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Description of  The History of Matthew Wald: John Gibson Lockhart (The Edinburgh Critical Edition of the Works of John Gibson Lockhart)

The History of Matthew Wald (1824) is John Gibson Lockharts fourth and final novel and perhaps his most focused, stylistically successful fiction. The title character tells his own story, which is set in the context of, and carefully interwoven with, the larger historical, social, and political events and circumstances of Scotland in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Matthew Wald exemplifies Lockharts idea that the novel should portray the human mind under the influence of not one, but many of its passionsambitionloverevengeremorse and should reflect the historical and social truth of the age. This scholarly edition includes an Introduction that discusses the literary and historical contexts of the narrative and the novels early reception and textual history. Detailed Explanatory Notes complement the Introduction to provide the modern reader with the resources to re-evaluate Lockharts place in the history of the Scottish novel and Romantic fiction. Read more