment of an important London business partner of the publishing house, and thus the whole system imploded. The creditors of the publisher as well as the printing talked to Scott, which adhered personally ultimately for the entire debt of about 120,000 pounds sterling - after dam at that time of a huge amount.
Through a bankruptcy process with subsequent discharge of residual debt to Scott would largely can get out of this situation ( Abbotsford was by this time his son Walter ). Scott's class consciousness as a gentleman ( the bankruptcy would have been a, commercial ' solution) and his sense of honor ( debts must be paid ) were not doing so. So he decided, with the consent of the creditors to a Trust Deed, a certificate on the basis of an out of court settlement, after which its remaining assets and its future was subordinated creditors and he undertook to ablation of the debt. Scott remained faithful to it. Was he previously had been a prolific author, he wrote constantly and now ruined while his health. At his death, the debt was paid in good part; a few years after it was fully repaid by the sale of its remaining work rights.
Individual aspects
Abbotsford
1811 Scott earned on the south bank of the Tweed near Melrose a small farm; through acquisitions, he enlarged the property over the years on an area of about 4 square kilometers. There he built the buildings of the farm through conversions and significant enhancements to the mansion Abbotsford House. With its bay windows, battlements, corner towers and stepped gables, it became the forerunner of the Victorian Scottish Baronials.
Freemason
Like his father, Scott Mason. On March 2, 1801 it took over the St. David Lodge No. 36 in Edinburgh as an apprentice. On the same evening he was promoted to journeymen and charged to the Master. In Selkirk, he sat as a Freemason, representing the Provincial Grand Master in 1816 the foundation stone of the local lodge house.