Guy Mannering or the Astrologer [Paperback]

Walter Scott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2003

1890. The Novel or Romance of Waverly made its way to the public slowly, of course, at first, but afterwards with such accumulating popularity as to encourage the author to a second attempt. He looked about for a name and a subject; and the manner in which the novels were composed cannot be better illustrated than by reciting the simple narrative on which Guy Mannering was originally founded; but to which, in the progress of the work, the production ceased to bear any, even to the most distant, resemblance. The tale was originally told to the author by an old servant of his father's, an excellent old Highlander. He believed as firmly in the story as in any part of his creed. Illustrated.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The volumes have been carefully and critically edited from the original manuscripts and now the texts, which in each case capture large numbers of readings never before printed and clear away elements of corruption in existing editions, are as close to what Scott originally wrote as the skills of the editorial team can make them. The Edinburgh Edition respects Scott the artist by 'restoring' versions of the novels that are not quite what his first readers saw. Indeed, it returns to manuscripts that the printers never handled, as Scott's fiction before 1827 was transcribed before it reached the printshop. Each volume of the Edinburgh edition presents an uncluttered text of one work, followed by an Essay on the Text by the editor of the work, a list of the emendations that have been made to the first edition, explanatory notes and a glossary! The editorial essays are histories of the respective texts. Some of them are almost 100 pages long; when they are put together they constitute a fascinating and lucid account of Scott's methods of compostion and his financial manoeuvres. This edition is for anyone who takes Scott seriously. The Edinburgh Edition is essential to any Scott scholar![the student] will turn first to the superbly specific textual essays that follow the readings. Unique to this handsome edition is Scott's graphic depiction of characters from Edinburgh's literary scene. The latest additions to the monumental Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels ! all three editors maintain consistently high quality in preparing what will surely be the standard edition of Scott's complete novels ! as might be expected, the Essays on the Text are of central importance in the editions, because of the minutely detailed yet lucid accounts of the textual choices made. The volumes have been carefully and critically edited from the original manuscripts and now the texts, which in each case capture large numbers of readings never before printed and clear away elements of corruption in existing editions, are as close to what Scott originally wrote as the skills of the editorial team can make them. The Edinburgh Edition respects Scott the artist by 'restoring' versions of the novels that are not quite what his first readers saw. Indeed, it returns to manuscripts that the printers never handled, as Scott's fiction before 1827 was transcribed before it reached the printshop. Each volume of the Edinburgh edition presents an uncluttered text of one work, followed by an Essay on the Text by the editor of the work, a list of the emendations that have been made to the first edition, explanatory notes and a glossary! The editorial essays are histories of the respective texts. Some of them are almost 100 pages long; when they are put together they constitute a fascinating and lucid account of Scott's methods of compostion and his financial manoeuvres. This edition is for anyone who takes Scott seriously. The Edinburgh Edition is essential to any Scott scholar![the student] will turn first to the superbly specific textual essays that follow the readings. Unique to this handsome edition is Scott's graphic depiction of characters from Edinburgh's literary scene. The latest additions to the monumental Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels ! all three editors maintain consistently high quality in preparing what will surely be the standard edition of Scott's complete novels ! as might be expected, the Essays on the Text are of central importance in the editions, because of the minutely detailed yet lucid accounts of the textual choices made. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Walter Scott (1771-1832) was born and educated in Edinburgh and is the foremost Romantic novelist in the English language. Also a poet, he is credited with establishing the form of the historical novel. Peter Garside is a reader in English Literature at the University of Wales, Cardiff. Jane Millgate is a professor of English at Victoria College, University of Toronto, Canada. She is the author of Walter Scott: The Making of a Novelist. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 172 pages
• Publisher: Kessinger Publishing (August 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0766170713
• ISBN-13: 978-0766170711
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,501,711 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exciting story, March 12, 2005

By 

Mr Peter G George (Ellon, Aberdeenshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Guy Mannering (Hardcover)

Scott's second novel Guy Mannering begins in the 1760s and concludes "near the end of the American war" in the early 1780s. Scott is deliberately vague about dates, as his focus in this novel is not on historical events or persons. The story begins with Guy Mannering's chance visit to Ellangowan the home of the Bertrams a noble Scottish family somewhat in decline. It is the night when Henry Bertram is born and Mannering an amateur astrologer sets out to make a chart of the boy's future. He is disturbed by the result however, and declines to reveal what he has foreseen, asking the family to wait five years before reading the prediction. Mannering leaves only to return some twenty years later to find that the fate of the Bertram family has become intimately connected with that of his own and that somehow, despite his own scepticism about his abilities as an astrologer, his predictions in an uncanny way have mirrored events.

