Waverley

novel by Scott

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July 15, 2026

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Waverley is the first novel in The Waverley Novels series, written by Sir Walter Scott and published in 1814. This series, comprising over two dozen historical novels, was Scott's most significant contribution to literature, establishing him as the founder of the historical novel genre.

Waverley itself is set during the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 and explores the tensions between the Jacobite and Hanoverian factions in Scotland. Scott's novels are known for their vivid characterizations, use of regional dialect, and exploration of the clash between past traditions and future progress. While Waverley and other early novels in the series are set in Scotland, Scott later broadened his scope to include historical settings in England, France, and Palestine, with Ivanhoe being one of his most popular works.123

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Sir Walter Scott
…his novel, which he titled Waverley. It was one of the rare and happy cases in literary history when something original and powerful was immediately recognized and enjoyed by a large public. A story of the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, it reinterpreted and presented with living force the manners and…
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…his novel, which he titled Waverley. It was one of the rare and happy cases in literary history when something original and powerful was immediately recognized and enjoyed by a large public. A story of the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, it reinterpreted and presented with living force the manners and…
Read More

historical novel
…historical novel, Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley (1814), this type of fiction has remained popular. Though some historical novels, such as Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace (1865–69), are of the highest artistic quality, many of them are written to mediocre standards. One type of historical novel is the purely escapist costume…
Read More
…historical novel, Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley (1814), this type of fiction has remained popular. Though some historical novels, such as Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace (1865–69), are of the highest artistic quality, many of them are written to mediocre standards. One type of historical novel is the purely escapist costume…
Read More

history of Europe
Romanticism in literature and the arts
…Sir Walter Scott, beginning with Waverley in 1814, illustrate the range of the new curiosity, for Scotland was a “wild” place, outside the centers of civilization, and the Middle Ages were similarly “barbarous” and distant in time. When Byron or Chateaubriand went to the Middle East or Goethe to Italy,…
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…Sir Walter Scott, beginning with Waverley in 1814, illustrate the range of the new curiosity, for Scotland was a “wild” place, outside the centers of civilization, and the Middle Ages were similarly “barbarous” and distant in time. When Byron or Chateaubriand went to the Middle East or Goethe to Italy,…
Read More