THE MONASTERY: A ROMANCE
Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co., 1820. First Edition. Octavos, 331 pp (Vol. 1); 3-333 pp (Vol. 2); 3-351 pp (Vol. 3). Good; bound in contemporary marbled paper with 1/2 calf, tooling and gilt titling to spine and tooling to leather edges on covers, areas of rubbing and fading to papers, wear and slight cracking to leather of spines, tears to spine edges and corners; slight cracks to hinges but bindings else tight; text blocks age toned; pages clean; half-titles present in all volumes with pencil marks on them; modern cellophane tape repairs to front pastedown and ffep of Vol. 2. Shelved above WWII.
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NOTES
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works are considered classics, and he had a major impact on European and American literature. His knowledge of history and literary facility equipped him to establish the historical novel genre as an exemplar of European Romanticism. (via Wikipedia)
The characters in several of Jane Austen's novels read and refer to the works of Scott and discuss their merits. Of Scott, Austen wrote to her niece in 1814, "Walter Scott has no business to write novels, especially good ones. It is not fair. He has fame and profit enough as a poet, and should not be taking the bread out of the mouths of other people. I do not like him, and do not mean to like "Waverley" if I can help it, but fear I must."
In the fall of 1815, Scott himself read Austen's newest novel Emma and wrote his favorable impressions of it anonymously in the October "Quarterly Review." That was enough to catch the notice of Mathew Carey of Philadelphia, who attempted to make Emma and its author known in America. He was unsuccessful in his first effort, but by 1833 had published all six of Austen's existing novels with his partner Isaac Lea.