Scott's skill as a storyteller is shown well in this novel. The story has a fast pace with lots of action and suspense. The major characters are confronted with the dangers of a lawless time, including murder, smuggling and abduction. Moreover, they must carry out their romances despite the disapproval of their parents. As is so often the case with Scott, much of the pleasure from reading the tale comes from the various minor characters he describes. Dominie Sampson is an unforgettable character hilariously awkward of speech and manner, constantly exclaiming "prodigious", but fiercely loyal to the Bertram family. Meg Merrilies, an unusually tall, mysterious gypsy fortune-teller, is likewise fascinating with her apparently supernatural ability to influence events. These and other characters, both the virtuous and the villainous, make the story continually interesting.

The best edition of Guy Mannering is that edited by P.D. Garside. This edition, based on the first edition and manuscript, provides the best possible text, restoring for the first time a large number of lost readings and indeed some quite extensive passages. It also has a full glossary, essential for understanding the Scots dialect and archaic words in the novel, and an extensive set of notes. Guy Mannering is a really enjoyable novel and good fun to read. It is also relatively straightforward and so would provide a good introduction to Scott's Waverley novels.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Scott so Far, October 29, 2005

By 

P. J. Carter "ScottTolkienDickens Fan" (Maine) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Guy Mannering (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

This novel combines action, humor, unforgettable characters and intelligent writing. The author takes you into the landscape-you feel every bump in the road. A very accessible novel, considering Scott's other works. While I loved The Antiquarian, the Bride of Lammermoor, Waverly and Rob Roy, Guy Mannering is the best so far, with a plot that never falters and a few heroes that inspire admiration as well as inquiry. There is also little of the thick, unintelligible scot's dialect that can trip up the average reader. While Scott falls short on his female love interest,(she's only human) he excels in the character of the female lead, a brave gypsy filled with a sense of her own doom.
Please read Scott. He's good, and good for you.
Note to dog-lovers: the fun-loving Dandie Dinmont Terrier takes its name from this novel.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fun hodge-podge of a novel (no spoilers here!), February 5, 2007

By 

Waverley36 (Nunya) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guy Mannering (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

I read Walter Scott for atmosphere, for mood, for humor and characterization and perhaps most of all, to listen to his voice. Scott has an endearingly present narrative persona--he's that chatty, knowledgeable, and even slightly eccentric uncle, the one with all the hobbies and interests and entirely too many books, who seems to be a kind of expert on every subject. The best Scott novels tap into this feeling of cozy kinship and exploit it, and in the end this is often more important than the story proper.

More than many other Waverley novels, more than Waverley itself certainly, Scott's second novel, Guy Mannering (1815), excels at producing this complicated, friendly, peculiar narrative hodge-podge. There's a bit of everything here, from romantic scenery to sharp satire, from a bookish name-dropping to curse-muttering gypsies. There's smugglers and kidnappers, astrologers and cranks, the Scottish lowlands and the English lake district. Like all Scott, there's old and new joyfully intermingled--a birth mystery worthy of Tom Jones yet a good deal of what would become Treasure Island. More Gothic and less historical than Waverley, more fun than Heart of Midlothian, less forced than Ivanhoe, this novel was an unexpected treat. It remains underrated and understudied.

Consider that Scott dashed this novel out in six weeks, and you'll get some idea of both his own considerable talents and also the casualness, almost carelessness of its tone. Like all of his novels, Guy Mannering should be imbibed slowly, savored rather than gulped. Kudos to Penguin Classics for tapping into the Edinburgh Edition and providing us with a cheap, well-annotated text of this neglected classic!

Addendum: Someone asked me, so I thought I'd add: this is the novel featuring Dandy Dinmont, for whom the popular terrier is named.