The History of Matthew Wald

The History of Matthew Wald (1824) is John Gibson Lockhart's fourth and final novel and perhaps his most focused, stylistically successful fiction. The title character tells his own story, which is set in the context of, and carefully interwoven with, the larger historical, social, and political events and circumstances of Scotland in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Matthew Wald exemplifies Lockhart's idea that the novel should portray the 'human mind under the influence of not one, but many of its passions-ambition-love-revenge-remorse' and should reflect the historical and social truth of the age. This scholarly edition includes an Introduction that discusses the literary and historical contexts of the narrative and the novel's early reception and textual history. Detailed Explanatory Notes complement the Introduction to provide the modern reader with the resources to re-evaluate Lockhart's place in the history of the Scottish novel and Romantic fiction.

“Thomas C. Richardson's edition of Lockhart's strange but compelling History of Matthew Wald (1824) helpfully contextualises the religious, political and linguistic aspects of the novel's eighteenth-century Scottish setting while brilliantly situating it in relation to Lockhart's previous fiction, his role at Blackwood's Magazine and to a new Godwinian strain of the Romantic novel.”

"" -Anthony Jarrells, University of South Carolina

Thomas C. Richardson is Professor of English and holds the Eudora Welty Chair at Mississippi University for Women. He is the editor of Some Passages in the Life of Mr Adam Blair in the series Edinburgh Critical Edition of the Works of John Gibson Lockhart, as well as the two-volume edition of James Hogg's Contributions to Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in the Stirling / South Carolina Research Edition of the Collected Works of James Hogg.

A scholarly edition of Lockhart's most intricate and sophisticated contribution to the Scottish historical novelThe History of Matthew Wald (1824) is John Gibson Lockhart's fourth and final novel and perhaps his most focused, stylistically successful fiction. The title character tells his own story, which is set in the context of, and carefully interwoven with, the larger historical, social and political events and circumstances of Scotland in the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. Matthew Wald exemplifies Lockhart's idea that the novel should portray the 'human mind under the influence of not one, but many of its passions--ambition--love--revenge--remorse' and should reflect the historical and social truth of the age. The critical apparatus in this volume includes: A comprehensive introduction that addresses the composition of the novel, the novel's literary and historical contexts and critical reception. Extensive explanatory notes that identify quotations within the novel, the novel's literary, historical, political, cultural and geographical references and other key expressions. A glossary of Scots words, as well as other single words that might not be familiar to the reader. Textual notes addressing Lockhart's revisions based on the extant manuscript proof, as well as other publications within Lockhart's lifetime.Thomas C. Richardson is Professor of English and Eudora Welty Chair at Mississippi University for Women.

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