Waverley (novel) in the context of "Walter Scott Prize"

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⭐ Core Definition: Waverley (novel)

Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since /ˈweɪvərli/ is a historical novel by Walter Scott (1771–1832). Scott was already famous as a poet, and chose to publish Waverley anonymously in 1814 as his first venture into prose fiction. It is often regarded as one of the first historical novels in the Western tradition.

Edward Waverley, a young English gentleman, is commissioned into a Scottish regiment shortly before the Jacobite rising of 1745. He goes on leave to visit a family friend, the Baron of Bradwardine, and is shocked to find that Bradwardine and his followers are supporters of Charles Edward Stuart, the exiled Jacobite prince. Waverley is forced to choose between his loyalty to the Crown and his admiration for the Jacobites' romantic cause. His gentlemanly actions gain him friends in this precarious situation, on both sides of the rising, who stand him in good stead when the Jacobites are eventually defeated.

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👉 Waverley (novel) in the context of Walter Scott Prize

The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction is a British literary award founded in 2010. At £25,000, it is one of the largest literary awards in the UK. The award was created by the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, whose ancestors were closely linked to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott, who is generally considered the originator of historical fiction with the novel Waverley in 1814.

Eligible books must have been first published in the UK, Ireland or Commonwealth in the preceding year. For the purpose of the award, historical fiction is defined as being that where the main events take place more than 60 years ago, i.e. outside of any mature personal experience of the author. The winner is announced each June at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose.

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Waverley (novel) in the context of Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels Ivanhoe (1819), Rob Roy (1817), Waverley (1814), Old Mortality (1816), The Heart of Mid-Lothian (1818), and The Bride of Lammermoor (1819), along with the narrative poems Marmion (1808) and The Lady of the Lake (1810). He greatly influenced European and American literature.

As an advocate and legal administrator by profession, he combined writing and editing with his daily work as Clerk of Session and Sheriff-Depute of Selkirkshire. He was prominent in Edinburgh's Tory establishment, active in the Highland Society, long time a president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1820–1832), and a vice president of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1827–1829). His knowledge of history and literary facility equipped him to establish the historical novel genre as an exemplar of European Romanticism. He became a baronet of Abbotsford in the County of Roxburgh on 22 April 1820; the title became extinct upon his son's death in 1847.

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LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Walter Scott ← Sir Walter Scott ← Walter Scott Prize
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Historical novel → Walter Scott → Debut novel → Jacobite risings → Charles Edward Stuart →