VOLUME 39. CHRONICLES OF THE CANONGATE. FIRST SERIES. VOLUME ONE CONTAINS THE HIGHLAND WIDOW, AND THE TWO DROVERS IN TWO VOLUMES. I. PARKER'S EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED, WITH A GENERAL PREFACE, AN HISTORICAL AND ILLUSTRATIVE, BY THE AUTHOR. BOSTON: SAMUEL H. PARKER. PHILADELPHIA: THOMAS, COWPERTHWAIT, & CO. -NEW YORK: INTRODUCTION ΤΟ CHRONICLES OF THE CANONGATE. THE preceding volume of this Collection concluded the last of the pieces originally published under the nominis umbra of The Author of Waverley; and the circumstances which rendered it impossible for the writer to continue longer in the possession of his incognito, were communicated in 1827, in the Introduction to the first series of Chronicles of the Canongate, consisting (besides a biographical sketch of the imaginary chronicler) of three tales, entitled "The Highland Widow," "The Two Drovers," and "The Surgeon's Daughter." In the present volume the two first named of these pieces are included, together with three detached stories, which appeared the year after in the elegant compilation called the "Keepsake." The "Surgeon's Daughter" it is thought better to defer until a succeeding volume,* than to "Begin and break off in the middle." I have, perhaps, said enough on former occasions of the misfortunes which led to the dropping of that mask under which I had, for a long series of years, enjoyed so large a portion of public favour. Through the success of those literary efforts, I had been enabled to indulge most of the tastes, which a retired person of my station might be supposed to entertain. In the pen of this nameless romancer, I seemed to possess something like In this edition, the Stories from the "Keepsake" with the "Surgeon's Daughter" are included in the next volume.-American ed. |