Physical description

Waverley Novels Vol 22 Kenilworth- 1, Light brown hardcover lettering in black text.
Author: Sir Walter Scott
Publisher: Fisher Son & Co
Date: 1837

Publication type

fiction

Inscriptions & markings

The label on spine with typed text PAT FIC SCO
Paste down front end paper has a sticker from Warrnambool Public Library
Front loose end paper has a sticker from Corangamite Regional Library Service

Summary

The subject volume “Waverley Novels Kenilworth-1 Vol 22” published by Fisher Son & Co (1837) is part of a collected edition of Sir Walter Scott's works, containing stories from the "Tales of My Landlord" series.
"Tales of My Landlord" forms a key subset of Scott's Waverley Novels, presented as fictional tales gathered by characters like Peter Pattieson from the landlord of the Wallace “Inn at Gandercleugh”. The series spans multiple books across four sub-series, including “The Black Dwarf” (1707 setting), “Old Mortality” (1679–1689), “The Heart of Midlothian” (1736), “The Bride of Lammermoor” (1709–1711), “A Legend of Montrose” (1644–1645), “Count Robert of Paris” (1097), and “Castle Dangerous” (1307). Vol 25 in the 1837 Fisher edition reprints later entries like “Count Robert of Paris” or “Castle Dangerous” from the fourth series, as these stories originally appeared in Scott's Magnum Opus collected volume editions, the first from 1816. With the influential 48-volume “Magnum Opus” edition from 1829–1833 by Robert Cadell, serving as the basis for later collected published sets like Fisher's.
Kenilworth is Sir Walter Scott’s 1821 historical novel about the secret marriage of Amy Robsart and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, set against Queen Elizabeth I’s court and the 1575 festivities at Kenilworth Castle. It mixes political ambition, romance, deception, and tragedy, with the plot turning on Leicester’s desire for power and the fatal consequences of hiding his marriage.
The novel follows Amy Robsart, of Leicester, and the scheming Richard Varney, while also bringing in Queen Elizabeth and other figures from Elizabethan England. Its tension comes from the clash between private love and public ambition, and it ends in tragedy rather than reconciliation.