Two Hundred Years ago this summer -- the historical novel breaks into the best-seller "game"

from PBS NewsHour Arts & Media (www.pbs.org/newshour): In July 1814, no one knew whose words they were reading exactly, but they read Waverley in such volume that the initial printing of 1,000 copies sold out in two days. Set during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, the historical novel tells the story of a young English soldier, Edward Waverley, sent north to Scotland to fight with the Redcoat army. Love gets in the way, and Edward’s passion for the feisty Highlander Flora leads him to join the Jacobites’ fight. By November of 1814, Waverley was in its fourth printing and had become a runaway international success, all without the benefit of an author’s name on the title page. The author was widely believed to be Sir Walter Scott, at the time better known for his poetry — of the “Oh, what a tangled web we weave” variety. Waverley was something new for Scott. He’d started it years earlier, put it away in a drawer and forgotten about it until late 1813. Then, in a three-week burst of creativity, he finished the second and third volumes at his new home in the Scottish Borders, Abbotsford. The book was received with almost universal acclaim, and nearly every reviewer guessed it was written by Scott. Even some of his readers knew. MORE at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/historical-novel-celebrates-200-years-thanks-sir-walter-scott/