Review: Great collection
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 2, 2011
Normally I would wait till I'd finished a book before reviewing it. But there's so much packed into this massive volume that I reckon it would take me twenty years to get through it all! I won't list the contents since there's a full listing in the product description, but obviously all the well-known novels are here, together with the poetry and lots of lesser known work. There is also a biography of the author written by his son-in-law JG Lockhart soon after Scott's death - thankfully an abridged version since apparently the original ran to ten volumes!I started with the earliest of his novels, Waverley, which is credited with being the first historical novel in the English language and which for some reason I had never previously read. Set in 1745 and looking at the last throes of Jacobitism through the eyes of our young English hero, it is filled with Scott's usual wit and fine descriptive writing and characterisation. It is a delight to know that it is only the first of many novels in my new Scott collection!The inclusion of the original illustrations is an added bonus and they are well suited to the muted, almost sepia, screen of the Kindle. At the beginning of each novel is a short introduction, not in-depth, but giving snippets of interesting background information. There is also a glossary of archaic Scottish words, very helpful even to an archaic Scot like myself. It can be accessed either from the Table of Contents or by using the Search facility within the Menu.The formatting is fine with the exception of footnotes. These are placed within the text at the relevant point and are sometimes helpful in the detail they provide. However, sometimes they will say, cryptically, `See Note 5' for example. I would, if I could work out where the notes are. However, this is a minor drawback in what is otherwise an excellent, very comprehensive collection. This is a volume I will be dipping in and out of for years to come.