John Gibson Lockhart

This modern scholarly edition is based on the two-volume abridged edition of 1848, which in being less weighed down by supplementary materials provides a more fluent record of Lockhart’s own often personally informed narrative. Following the pattern of the original 1848 edition, Volume II offers a new perspective on its subject. Beginning with Lockhart’s first visit to Abbotsford in October 1818, it marks the commencement of his direct personal relationship with Scott, which lasted unbroken until Scott’s death in 1832. An introduction to the second volume traces this relationship and its significance. Explanatory annotation identifies elements such as allusions, personalities and events, while interrogating some of Lockhart’s more problematic statements. A special category of Textual Notes summarises omissions from the larger versions of the Life, as well as tracking new text as provided by the 1848 edition.

This modern scholarly edition is based on the two-volume abridged edition of 1848, which in being less weighed down by supplementary materials provides a more fluent record of Lockhart’s own often personally informed narrative. Volume I includes a substantial Introduction which presents an account of the genesis of the project, its initial completion in 1837-38 in the face of great difficulties, and subsequent publication history, during which it played a key part in establishing Scott’s reputation and finally relieving his debts. Explanatory annotation identifies elements such as allusions, personalities and events, while interrogating some of Lockhart’s more problematic statements. A special category of Textual Notes summarises omissions from the larger versions of the Life, as well as tracking new text as provided by the 1848 edition. In addition to commemorating Lockhart’s mammoth literary achievement, this edition through its various components effectively offers an encyclopaedic record of Scott’s life and output.

Valerius, A Roman Story, Lockhart’s first novel and what has been called ‘the first classical novel in English’, was first published in 1821 and extensively revised for Blackwood’s Standard Novels (1842) two decades later. This revised edition – Lockhart’s final edition – is the text presented in this new scholarly edition. The title character, a young Roman Briton, narrates and reflects upon his journey to Rome in the time of Trajan. The novel is part history, part travel narrative, part love story and part thriller, as Valerius’s personal journey is carefully interwoven with the history, culture, and politics of the Roman Empire in a time of Christian persecution. Lockhart offers Romantic fiction a new character and invites readers to consider conditions of nineteenth-century Britain through Roman life. This edition, with its extensive explanatory notes, provides the modern reader with the scholarly resources to re-evaluate Valerius and Lockhart’s place in the history of the Scottish novel and Romantic fiction.