Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott(1771-1832) was a prolific Scottish writer, considered the inventor of the genre of historical fiction. He originally had a great success with romantic narrative poetry.
Life
Brought up partly in Edinburgh and partly near and in Kelso in the Scottish Borders, Scott was from an early age enthralled by tales and the Scottish ballads. He studied as a lawyer and was admitted to the Bar in 1792. His collecting of Border and other ballads, which he "improved" if the improvement occurred to him, began in these years. In 1797 he married Charlotte Charpentier. In 1797 he was appointed Sheriff-depute of Selkirkshire, and in 1806 Clerk of Session, which involved attendance in Edinburgh. In 1802/3 he published The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and in 1805, also under his own name, his first poetical work. Of this, his biographer Lockhart wrote: "In the history of British Poetry, nothing had ever equalled the Lay of the Last Minstrel." [1] The success of this and later poems of the same nature led to his introduction to English literary and court circles. He continued until 1817 in this vein, but in 1812 his fame was eclipsed by the even greater success of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by Lord Byron, with whom Scott became friendly while visiting London.
Scott now took to writing historical fiction, his first novel Waverley appearing anonymously in 1814. Subsequent works were said to be by the Author of Waverley, and were known as the Waverley novels. These were also very successful. The first nine novels, and many thereafter, relate to Scottish history, but from 1819 when Ivanhoe appeared, he started to introduce themes from English history and occasionally from continental history and the crusades.[2] Scott's literary success had produced a considerable income for him, but he had been generous in spending it, and had also put money into building his house, Abbotsford, and the land surrounding it. In 1826 he was involved in the financial collapse of two publishing firms in which he was a sleeping partner, and came to an agreement with creditors rather than be made bankrupt, an agreement for them to receive all future income from his writing. This catastrphe was followed by the death of his wife. In 1827 he acknowledged the authorship of the Waverley novels. The same year saw the publication of his Life of Napoleon Buonaparte, which sold as well as his novels. He died in 1832, having cut short a tour of Mediterranean countries, in order to die at home.
Influence
According to C. S. Lewis, Scott was the first writer to depict the past as really different from the present. Although he was very popular in Britain, his influence was possibly greater in continental Europe, particularly France, where his Quentin Durward sold well. He had a clear influence on Dumas, Mérimée and even Hugo. Mark Twain considered his influence pernicious.[3]