The Emphasis on History in the Historical Novel

Abstract

A commonplace in the criticism of the early nineteenth century — that Scott ranked second to Shakespeare as a delineator of character, and in his knowledge of the human heart and mind — was challenged, not long after Scott’s death, on the unexpected ground that he had violated the laws of probability. Harriet Martineau was not alone in her charge, made in her Autobiography, that The Bride of Lammermoor was Scott’s ‘one prefect plot’ because it was ‘taken bodily from real life’. The implication was that the rest of Scott’s novels, which were not so derived, had to be considered imperfect.