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A Life of Walter Scott: The Laird of Abbotsford
Examining all of Scott's best-known books as well as many less familiar works, this critical biography offers a lively and provocative reassessment of the writer who was often considered "the greatest single imaginative genius of the nineteenth century." A.N. Wilson shows how Scott combined
his life as a prolific novelist, poet, biographer, historian, and anthologist with that of a lawyer, landowner, border farmer, part-time soldier and paterfamilias. He also discusses the general indifference that has surrounded Scott in this century and reveals the distortions of his Victorian
idolators, recapturing the freshness of Scott as he appeared to his contemporaries.
his life as a prolific novelist, poet, biographer, historian, and anthologist with that of a lawyer, landowner, border farmer, part-time soldier and paterfamilias. He also discusses the general indifference that has surrounded Scott in this century and reveals the distortions of his Victorian
idolators, recapturing the freshness of Scott as he appeared to his contemporaries.
320 pages, Paperback
First published June 20, 1980
About the author
A.N. Wilson
139 books251 followersAndrew Norman Wilson is an English writer and newspaper columnist, known for his critical biographies, novels, works of popular history and religious views. He is an occasional columnist for the Daily Mail and former columnist for the London Evening Standard, and has been an occasional contributor to the Times Literary Supplement, New Statesman, The Spectator and The Observer.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 18, 2026
Plucked from a streetcorner bookswap shelf, this book would, I hoped, introduce me adequately to the originator of modern historical fiction. But alas, it didn’t meet those hopes.
Its shortcomings begin with the misleading title. It is not a “Life of” but instead a bundle of essays mainly about Scott’s literary output. More seriously it falls short in achieving its purposes. Those were, according to the author, “to trace the relationship between ‘Scott the writer’ and ‘Sir Walter Scott the Scottish petty aristocrat’”. Information on the second matter was scarce and often muddled. Evidently the author expects readers to reconcile the statement “he was a stubborn old Tory landlord, a magistrate who believe in firing shot into mobs and sending rebellious loom-workers to Botany Bay” with the statement “we discover from reading his biography one of the most genial men who ever lived.”
Then came the irritations at rambling prose peppered with obscure words like ‘haecceity’, ‘disjune’ and ‘sublunary’ More irritating yet were unsupported literary judgements such as “...even the most hastily composed of his later works cannot fail to display merit, of an unexpected kind, in one way or another.”
This kind of fatuousness prompted a search for a clearer, well-supported account of Scott’s writings, doings and influence. I found it in the long sub-section on Scott in Michael Schmidt’s 2014 compendium The Novel. A Biography. In about a fifth of the length of A.N.Wilson’s book, Schmidt lays out pertinent facts about both Walter Scott the writer and Sir Walter Scott the petty aristocrat --and luckless, slightly dodgy businessman. He notes other writers’ views of Scott, and explains his wider influences including that on the genre of historical fiction. Having driven me to find a better account, Wilson's book was not a total waste of time.
Its shortcomings begin with the misleading title. It is not a “Life of” but instead a bundle of essays mainly about Scott’s literary output. More seriously it falls short in achieving its purposes. Those were, according to the author, “to trace the relationship between ‘Scott the writer’ and ‘Sir Walter Scott the Scottish petty aristocrat’”. Information on the second matter was scarce and often muddled. Evidently the author expects readers to reconcile the statement “he was a stubborn old Tory landlord, a magistrate who believe in firing shot into mobs and sending rebellious loom-workers to Botany Bay” with the statement “we discover from reading his biography one of the most genial men who ever lived.”
Then came the irritations at rambling prose peppered with obscure words like ‘haecceity’, ‘disjune’ and ‘sublunary’ More irritating yet were unsupported literary judgements such as “...even the most hastily composed of his later works cannot fail to display merit, of an unexpected kind, in one way or another.”
This kind of fatuousness prompted a search for a clearer, well-supported account of Scott’s writings, doings and influence. I found it in the long sub-section on Scott in Michael Schmidt’s 2014 compendium The Novel. A Biography. In about a fifth of the length of A.N.Wilson’s book, Schmidt lays out pertinent facts about both Walter Scott the writer and Sir Walter Scott the petty aristocrat --and luckless, slightly dodgy businessman. He notes other writers’ views of Scott, and explains his wider influences including that on the genre of historical fiction. Having driven me to find a better account, Wilson's book was not a total waste of time.
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May 30, 2026I really loved this book.
September 9, 2012
My copy says on the back that this is a winner of the John Llewelyn Rhys Prize. So what is that bung awarded for? The least relevant title to what the book is actually about? 'Cos goodreads may have it listed as 'A View' of Sir Walter Scott, but the cover of my edition is as illustrated and vaunts itself as 'A Life'.
In his introduction, A.N.Wilson admits that this is a self-indulgent book, written by someone who loves Scott’s work and wanted a good excuse to re-read it all. I naively thought that if a book has A Life as part of the title, it would be a biography that I was getting. No, it is a critical study of his work, with odd bits of biography here and there that assume you know all this stuff already, and are happy to allow Mr Wilson to make assumptions about Scott’s state of mind from what he was writing. Not for me.
In his introduction, A.N.Wilson admits that this is a self-indulgent book, written by someone who loves Scott’s work and wanted a good excuse to re-read it all. I naively thought that if a book has A Life as part of the title, it would be a biography that I was getting. No, it is a critical study of his work, with odd bits of biography here and there that assume you know all this stuff already, and are happy to allow Mr Wilson to make assumptions about Scott’s state of mind from what he was writing. Not for me.
May 31, 2015
For a great discussion on Sir Walter Scotts' life and work that doesn't get too bogged down, this is the book!
Fantastic read and intro to so much of Scott's writing. Having only ever read Ivanhoe, this book whets the appetite for so much more.
Fantastic read and intro to so much of Scott's writing. Having only ever read Ivanhoe, this book whets the appetite for so much more.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews