The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Complete (Paperback)

from mbmackay

The seventh of Walter Scott's historical novels, and one that he was especially proud of - not an opinion that I share. The book is uneven. The first half seems to lack narrative progress, and the history, such a good backdrop to his earlier novels, seems here to be too prominent and dry. Fortuna...

from DinadansFriend

A simple Scots lass journeys to London hoping to obtain a pardon for her sister, who has been falsely accused of infanticide. the novel has a large cast of conflicted characters revealing the complicated state of scot's law and society in 1736. It is sentimental but contrasts several differing at...

from antiquary

The ending seems to me to set up a tidy hap[py ending and then deliberately ruin it, possible for a moral lesson. Aside from that, it is well done. The picture of Scottish church politics and laws regarding pregnancy is interesting.

from antiquary

I liked much of this, particular when the heroine appeals to George II's mistress for a pardon for her sister, accused of infanticide under a law that if a woman known to be pregnant could not show the baby, she was presumed to have killed it. However, I felt the ending set up the possibility of ...