Old Mortality (1816), which many consider the finest of Scott's Waverley novels, is a swift-moving historical romance that places an anachronistically liberal hero against the forces of fanaticism in seventeenth-century Scotland, in the period infamous as the `killing time'. Its central character, Henry Morton, joins the rebels in order to fight Scotland's royalist oppressors, little as he shares the Covenanters' extreme religious beliefs. He is torn between his love for a royalist's granddaughter and his loyalty to his downtrodden countrymen.

As well as being a tale of divided loyalties, the novel is a crucial document in the cultural history of modern Scotland. Scott, himself a supporter of the union between Scotland and England, was trying to exorcise the violent past of a country uncomfortably coming to terms with its status as part of a modern United Kingdom. This novel is in itself a significant political document, in which Scott can be seen to be attempting to create a new centralist Scottish historiography, which is not the political consensus of his own time, the seventeenth century, or today.

ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

• We started tracking this book on February 26, 2016.
• This book was £4.99 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 54 times in the past 3,363 days.
• The current price of this book is £5.69 last checked 7 hours ago.
• This book is at its lowest price in the past 90 days.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past six months is £5.41.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is £4.35.
• The lowest price to date was £2.44 last reached on November 18, 2023.
• This book has been £2.44 one time since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was £12.34 last reached on November 28, 2019.
• This book has been £12.34 one time since we started tracking it.

• Literature & FictionHistory & CriticismMovements & PeriodsGothic & Romantic
• Literature & FictionClassicsBritish & Irish
• Literature & FictionClassicsRomance

• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 624 Pages
• File Size: 2,031 KB