“What you have sent of Waverley has amused me much; and certainly if
I had read it as part of a new novel, the remainder of which was open to my
perusal, I should have proceeded with avidity. So much for its general effect;
but you have sent me too little to enable
| 330 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“The account of the studies of Waverley seems unnecessarily minute. There are few novel readers to whom it would be interesting. I can see at once the connection between the studies of Don Quixote, or of the Female Quixote, and the events of their lives; but I have not yet been able to trace betwixt Waverley’s character and his studies such clear and decided connection. The account, in short, seemed to me too particular; quite unlike your usual mode in your poetry, and less happy. It may be, however, that the further progress of the character will defeat this criticism. The character itself I think excellent and interesting, and I was equally astonished and delighted to find in the last-written chapter, that you can paint to the eye in prose as well as in verse,
“Perhaps your own reflections are rather too often
mixed with the narrative but I state this with much diffidence. I do not mean
to object to a train of reflections arising from some striking event, but I
don’t like
| JOHN BALLANTYNE AND CO. | 331 |
