The Black Dwarf (novel)

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For other uses of "Black dwarf", see Black dwarf (disambiguation).

The Black Dwarf
Author	Sir Walter Scott
Country	Scotland
Language	English, Lowland Scots
Series	Tales of My Landlord (1st series)
Genre(s)	Historical novel
Publication date	1816
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	NA

Walter Scott's novel The Black Dwarf was part of his Tales of My Landlord, 1st series, published along with Old Mortality on 2 December 1816 by William Blackwood, Edinburgh, and John Murray, London. It was originally to be one of four volumes with separate stories in the series, but Old Mortality came to occupy three of them. Only The Black Dwarf filled a single volume.

[edit] Introduction

The introduction to the Black Dwarf introduces us to the character Jedediah Cleishbotham, whom Scott had as a fictional editor of the four Landlord series. It is here that we have the most complete view of this character.

[edit] Plot

The story is set in the early 18th century in the Liddesdale hills of the Scottish borders, familiar to Scott from his The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border ballads. The main character is based on the life of David Ritchie, who Scott met in the fall of 1797. In the tale, the dwarf is Sir Edward Mauley, regarded by the locals as being in league with the Devil, embroiled in a complex tale of love, revenge, betrayal, Jacobite schemes and a threatened forced marriage. Scott began the novel well, "but tired of the ground I had trode so often before... I quarrelled with my story, & bungled up a conclusion".

Critics and public found it poor in comparison with its popular companion Old Mortality. One of the harshest reviews was in the Quarterly Review, written anonymously by Scott himself.

[edit] External links

v • d • e Works by Walter Scott

Novels:	Waverley (1814) • Guy Mannering (1815) • The Antiquary (1816) • The Black Dwarf (1816) • Old Mortality (1816) • Rob Roy (1817) • The Heart of Midlothian (1818) • The Bride of Lammermoor (1819) • A Legend of Montrose (1819) • Ivanhoe (1819) • The Monastery (1820) • The Abbot (1820) • Kenilworth (1821) • The Pirate (1821) • The Fortunes of Nigel (1822) • Peveril of the Peak (1823) • Quentin Durward (1823) • St. Ronan's Well (1823) • Redgauntlet (1824) • The Betrothed (1825) • The Talisman (1825) • Woodstock (1826) • Chronicles of the Canongate (1827) • The Fair Maid of Perth (1828) • Anne of Geierstein (1829) • Count Robert of Paris (1831) • Castle Dangerous (1831)