Books

The Canongate edition, limited issue, number 27 of 150 sets, a typically sumptuous Gilded Age production. The first in the sequence, Waverley (1814), was "the progenitor and... archetype of the historical novel throughout the world. At one blow Scott had established a new literary form" (PMM). The series was immediately successful not only in Britain but also in the United States and Europe. The series ran until 1832, but Scott did not acknowledge authorship until 1827. All the novels were published between 1829 and 1833 as a collected edition titled the Waverley Novels, the name by which reviews referred to the works. Although only completed after his death in 1832, the collected edition was Scott's final literary endeavour, for which he provided prefaces and revisions. 48 volumes, octavo (220 x 142 mm). Finely bound in contemporary purple crushed morocco, spines with raised bands, compartments lettered and decorated with thistle motif in gilt, similar thistle design in gilt to boards and turn-ins, cloudy marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, fore and bottom edges uncut. Colour frontispieces, numerous plates throughout, all with captioned tissue guards, title page printed in red and black, and incorporating Scott's coat of arms. Spines uniformly faded, couple of minor scratches. A near-fine set, several gatherings unopened. Printing and the Mind of Man 273.

The novel 'Waverley' by Walter Scott is regarded as the first historical novel in the English language, blending history with fiction to portray the Jacobite uprising of 1745.