My Scottish Journey through 2021

For some months now - in fact, ever since 9th August 2019, I have been steadily searching for, and purchasing, Scottish novels written between 1808 and 1832 (the year Sir Walter Scott died). I already had nearly all of Scott's prose works, having bought them quite cheaply from the early 1980s onwards.  Then, between August and October 2019, I purchased and read Susan Ferrier's three three-decker novels: Marriage (1818), The Inheritance (1824) and Destiny (1831). This led me into buying several books on not only Ferrier but on Scottish Nineteenth Century Fiction. 

Carcanet New Press first edition - 1979

I began (typically) with enthusiasm to collect novels written at both ends of the century. I now have a small collection of what have been termed (disparagingly) Kailyard fiction, mainly written from the 1880s to the early 1900s. Although, I had already read some (mainly Ian MacLaren), these will have to wait until 2022 before I engage with them.

Not so the start of the century. Alerted to names I had no more than a nodding acquaintance with - Galt and Lockhart; and those who had completely passed me by - Elizabeth Hamilton, Brunton, Dick Lauder, Thomas Hamilton and Smyth; I have now (at some expense) collected over 50 novels, many of them three-deckers, of that vibrant period in Scottish Letters. My 2021 Plan is to [re-]read as many of them as I can by the end of December, starting today with a re-read of Elizabeth Hamilton's The Cottagers of Glenburnie, read for the first time last July. The first seven (as I shall read them in chronological order) are:

1808*    Elizabeth Hamilton      The Cottagers of Glenburnie

1811      Mary Brunton      Self-Control

1814      Mary Brunton      Discipline 

1815*    Walter Scott      Guy Mannering

1816*    Walter Scott      The Antiquary 

1816      Walter Scott      Tales of My Landlord

1917*    Walter Scott      Rob Roy

* = a re-reading

I shall also be looking at works of literary criticism and biography on the above authors and their milieu. 

Interspersed with the above will be a planned reading of Arnold Bennett's most famous novels, all in the Penguin first editions I purchased last December. AND starting to watch my Fifty Great War Films on DVD !

Lockdown, so beastly in nearly every other way, is an ideal time for uninterrupted reading. Well, Amber and Brodie, our Border Collie and Westie, will ensure it is not entirely uninterrupted.