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British Novelists and Their Styles (1859)
British Novelists and Their Styles - 1859 Author:David Masson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LECTURE III. SCOTT AND HIS INFLUENCE. EDINBURGH SEVENTY YEARS AGO — EDINBURGH SINCE — ITS IMPORTANT INHABITANTS IN RECENT TIMES — SCOTT PREEMINENTLY THE "G... more »ENIUS LOCI"—TWO MOST PROMINENT FEATURES OP SCOTT'S MIND—HIS LOVE OF THE PAST, OR PASSION FOR HISTORY—HIS AFFECTION FOR THE PAST, NOT FOR THE WHOLE PAST, BUT ONLY FOR THE GOTHIC PORTION OF IT — PATRIOTISM, OR SCOTTICISM OF 8OOTT — HIS SPECIAL AFFECTION FOR EDINBURGH — TIME AND MANNER OF HIS DETERMINATION TO THE NOVEL — REVIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF BRITISH PROSE FICTION IN THE TWENTY-FIVE YEARS PRECEDING " WAVERLEY," OR FROM 1789 TO 1814 — TWENTY NOVELISTS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING SCOTT — LADY NOVELISTS — NATIONALITY IN NOVELS — REVOLUTIONARY NOVELS: GODWIN —THE GOTHIC ROMANCE SCHOOL: MRS. RADCLIFFE—NOVEL OF ENGLISH MANNERS: MISS AUSTEN — RELATIONS OF SCOTT TO HIS PREDECESSORS —THE WAVERLEY HOVELS CLASSIFIED —SCOTT THE FOUNDER OF THE HISTORICAL NOVEL—LIMITS OF HIS HISTORICAL RESEARCH—IS HIS MEDIB- VALISM SOUND? —DEFECT OF SCOTT'S GENIUS —EXCELLENCE OF HIS SCOTTISH CHARACTERS — SCOTLAND'S OBLIGATION TO HIM — YOUMG EDINBURGH. "edina! Scotia's darling seat! All hail thy palaces and towers! Where once, beneath a monarch's feet, Sat Legislation's sovereign powers! From marking wildly-scattered flowers, As on the banks of Ayr I strayed, And singing lone the lingering hours, I shelter in thy honored shade! " . So sang Burns, with genuine enthusiasm, though not in his best literary strain, when first, a visitor from his native Ayrshire, he saluted the Scottish capital. At that time Edinburgh merited the salutation, even had it been expressed better. The Old Town was there as we still see it, or more perfect and untouched — the most romantic aggregate of natural height and hollow, and of quaint and massive build...« less