Editing Waverley (novel) (section)

==Reception==

===19th century===
Upon publication, ''Waverley'' had an astonishing success. Almost all of the reviewers of ''Waverley'' were favourable, praising the truth to nature of the characters (both major and minor) and manners.<ref>For a full list of contemporaneous British reviews see William S. Ward, ''Literary Reviews in British Periodicals, 1798‒1820: A Bibliography'', 2 vols (New York and London, 1972), 2.484. For an earlier annotated list see James Clarkson Corson, ''A Bibliography of Sir Walter Scott'' (Edinburgh and London, 1943), 198–99.</ref> Adverse criticisms were more diverse. ''The [[Anti-Jacobin Review]]'' and ''The Critical Review'' considered the work too Scottish, and the latter (assuming Scott's authorship) thought it odd for an established poet to become a 'scribbler' while ''The New Annual Register'' found it less interesting than might have been expected from his hand. ''The [[British Critic]]'' detected a tendency to caricature and broad farce. ''The Scourge'' thought the novel lacked pathos and sublimity. In ''The [[Quarterly Review]]'' [[John Wilson Croker]], writing anonymously like all the reviewers, compared it to Dutch paintings, congenial rather than exalted, and advised the author to stick to history, while ''The Scourge'' considered that Scott did not take readers beyond their usual susceptibilities. [[Francis Jeffrey]] in ''The [[Edinburgh Review]]'' found the work hastily and often indifferently written and judged those passages where the author addresses the reader directly flippant and unworthy. ''Waverley'' was published anonymously, but half of the reviews ascribed it with varying degrees of certainty to Scott. Many readers too recognized his hand. Contemporary author [[Jane Austen]] wrote: "Walter Scott has no business to write novels, especially good ones. It is not fair. 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".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/brablt16.html#letter88 |last=Austen |first=Jane |date=28 September 1814 |title=Letter to Anna Austen from Jane Austen |access-date=23 June 2018}}</ref>

[[Letitia Elizabeth Landon]] was a great admirer of Scott and one of her poetical illustrations ({{ws|[[s:Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1837/The Hall of Glennaquoich|''The Hall of Glennaquoich'']]}}) relates to a painting by [[Daniel Maclise]] of ''The Hall of Glennaquoich. A Highland Feast'', a scene taken from ''Waverley''.<ref>{{cite book|last =Landon|first=Letitia Elizabeth|title=Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1837|url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=39BbAAAAQAAJ&pg=GBS.PA144|section=picture|year=1836|publisher=Fisher, Son & Co.}}{{cite book|last =Landon|first=Letitia Elizabeth|title=Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1837|url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=39BbAAAAQAAJ&pg=GBS.PA146|section=poetical illustration|page=43|year=1836|publisher=Fisher, Son & Co.}}</ref>

In Eckermann's ''[[Conversations with Goethe]]'', [[Goethe]] lauded ''Waverley'' as "the best novel by Sir Walter Scott," and he asserted that Scott "has never written anything to surpass, or even equal, that first published novel." He regarded Scott as a genius and as one of the greatest writers of English of his time, along with [[Lord Byron]] and [[Thomas Moore]]. Discussing Scott's talent as a writer, Goethe stated, "You will find everywhere in Walter Scott a remarkable security and thoroughness in his delineation, which proceeds from his comprehensive knowledge of the real world, obtained by lifelong studies and observations, and a daily discussion of the most important relations."<ref>{{cite book |last=Eckermann |first=Johann Peter |orig-year=1836 |title=[[Conversations with Goethe]] |location=New York |publisher=M Walter Dunne |year=1901}}</ref>

In 1815, Scott was given the honour of dining with [[George IV of the United Kingdom|George, Prince Regent]], who wanted to meet "the author of Waverley". It is thought that at this meeting Scott persuaded George that as a Stuart prince he could claim to be a [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]] [[Scottish highlands|Highland]] [[Scottish clan|Chieftain]], a claim that would be dramatised when George became King and [[visit of King George IV to Scotland|visited Scotland]].<ref name=jaunt>{{cite book |last=Prebble |first=John |title=The King's Jaunt: George IV in Scotland, August 1822 'One and Twenty Daft Days' |publisher=Birlinn Publishers |year=2000 |isbn=1-84158-068-6 }}</ref>

===20th century===
[[E. M. Forster]] is renowned as one of Scott's fiercest and unkindest critics.<ref>Forster, E.M. 1941. ''Aspects of the Novel''. London: Edward Arnold</ref> His critique has received fierce opposition from Scott scholars, who believe his attack is a symptom of his ignorance, perhaps of literature, but more certainly of all things Scottish. This hostility reaches academic circles, as is made evident by [[Allan Massie]]'s lecture ''The Appeal of Scott to the Practising Novel'', the inaugural lecture at the 1991 Scott conference. Defence of Scott subsumes a defence of a national culture against the attacks of Englishness. Others have, however, suggested that this misrepresents Forster's case.<ref name="Hypertext"/><ref name=Curbet1999 />

[[Georg Lukács]] re-established Scott as a serious novelist.<ref>Lukacs, G. 1937. ''The Historical Novel''. Moscow.</ref> Lukács is most adamant in his belief that ''Waverley'' is the first major historical novel of modern times. This is clear from the distinction he draws between the eighteenth-century [[novel of manners]], where social realities are described with little attention to diachronic change, and the eruption of history in the lives of communities, as occurs in historical novels. Furthermore, that ''Waverley'' marks an important watershed is firmly stated in Lukács' opening sentence, that "The historical novel arose at the beginning of the nineteenth century at about the time of Napoleon's collapse."