Educated at Edinburgh High School and University, Scott trained to be a lawyer and was called to the bar in 1792. He was very interested in old Border tales and ballads and spent much of his free time in exploring the Border country. His published some translations in 1796 and 1799 and began in earnest in 1802-03 with Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, a collection of ballads. He published his first original work in 1805, a romantic poem, The Lay of the Last Minstrel. His first novel, Waverley, appeared in 1814 and was very successful. This was rapidly followed by Guy Mannering (1815), The Antiquary, The Black Dwarf and Old Mortality (1816), Rob Roy (1817), The Heart of Midlothian (1818), The Bride of Lammermoor, A Legend of Montrose and Ivanhoe (1819), The Monastery and The Abbot (1820), Kenilworth and The Pirate (1821), The Fortunes of Nigel (1822), Peveril of the Peak, Quentin Durward and St. Ronan's Well (1823), Redgauntlet (1824), Tales of the Crusaders (1825), Woodstock (1826) and Chronicles of the Canongate (1827). All of these had been published anoymously, but in 1827, Scott admitted to their authorship. During the financial crisis of 1825, Scott's involvement in the firm of James Ballantyne & Co. resulted in his personal liability of £114,000; an enormous sum for the time and one that would force him to write novels at a great speed to cover this debt. He published Chronicles of the Canongate - second series in 1828 and Castle Dangerous in 1831. Scott also produced dramas, although not very successfully, and an enormous quantity of historical, literary, biographical and antiquarian works. |
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