Physical description

Waverley Novels Peveril of the Peak- 3 Vol 30, Light brown hardcover lettering in black text.
Author: Sir Walter Scott
Publisher: Fisher Son & Co
Date: 1838

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 Vol 30” published by Fisher Son & Co (1838) 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 46 in the 1838 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.
Peveril of the Peak is Walter Scott's longest novel, published in 1823 and set during the late 17th century amid the Popish plot hysteria under Charles II. It follows young Cavalier Julian Peveril's forbidden romance with Alice Bridgenorth a Puritan's daughter. The story covers political intrigue, family feuds, and conspiracies drawing the characters into events spanning Derbyshire's Peak District, the Isle of Man, and London.
The story continues on the Peveril family's royalist loyalties clashing with the Bridgenorths' Puritan resentment, fuelled by past Civil War grievances like the execution of William Christian. Julian and Alice's love is tested when Julian's parents face Popish Plot accusations with subplots involving a scheming dwarf, the Countess of Derby, and court figures like the Duke of Buckingham. It resolves with royal intervention, exposing intrigues and eventually uniting the lovers.