Judy King – författare

Scott wrote short stories throughout his career, some included within novels, others published separately in periodicals. This collection of the stories from periodicals extends from his earliest published fiction to his last and comprises pieces from The Edinburgh Annual Register (1811), The Sale-Room (1817), Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1817-1818) and The Keepsake (1828-1831). Only three of these stories have been regularly reprinted; the other five are here made readily available for the first time. Publication in periodicals offered Scott new opportunities to explore the potential of the short story form and to demonstrate his enormous versatility as a writer of fiction.

The Siege of Malta is one of Scott's most moving works. The story of the Siege itself is remarkable, with its combination of individual defeat and group survival against overwhelming odds. It had been part of Scott's mental furniture from his early days, and it acquires a new and powerful resonance when remembered alongside his then-failing health. To read it is an enlarging experience, which anyone at all interested in Scott should share. The incomplete narrative of Bizarro is also a fascinating document from the end of Scott's life. In it he returns to the figure of the bandit/outlaw which had intrigued him all his life and had played such an important part in two of his greatest novels, in the persons of Rob Roy himself in Rob Roy and Robin Hood in Ivanhoe. * The only available editions of these two works by Scott* Provides reading texts that remain broadly faithful to the manuscripts, but tidying them up in the way that the original intermediaries might have been expected to do* Diplomatic transcriptions, which involves attempting to reproduce the manuscripts as faithfully as possible in type, using appropriate conventions to indicate deletions and doubtful readings* Access to a digital reproduction of the manuscripts on an accompanying CD* An Essay on the Text that outlines its genesis and composition, describing the manuscripts, and presenting and illustrating the procedures involved in preparing the reading text* A Historical Note and set of Explanatory Notes along with a combined Glossary* Accompanying CD-rom containing digital photographs of the manuscripts.

In starting The Three Perils of Man Hogg embarked on an ambitious project of emulating and perhaps surpassing his friend and rival Walter Scott in Scott’s own chosen literary territory, chivalry and the Borders. Originally envisaged as a two volume ‘Border Romance’, entitled The Perilous Castle and centred around Roxburgh Castle, it expanded to include events at Roxburgh Castle, home of the legendary wizard Michael Scott, leading eventually to the adoption of the title The Three Perils of Man: War, Women, and Witchcraft. Hogg offers a devastating critique of chivalry and combines it with a study of the supernatural, an area in which he had been steeped from his childhood, and which produces some of his finest writing, including a magnificent portrait of the Devil disguised as an abbot. A host of other characters led by the lovable Charlie Scott of Yardbire provide us with a vision of everyday Borders life and values to set against the more fantastic worlds of chivalry and wizardry. Included in the novel is a story-telling contest which features some of Hogg’s most powerful short stories. This edition is based on the first edition of 1822 but draws on the newly available manuscript in the Fales Library of New York University to provide a number of new readings, including the restoration of Hogg’s original audacious choice of the name Sir Walter Scott for a key character. It includes an introduction describing the genesis, composition, publication and subsequent revision of the novel, a historical and geographical note, full explanatory notes and a glossary. It also contains a comprehensive essay on the manuscript by Gillian Hughes.

This volume contains the original versions of James Hogg’s contributions to Scottish periodicals, including newspapers, literary journals and specialist agricultural journals, which were an important outlet for Hogg’s work throughout his literary life and his contributions cover many of his favourite themes and styles including the supernatural, rural life, current events, books, human relationships and Scottish history appearing in short stories, songs, poems, newspaper reports, letters to the editor, travel writing and articles on Scottish life, culture and country. The volume provides examples of the range and diversity of themes, genres and styles found in Hogg’s work from the time when he first came to live in Edinburgh to try and establish himself as an author in 1810 till the time of his death.