THE WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 225, 10 November 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE WAVERLEY NOVELS.

When I am very ill indeed I can read Scotts' novels; they are almost the only books I can read. —S. T. Coleridge.

He brings to our mind not abstract beings, but breathing, acting, speaking individuals. Then what variety! What originality! What numbers: Xo writer but Shakespeare has over equalled him in this respect.—Francis .Jeffrey. SIR WALTERS IiIRTHDAY. Tuesday, loth August last was tii > anniversary of the birthday of S : r Walter Scott, poet, historian, and author of the "Waverley Novels." It .s a day to be held in loving remembrance !>.•• his admirers throughout the world. His novels are a rich treasure-house of history and imagination, ot wit and wisdom, of pawky humour and genuine pathos. There is nothing n orbid or introspective here. The novels are i■■ vigorating and full of healthy life, like Sir Walter himself. They reflect hi*! views of life and conduct —tjie man himself is mirroivd in his books. Does it seem to you a t.cmendous task to have written these novels? Leaving composition out of account the mere writing of them must have been an irksome work. There are twenty-five in all, and each forms a fairly stout rolunie. As every schoolboy knows, '• Waverley" was the first of the series, but, when only a few chapters had been written, it was laid aside, and not resumed until ISI4 nine years later. Thereafter Scott worked steadily at the novels. Between December 1819 and January 1821, little more than twelve months, he wrote '"lvanhoe," "The Monastery," "The Abbot," and " KeniUvorth. Surely this was a 'tour do force' And yet j side by side with the novels. be was w riting other books and contributing articles to various journals. He wrote freely and without effort. One who knew him well said "his thoughts flow spontaneously." Consider how well equipped he was. From bis earliest years he has been "making himself" i -As he told Mifs ScAVir.itif, he had a regiment of horse exorcising through ; his head ever since he was five years old. Think how his mind was stored with old ballads and old tales, and how j hr devoured all kinds of books. e In boyhood he told romances to his j friend, John Irving, as they sat for hours on Saturday forenoons on Salisbury Crags, Arthur Sent, or on Black- i ford Hill. Think of his numerous j "cracks" with survivors of the '4o, and his intercourse with all sorts and conditions of people, bis travels over a!most unexplored parts of Scotland, and his wonderful memorv. Add to all this the' fact that he had genius and you will in some measure understand how he became a great writer. Of course, he had bis difficulties— what author has not? Very frankly he explrfned what happened when he found himself in a tight corner. "Tiie half-hour between waking i and rising has," he said, "aid my life proved propitious to any task which was exercising my invention. When J got over any knotty d\fffiult/y in ( » story, it was always when I first opened my eyes that the desired ideas thronged upon me. This is so much the case that J am in the havit of relying upon it ' and saying to myself. 'Never mind; ' we shall have it at seven o'clock tomorrow morning. ' i

•THE SIX BEST"

OLD MORTALITY

What are Scott's six best novels? Well, it is a little invidious to make a selection, and one does so with diffidence, but if we were asked to set down our own favourites in their order we should be inclined to vote thus:—l,

"Old Mortality"; 2, "Ivanhoe"; 3, "TTio Heart of Midlothian"; 1, "The Antiquary"; 5, "Rob Roy"; 6, "Red-gauntlet." Such a selection however, is largely a matter of taste.

You may. or may not, see eye to eye wtih Scot in his treatment of the Scottish Covenanters. That is a matter on which there may lie a difference ot opinion, hut it is certain that "Old Mortality," consul ml merely '.as a story, is exceedingly well told. If we mav say so. it "hangs together" well, anjd there is not a dull page in it. It is a powerful story and Lady Margaret Bolleiulon, Major Miles Bellendon, and Manse and Cuddie Hoadrigg are delightful caracters. Cuddie and his mother are immortal. ■IVAXHOE."

" Ivanhoe" is magnificent. Here Scott brings back the days of chivalry, and every page palpitates with life and action. He r>>-creatns for us the jousts and tournaments of long-pa.st centuries V\e hear the trumpets blow, end we see the herald-, the fair ladies, and th" mail-clad horses. The knights in

armour rush at cat h other in whirlwind fury with lance, sword, and battle-axe. Or we listen to the battering at the wails of Torqualstone Cast:", hear the resounding hi >ws of the besiegers, and sr > the sick hen and the fair "Rebecca. Is she not a line character? In this novel the beautiful and touching >ong appears:—

THEIR WIT, ViVACIT Y AND PATHOS.

