Editing Waverley (novel) (section)

===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."