Books

Edinburgh: James Ballantyne and Co., 1814. [English Literature] FIRST EDITION, a late issue with corrections similar to the second edition. With the three half-titles and imprint leaves in volumes I-II (imprint appears on final text leaf in volume III). With mis-printed page numbers corrected, and 'your' not 'our', vol 2, p.136, line 1. Three volumes, octavo (18 x 11cm), pp.[iv]; 358; [2]; pp.[iv]; 370; [2]; pp.[iv]; 371; [1]. Bound in contemporary full polished brown calf with orange morocco title labels, gilt to spines, edges marbled. Light and occasional spotting or browning, three armorial bookplates to endpapers of each volume (one being a roundel, which has fallen away in volume one). Covers nicely aged, professionally rebacked with original spines laid down. A very good set. Published anonymously in 1814, this was Scott's first venture into prose fiction and is widely accepted as the first historical novel. Such was the its popularity, the second and third editions (stated on…

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.