" When Israel, of the Lord beloved Out of the land of bondage came.

"Ivanhoe" is a great story. As a work of art, Lockhart (Scott's biographer) considered it as perhaps the first of all Scott's efforts, whether in pose or <n verse. •HEART OF -MIDLOTHIAN." Many people, however, think that "The Heart of Midloth.an" is Scott's linest story. In this novel the pathos has greater prominence than the humour, and it is genuine pathos, never spurious or overdone. The characters of Jeanie and Erne Deans are drawn by ' a master-hand, one who knew and understood human nature; and the Laird or Dumbiedykes and Douce David Deans was not all sternness. Do you remember the scene in which he holds Jeanie's hand, draws her towards him, her forehead, and says, "The Cod of Israel bless you. even with the blessing of the promise, my dear bairn"; and that other scene, the wordy encounter and battle-royal with that unmitigated bore Saddletree, and how Deans suddenly became silent when his antagonist spoke of the High Court of Justiciary!' The death of the old father of Dumbiedykes (Dumbiedykes the First), the trial scene, and the interview between Jeanie and the Queen, when poor Jeanie pleads for her sister's life, are also line passages in this fine story. "THE ANTIQUARY." Come we now to "The Antiquary" and to Monkbarns, old Csxon. Maggie Mucklebackit, Ed:e Ochiltree, and The town of Fairport, otherwise Arbroath. "The Antiquary" was Scott's chief favourite among all his novels, and Robert Chambers (no mean judge) praised the story very highly The novel is rich in humour and incident. Jonathan Oldbuck, Laird of Monkbarns, is a fine sturdy, old-fashioned Scot. We are attracted tr> him from the moment when he is introduced to us. waiting impatiently for the coach to Queensferry. His opinions on things in general, and particularly of the learned professions, want nothing in vigour.

1 Do you remember his interview with Steenie Mucklebackit when the latter was mending the "auld black bitch of a beat'' in which his son liad been drowned? Aiken Drum's Long Ladle s splendid fooling, and the overhauling (and inspection) ot other people's letters by Mrs. Mailsetter and her lady friends in the back parlour of tht local Post Office is excellent. In "The Antiquary" will be found 'the impressive verses beginning. "Why sittV. Thou by that ruined hall!'" i "ROB ROY." Nearly everyone has either read "Rob Roy" or seen the play, and Rob himself, Diana Vernon, the Bailie. Andrew Fair.-.ervice, and Dougal need no introduction. They are not for an ago but for all time. We can spare room fo.- only one quotation, and it shall lie from a speech by that ardent homeruler Andrew Fairscrvic-e: —"When we had a Scotch Parliament (and doil rax their thrapples that reft us o'tl) they sate densely down and made laws tor :i i hail country and kinricK, ami never fashed their beards about things that were competent to tire judge ordinar o' the bounds; but I think that if roe *ailwife poii'd aff her neighbour's mutch, they wad lia'e the twasome o' them into the Parliament House o' Lunnin. Aweel, after the Commons' Parliament ; had tuggit, and rived, and rugget it I Maims and his rubbery till they were l tired o't. the Lords' Parliament thev ■ behoved to ha'e their spell o't- In puir I iiu'.d Scotland's Parliament then they ' didna need to ha'e the same blethers j twice over again."

"BEDGAUXTLEI." Nov we rcacli "Redgauntiet,'' tlu last of our selection. "Redgauntlet" i= Yimous bec-au.sv it deals with tlio period following the Mo in a very nterestin* way, because of the correspondence heIween the two young men with which the story opens, because of the redoubtable Peter Peebles and Xantv Ewart, and lastly, because it incorporates that little gem of a. story "Wandering Willie." .Many public- men have stated that Redgauntlet is Iheir chief favourite among all the Wa.erlev Novels.

Once upon a time Scott. Constable (his publisher), and Tom Purdie (you remember Tom) were walking in the grounds of Abhotsford. Scott exclaimed exnltinply, perhaps for tlio tenth lime, "Tlrs will be a giorio is spring for our trce<, Tom!" "Yon may say that, Sheriff," qiictli Tom, and then, lingering ;i morneni for Constable. "My certv." he adrift 1. scratciing liis head, "and I think it will be a grand season for our buiks too.'' Ir has always been a grand -oa'-on for the buiks. They have found their way to the ends of the earth, and who sha.'i estimate the pleasure they k.ve given. and will continue to give, to the sons and daughters of meitS—R. A B.