This early work by Sir Walter Scott was originally published in 1810 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. Waverly was Scott's first venture into prose fiction and became so popular that Scott's later novels were advertised as being "by the author of Waverley". Edward has been brought up in the family home by his uncle, Sir Everard Waverley, who maintains the family Tory and Jacobite sympathies, while Edward's Whig father works for the Hanoverian government in nearby London. Edward is given a commission in the Hanoverian army and posted to Dundee, then promptly takes leave to visit Baron Bradwardine, a Jacobite friend of his uncle, and meets the Baron's lovely daughter Rose. When wild Highlanders visit the Baron's castle, Edward is intrigued and goes to the mountain lair of Clan Mac-Ivor, meeting the Chieftain Fergus and his sister Flora, who turn out to be active Jacobites preparing for the insurrection. But Edward has overstayed his leave and is accused of desertion and treason, and then arrested. Sir Walter Scott was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1771. An avid reader and collector of tales, Scott began writing professionally at the age of 25. In 1802-1803 he published his first major work, an idiosyncratic three-volume set of collected ballads entitled The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. Two years later he rose to fame as a poet with the publication of The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), before Scott turned to writing novels.
