The Waverly Novels: Quentin Durward

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Wildside Press, 2007 - 476 ページ
Quentin Durward (first published in 1823), Scott's first "European" novel, was an experiment in transferring the historical romance to foreign soil. Fifteenth-century France, the French Revolution, and contemporary Britain all come together in this sharp-eyed novel of political expediency and intrigue. Quentin Durward is a young adventurer and soldier of the Scottish guards seeking fame and fortune in the France of Louis XI (1461-1483). Embarking upon a dangerous journey through the forest of the Ardennes seeking a name, a partner (there is a romance involving his love for Isabelle, Countess of Croye), and a position in the world, he knows little and understands less, but Scott represents his ignorance and naivete as useful to "the most sagacious prince in Europe" who needs servants motivated solely by the desire for coin and credit and lacking any interest in France, which would interfere with the execution of his political aims. Meanwhile, the Machiavellian King Louis XI of France, maneuvers his realm out of the hands of feudal barons and into centralized control -- which Scott believed to characterize the modern state. In Quentin Durward Scott studies the first modern state in the process of destroying the European feudal system at a time when the feudal system, which had been the sinews and nerves of national defense, and the spirit of chivalry, by which, began to be innovated upon and abandoned by those grosser characters, who centered their happiness in materialism. The reception accorded Quentin Durward astounded Scott, his friends and his publishers. France, Germany and Italy went mad over him, realizing then, as now, that this miracle worker had given to European literature an unsurpassed picture of Louis XI and his age. His fame, the world over, was thenceforth permanently fixed. It was cheering news for Scott. - Publisher.

著者について (2007)

Walter Scott was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on August 15, 1771. He began his literary career by writing metrical tales. The Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, and The Lady of the Lake made him the most popular poet of his day. Sixty-five hundred copies of The Lay of the Last Minstrel were sold in the first three years, a record sale for poetry. His other poems include The Vision of Don Roderick, Rokeby, and The Lord of the Isles. He then abandoned poetry for prose. In 1814, he anonymously published a historical novel, Waverly, or, Sixty Years Since, the first of the series known as the Waverley novels. He wrote 23 novels anonymously during the next 13 years. The first master of historical fiction, he wrote novels that are historical in background rather than in character: A fictitious person always holds the foreground. In their historical sequence, the Waverley novels range in setting from the year 1090, the time of the First Crusade, to 1700, the period covered in St. Roman's Well (1824), set in a Scottish watering place. His other works include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, and The Bride of Lammermoor. He died on September 21, 1832.

書誌情報

書籍名The Waverly Novels: Quentin Durward
The Waverly Novels
著者Walter Scott
版イラスト付き
出版社Wildside Press, 2007
ISBN1434496937, 9781434496935
ページ数476 ページ
  
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