
Old Mortality
Walter Scott(Author)
Oxford University Press
Published on 28. May 2009
Book
Paperback/Softback
624 pages
978-0-19-955530-7 (ISBN)
Description
Old Mortality (1816), which many consider the finest of Scott's Waverley novels, is a swift-moving historical romance that places an anachronistically liberal hero against the forces of fanaticism in seventeenth-century Scotland, in the period infamous as the `killing time'. Its central character, Henry Morton, joins the rebels in order to fight Scotland's royalist oppressors, little as he shares the Covenanters' extreme religious beliefs. He is torn between his love for a royalist's granddaughter and his loyalty to his downtrodden countrymen.
As well as being a tale of divided loyalties, the novel is a crucial document in the cultural history of modern Scotland. Scott, himself a supporter of the union between Scotland and England, was trying to exorcise the violent past of a country uncomfortably coming to terms with its status as part of a modern United Kingdom. This novel is in itself a significant political document, in which Scott can be seen to be attempting to create a new centralist Scottish historiography, which is not the political consensus of his own time, the seventeenth century, or today.
ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
As well as being a tale of divided loyalties, the novel is a crucial document in the cultural history of modern Scotland. Scott, himself a supporter of the union between Scotland and England, was trying to exorcise the violent past of a country uncomfortably coming to terms with its status as part of a modern United Kingdom. This novel is in itself a significant political document, in which Scott can be seen to be attempting to create a new centralist Scottish historiography, which is not the political consensus of his own time, the seventeenth century, or today.
ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
425 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-955530-7 (9780199555307)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Walter Scott | Jane Stevenson | Peter Davidson
Old Mortality
E-Book
05/2009
OUP eBook
€8.49
Available for download

Walter Scott | Jane Stevenson | Peter Davidson
Old Mortality
E-Book
05/2009
OUP eBook
€8.49
Available for download
Persons
Author
Editor
Lecturer in Late Antique and Early Medieval HistoryLecturer in Late Antique and Early Medieval History, University of Sheffield
Lecturer in English and Comparative LiteratureLecturer in English and Comparative Literature, University of Warwick