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Historical Gothic


The Scottish Chiefs was one of the most widely read and influential texts produced during the Romantic period. It was republished at many places on both sides of the Atlantic throughout the nineteenth century and translated into several languages. In the twentieth century it was adapted for different reading publics and audiences, including illustrated and abridged editions for young readers, a comic-book version and the 1995 Oscar-winning Mel Gibson film, Braveheart. Its appeal can be explained by its innovative combining of history with the female Gothic, following the example of Clara Reeve’s The Old English Baron, for a particular historical moment – a moment with consequences down to the present. This moment was the crisis of Britain’s global and imperial struggle against Napoleon and the emergence of a liberal Romantic ideology that would provide the foundation for modern constitutional states through the nineteenth century and beyond. The Scottish Chiefs combined elements of the national tale, historiography, historic popular literature, a narrative structure of deliverance modelled on the Bible, and the commercialised fictional form of the Gothic to create a new fictional genre – what was then called the ‘historical romance’. This literary form linked national identity and destiny to the individual and the family, as these were being redefined and made central elements in middle-class culture. The Scottish Chiefs opened the way for the historical novel, as practised by Walter Scott and a host of followers, that would be and continues to be the vehicle for promoting an ‘imagined community’ united by a supposedly national history, identity and destiny.

Volume Contents

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    Front Matter
  • The Scottish Chiefs, Part 2 (1810) By Jane Porter
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      Volume III
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        Chap. I
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        Chap. II
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        Chap. III
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        Chap. IV
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        Chap. V
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        Chap. VI
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        Chap. VII
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        Chap. VIII
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        Chap. IX
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        Chap. X
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        Chap. XI
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        Chap. XII
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        Chap. XIII
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        Chap. XIV
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        Chap. XV
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        Chap. XVI
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        Chap. XVII
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        Chap. XVIII
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      Volume IV
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        Chap. I
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        Chap. II
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        Chap. III
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        Chap. IV
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        Chap. V
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        Chap. VI
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        Chap. VII
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        Chap. VIII
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        Chap. IX
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        Chap. X
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        Chap. XI
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        Chap. XII
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        Chap. XIII
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        Chap. XIV
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      Volume V
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        Chap. I
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        Chap. II
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        Chap. III
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        Chap. IV
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        Chap. V
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        Chap. VI
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        Chap. VII
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        Chap. VIII
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        Chap. IX
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        Chap. X
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        Chap. XI
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        Chap. XII
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        Chap. XIII
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        Chap. XIV
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        Chap. XV
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        Chap. XVI
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        Chap. XVII
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        Chap. XVIII
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        Chap. XIX
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    Back Matter