It’s Sir Walter Scott. What can I say? Each of his novels seems
to have about the first half of the entire thing as his introduction. It’s like
wading through treacle. And Waverley is no different. My biggest surprise in
this novel was how little of it took place around Edinburgh, given the railway
station. Also Waverley is English, another surprise, was expecting him to be Scottish.
Waverley’s history seemed a bit complex to me, but then it was
probably in the dreary first half of the book. But it seems like he is brought
up by his uncle, and thus is his heir. The uncle is a Jacobite, but Waverley’s
father isn’t, I think. But Waverley himself gets sent off to Scotland to serve
in the King’s Army. And he is supposed to be fighting the Scots.
By some strange twists and turns he actually ends up
fighting with the Scottish against the English under Bonny Prince Charlie. When
that goes wrong he has to try and not get tried for treason by the English.
It was hard to have sympathy for Waverley, although it was
easy to his character progression, and he was less of a muppet by the end of it
all. But there wasn’t really a character I could get behind. No one seemed to
be particularly great at making good decisions.
Not sure I would recommend this one, I personally would be happy
never to see it again.
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