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Series

Waverley Novels

The Waverley Novels are Walter Scott’s long sequence of historical romances, named after the anonymously published Waverley of 1814. The series moves across Scottish, English and continental European history, placing fictional protagonists between older systems of loyalty and the political, commercial and legal institutions replacing them. Scott’s characters rarely control the great events around them; their survival depends on learning how private honour, family allegiance and historical change interact.

The books in this import range from the Jacobite risings and Georgian Scotland to Richard I’s England, the rivalry of Louis XI and Burgundy, and British expansion into India. Waverley, Guy Mannering and The Antiquary form Scott’s early sequence of Scottish societies at successive historical moments, while Rob Roy and The Heart of Midlothian examine rebellion, law and conscience. Ivanhoe and Quentin Durward broaden the series into medieval Europe, and Chronicles of the Canongate gathers shorter stories about displacement after Scotland’s political and military transformation.

Reading order

Books in this series (8 books)

Waverley cover

#1 – Waverley

Sir Walter Scott

Edward Waverley is a young English officer whose romantic education has left him poorly prepared for political conflict. Sent to Scotland in 1745, he visits the Jacobite Baron Bradwardine and then enters the Highland world of Fergus and Flora Mac-Ivor. When his association with suspected rebels…

Guy Mannering cover

#2 – Guy Mannering

Sir Walter Scott

Harry Bertram, heir to the Ellangowan estate, is kidnapped as a child by the smuggler Dirk Hatteraick at the instigation of the corrupt lawyer Gilbert Glossin. Raised in the Netherlands as Vanbeest Brown, he later serves in India under Colonel Guy Mannering and falls in love…

The Antiquary cover

#3 – The Antiquary

Sir Walter Scott

A young officer travelling under the name Lovel arrives in the Scottish town of Fairport and becomes the companion of Jonathan Oldbuck, a learned but argumentative collector of antiquities. Lovel loves Isabella Wardour, whose indebted father rejects a suitor believed to be illegitimate, and soon becomes…

Rob Roy cover

#6 – Rob Roy

Sir Walter Scott

Frank Osbaldistone rejects his father’s London trading house and is sent to live among his Jacobite relatives in Northumberland. There he falls in love with Diana Vernon and distrusts his calculating cousin Rashleigh, who takes Frank’s place in the family business. When Rashleigh steals documents capable…

Ivanhoe cover

#10 – Ivanhoe

Sir Walter Scott

Wilfred of Ivanhoe returns secretly to England in 1194 after fighting beside Richard I on the Third Crusade. He has been disinherited by his Saxon father Cedric for serving the Norman king and loving Rowena, whom Cedric intends to marry into a restored Saxon line. At…