Waverley, by Sir Walter Scott, was once the most famous novel in the world.
Written in 1814, it was read everywhere by anyone who could read.
Beethoven was a fan, and even the relatives of Jane Austen believed it obvious that Sir Walter Scott was the master of his era.
Waverley established the genre of historical fiction, which in itself is a giant leap of originality. Scott stands at the beginning of historical fiction as Mary Shelley to science fiction, as Wilkie Collins to the mystery novel, as Tolkien to the fantasy novel. Any originator of a genre deserves applause.
Without Waverley, there would be no War and Peace. (See chapter 47 of Waverley and compare to the battle scenes in War and Peace. Tolstoy’s debt is obvious.)
But reading Waverley today reveals aspects long neglected or unseen.
It is a wonderful early example of metafiction. Scott continuously comments on his own book. He comments on how he chose the title, on the length of his chapters, on how the reader can’t change what he’s written.
It also contains excellent transitions between prose and inserted poems.
And finally, it continually introduces new characters with great fanfare—only to have them vanish after a few pages. To E. M. Forster, this was a defect—and it is a defect if Waverley were an ordinary novel. But the continual introduction of interesting characters only to abandon them creates a pleasing pattern, and can be seen as a parody of typical novelistic devices.
I’m a fan.
* Orlando Bartro is the author of Toward Two Words, a comical & surreal novel about a man who finds yet another woman he never knew, usually available at Amazon for $4.91.