This is an abridged French language edition.

Ivanhoé

Extrait : "Dans cet heureux district de la riche Angleterre, baigné par le Don, s'étendait jadis une forêt vaste qui couvrait la plus grande partie des belles montagnes et des vallées assises entre l'industrieuse Sheffield et la riante Doncaster. On voit encore des restes de cette forêt dans les superbes domaines de Wentworth, de Warncliffe-Park, et dans les environs de Rotherham."

A la fin du XVIIe siècle.Alors que l'avenir de l'Écosse, bientôt ralliée au royaume d'Angleterre, semble menacé, un autre drame se joue au coeur des Highlands. Lorsque Edgar, le jeune maître de Ravenswood, sauve la vie de la douce et timide Lucy, il ignore qu'il vient de tomber sous le charme de la fille de son pire ennemi. Sir William Ashton. Soumises aux rivalités ancestrales de leurs familles, les amours d'Edgar et de Lucy ne cesseront d'être contrariées par les machiavéliques tentatives de Lady Ashton, la despotique et arrogante mère de la jeune fille. Malédiction familiale, vengeance et accès de folie : Walter Scott signe ici son roman le plus sombre.

La Fiancée de Lammermoor

The "Betrothed" did not greatly please one or two friends, who thought that it did not well correspond to the general title of "The Crusaders." They urged, therefore, that, without direct allusion to the manners of the Eastern tribes, and to the romantic conflicts of the period, the title of a "Tale of the Crusaders" would resemble the playbill, which is said to have announced the tragedy of Hamlet, the character of the Prince of Denmark being left out. On the other hand, I felt the difficulty of giving a vivid picture of a part of the world with which I was almost totally unacquainted, unless by early recollections of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments; and not only did I labour under the incapacity of ignorance-in which, as far as regards Eastern manners, I was as thickly wrapped as an Egyptian in his fog-but my contemporaries were, many of them, as much enlightened upon the subject as if they had been inhabitants of the favoured land of Goshen. The love of travelling had pervaded all ranks, and carried the subjects of Britain into all quarters of the world. Greece, so attractive by its remains of art, by its struggles for freedom against a Mohammedan tyrant, by its very name, where every fountain had its classical legend-Palestine, endeared to the imagination by yet more sacred remembrances-had been of late surveyed by British eyes, and described by recent travellers.

The Talisman

Extrait:Si un homme fait un voeu au Seigneur ou jure un serment pour lier son âme il ne rétractera pas sa parole et accomplira la promesse qui est sortie de sa bouche.

La Fiancée, et, L'Officier de fortune

A-t-on lu Walter Scott? Tout le monde le connaît, de nom. A peine des adaptations pour enfants survivent du créateur du roman historique, du recréateur du roman du XIXe siècle, du premier écrivain à grands tirages dont toute l'Europe romantique s'est arraché les best-sellers.Voici Walter Scott retrouvé : ces trois romans repris dans les traductions de 1830 racontent l'histoire de l'Écosse à travers le XVIIIe siècle, les insurrections des partisans des Stuarts, la résistance des vieilles contrées celtiques et aussi leur entrée dans la vie moderne et "la société industrielle", leur fidélité au passé et aux rois exilés, leur réconciliation avec la nouvelle dynastie, toujours régnante, et la nouvelle Angleterre libérale.Walter Scott a non seulement réinventé le roman historique, si prolifique de nos jours, il a aussi pratiqué le roman de formation, et retrouvé le sens de la grande aventure romanesque ou de la fatalité tragique. On suivra avec lui la folle équipée de Waverley parti à la conquête de l'Angleterre, avec le Prétendant, pour les beaux yeux de Flora McIvor, les aventures du brigand au grand coeur Rob-Roy. On découvrira le roman dont Donizetti a tiré y sa Lucia di Lammermoor, tragédie presque fantastique d'Edgar de Ravenswood et de Lucie Ashton, à qui du fond des âges une malédiction familiale interdisait de s'aimer.Ces romans se déroulent dans le décor enchanté des Highlands, parmi les clans en armes et leurs moeurs féodales, sur fond de la vieille culture gaélique, et du drame d'une nation qui a failli mourir.

Waverly - Rob Roy - La Fiancée de Lammermoor

Extrait: On croyait donc que les Anglais victorieux se montreraient bientôt sous les murs de la capitale; mais les soldats de Surrey avaient été réunis pour defendre leurs propres frontières, non pour envahir l'Écosse. Les vassaux de la couronne regagnerent donc leurs foyers des qu'ils eurent atteint le but pour lequel ils s'étaient mis en campagne. D'ailleurs malgré la victoire qu'ils avaient remporté une perte de quatre mille hommes au moins avait éclairci leurs rangs. Enfin l'absence de Henri VIII préserva l'Écosse des rigueurs qu'il aurait sans doute adoptées contre elle s'il avait vule royaume de son défunt beau-frère exposé par la dernière défaite à recevoir la loi d'un conquérant.

Histoire d'Écosse, Vol. 2

What degree of communication might have existed between the human race and the inhabitants of the other world had our first parents kept the commands of the Creator, can only be subject of unavailing speculation. We do not, perhaps, presume too much when we suppose, with Milton, that one necessary consequence of eating the "fruit of that forbidden tree" was removing to a wider distance from celestial essences the beings who, although originally but a little lower than the angels, had, by their own crime, forfeited the gift of immortality, and degraded themselves into an inferior rank of creation.

Some communication between the spiritual world, by the union of those termed in Scripture "sons of God" and the daughters of Adam, still continued after the Fall, though their inter-alliance was not approved of by the Ruler of mankind. We are given to understand-darkly, indeed, but with as much certainty as we can be entitled to require-that the mixture between the two species of created beings was sinful on the part of both, and displeasing to the Almighty. It is probable, also, that the extreme longevity of the antediluvian mortals prevented their feeling sufficiently that they had brought themselves under the banner of Azrael, the angel of death, and removed to too great a distance the period between their crime and its punishment.

Demonology and Witchcraft

It would be difficult to assign any good reason why the author of Ivanhoe, after using, in that work, all the art he possessed to remove the personages, action, and manners of the tale, to a distance from his own country, should choose for the scene of his next attempt the celebrated ruins of Melrose, in the immediate neighbourhood of his own residence. But the reason, or caprice, which dictated his change of system, has entirely escaped his recollection, nor is it worth while to attempt recalling what must be a matter of very little consequence.

The general plan of the story was, to conjoin two characters in that bustling and contentious age, who, thrown into situations which gave them different views on the subject of the Reformation, should, with the same sincerity and purity of intention, dedicate themselves, the one to the support of the sinking fabric of the Catholic Church, the other to the establishment of the Reformed doctrines. It was supposed that some interesting subjects for narrative might be derived from opposing two such enthusiasts to each other in the path of life, and contrasting the real worth of both with their passions and prejudices. The localities of Melrose suited well the scenery of the proposed story; the ruins themselves form a splendid theatre for any tragic incident which might be brought forward; joined to the vicinity of the fine river, with all its tributary streams, flowing through a country which has been the scene of so much fierce fighting, and is rich with so many recollections of former times, and lying almost under the immediate eye of the author, by whom they were to be used in composition.

Ivanhoé

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