Sir Walter Scott : The Formative Years by Clark, Arthur Melville - 1969

Blackwood, 1969. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 5.75 X 8.75. h/b 322 pages, condition is very good, minor edge wear to the DJ. This book will appeal to all who love Scott the man as well as Scott the writer. It is a discussing narrative of the first twenty-odd years of Scott's life when, in addition to formal instruction, he was engaged in the no less important Process of a ranging self-education, making himself a great Romantic in a predominantly Neo-classic world and realising his own bent and capacities. But to this central theme are linked many topics: convincing evidence that the accepted date of Scott's birth is incorrect; Scott's family life; his moral and religious convictions; his Jacobite leanings; his amazing feats of memory; his sportsmanship. and excursions; his echoing of events of his own life in his mature works; his friendships and sociability, especially as a member of the Speculative Society; his training of his own children; and his part in the founding of Edinburgh Academy. The book is complete with a bibliography of works about Scott, comprehensive chapter-by-chapter annotations, a list of principal dates setting the book in the context of Scott's life, and an index.