Related Subjects
Fiction History Literary Literary Criticism & Collections Literature Literature & FictionWe all know that Sir Walter Scott invented the historical novel. Some scholars also call him father of the political novel. THE TALE OF OLD MORTALITY (1816) is certainly a political novel. And a religious novel. And an historical novel. And a love story. And a masterpiece of psychological analysis. *** About all that a literate American reader might find a chore is the broad lowland Scots spoken by many of the characters,...
0Report
The tale of Old Mortality is certainly one of the great Waverley novels. Scott was writing about a historical period he knew well and a subject he cared deeply about. The result is a story both exciting and informative, full of romance and action. The novel is set mainly in the year 1679 and concerns the revolt of the strict Presbyterian Covenanters against the Episcopalian forces of Charles II. The hero of the novel, Henry...
1Report
Scott's "Old Mortality" is set amidst political and religious turmoil in late 17th century Scotland. Covenanters, in that time, a sect of Presbyterians, engaged government forces of both Scotland and Britain in an effort to secure their religious freedoms. In the middle of this action is Henry Morton, a moderate youth, drawn out of his secure life by a chance encounter, and into a ten-year Odyssey of strife and conflict...
0Report
Old Mortality is Scott's single best novel, without an ounce of fat in its taut, well-paced, and exciting narrative. The language of the characters--all of them, except for the hero and one or two other, fanatics of one type or another--is rich and fascinating, and the window it provides on a crucial moment of British history is indispensible. The Edinburgh edition is exemplary: highly readable yet to the highest standards...
1Report