The Edinburgh Edition of Walter Scott's Poetry

The Edinburgh Edition will invigorate our understanding of Walter Scott’s poetry and provide the contexts for understanding the foundations of his literary career.

There has been a significant rise of interest in narrative Romantic poetry in recent years and editions of Southey and Byron have recently been produced or are in preparation. However, the poet who dominated the early years of the 19th century was Walter Scott, and no edition of his poetical works has appeared since 1904. This new critical edition, prepared to the standards of the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels, aims to redress this situation with the very first complete collection of his poetry, offering newly edited texts, material hitherto uncollected and supportive materials to allow readers to experience afresh the immensely readable poems that are the foundation of Scott’s literary career.

Key Features:

• Brings together for the first time Scott’s complete poetical works, including hitherto uncollected and at times unpublished work
• Offers an edition that restores Scott’s notes to the status that they held during the early stages of publication
• Is edited to the standards established by the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels, revisiting all the textual witnesses to establish reliable fresh texts
• Provides full textual apparatus and explanatory annotation to aid the reading of these neglected masterpieces by a twenty-first century audience