The Edinburgh Edition respects Scott the artist by 'restoring' versions of the novels that are not quite what his first readers saw. Indeed, it returns to manuscripts that the printers never handled, as Scott's fiction before 1827 was transcribed before it reached the printshop. Each volume of the Edinburgh edition presents an uncluttered text of one work, followed by an Essay on the Text by the editor of the work, a list of the emendations that have been made to the first edition, explanatory notes and a glossary … The editorial essays are histories of the respective texts. Some of them are almost 100 pages long; when they are put together they constitute a fascinating and lucid account of Scott's methods of compostion and his financial manoeuvres. This edition is for anyone who takes Scott seriously.
Alexander and Wood give us a Quentin Durward that corresponds to no previous version of the novel. It is a social text for our moment in time which, given the publication history of the Waverley Novels, is eminently appropriate. This is the fifth volume of the EEWN to be edited by J. H. Alexander. In each the scholarly apparatus has been superb, and this edition of Quentin Durward is no exception, The Explanatory Notes, Historical Notes, Glossary, Map and Essay on the Text make this an indispensable work. For the study of Scott's first fictional foray on to the European continent.
Willl certainly be the definitive scholarly edition of Scott for the foreseeable future. The notes and emendation lists … evince years of thorough, diligent research into manuscripts, editions, sources, references, and allusions. The information will give the serious reader inestimable help in understanding Scott.
