|
Sir Walter Scott
THE TALE OF OLD MORTALITY (1816) Penguin Classic Paperback. 1993, 1999. xlvi. 447 pp. Reviewed by Patrick Killough I. Reviewed for http://www.Barnesandnoble.com Your Title: THE TALE OF OLD MORTALITY Here is how your review will appear on the title page: Reviewer: Patrick Killough (patrickkillough@charter.net), in awe of Sir Walter Scott., May 16, 2006, Rated: * * * * * (Five Stars) REVIEW'S TITLE: Injustice inspires a young Scotsman to greatness Imagine you are a young man dragged willy nilly into a civil war. No, this book is not GONE WITH THE WIND or Georgia in 1861. It is about the west of lowland Scotland in 1679. Two months after tale's beginning the hero of the TALE OF OLD MORTALITY, Henry Morton, a moderate Presbyterian, has been arrested by the Royalists, seen them defeated in battle by downtrodden religious dissenters, saved the life of a defeated nobleman who is also a rival for the hand of Lady Edith Bellenden, joined the rebels himself, led them in both triumph and defeat, been condemned to death by a band of ultra-Puritanical Covenanters, then been rescued by a Royalist and finally exiled by the Council of Scotland to the Netherlands. Ten years later he returns to Scotland, having attained the rank of Major General while fighting against Louis XIV for the Prince of Orange who is now, after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the King of both England and Scotland. After final flurries of action and danger, Henry Morton, representing Scotland's peaceful, rational, non-fanatical future, wins the hand of Edith, a relic of Scotland's aristocratic, loyalist past. They have sons and daughters and lead happy, prosperous lives. The old, violent, superstitious order of Scotland gives way to a stable, bright future for all the land. 'Old Mortality' was a nickname given to the real Scotsman Robert Paterson whom Walter Scott had met around 1790. Like his younger American contemporary 'Johnny Appleseed' (John Chapman), Paterson had mounted a life-long one-man mission. For Old Mortality that mission was to move systematically around Scotland restoring graves of and memorials to increasingly forgotten Covenanting Presbyterian 'martyrs' to cruelty of the Stuart Kings. The novel supposedly draws on a retelling of tales told by Old Mortality, as corrected by a fictional narrator's research into other points of view. The Penguin edition of THE TALE OF OLD MORTALITY is blessed by a glossary of Scots English words and phrases as well as hundreds of textual notes giving the historical background of Scotland in the late 17th century. That was a generally cruel and dreary era. Well described characters debate, content and otherwise bring to life the complete spectrum of political and religious views in the dying years of three centuries of Stuart dynasty rule. Once this struggle was over, kings would rule by consent of the governed and no longer by divine right. This is a very good read. THE TALE OF OLD MORTALITY blows the dust off otherwise mind-numbing minutiae of Scottish history. -OOO- Also recommended: Stephen Vincent Benet, JOHN BROWN'S BODY. Sir Walter Scott, WAVERLEY, ROB ROY. =-=-=-==-=-=-= |