The Antiquary — Complete

Scott, Walter, 1771-1832Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.7
Word count
996K words
Chapters
100

Tags

English Originals Historical Fiction Antiquarian CollectingMystery PuzzleSocial ObservationPortrait GalleryFamily SecretComplex HumanityRomanticismHumor ReliefChanging TimesScottish Flavor

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Antiquary — Complete by Walter ScottAuthor: Scott, Walter, 1771-1832,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Aug 17, 2004

Editor's review

This is the complete text of The Antiquary, better suited than the serialized ebook editions for standalone reading and course use. In this novel Scott centers on an antiquarian collector and weaves together local society, family history, and broader historical change in a leisurely narrative whose characters are treated with gentle irony and sympathy. The advantage of the complete edition is that plot threads and character relationships are not interrupted, so readers can grasp the book's full arc in one go, and teachers can assign the whole text. As a public-domain Project Gutenberg ebook, it is light, easy to obtain, and suitable for reading through or searching on an e-reader. Note that the text is the original English, with no modern annotations or introduction; nineteenth-century long sentences and local vocabulary may pose difficulties. It suits readers with some experience of English fiction who are willing to work through background material, not beginners seeking easy entertainment.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read the opening chapters first to sort out the characters, then proceed chapter by chapter; there is no need to check every word.
  2. Keep a character list and note identities and relationships as you read to reduce confusion in a long novel.
  3. For passages on antiquities and local customs, read through first and return to the details after finishing the book.
  4. For course use, divide the reading by plot stages and pair it with background material on the period.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
  76. 76
  77. 77
  78. 78
  79. 79
  80. 80
  81. 81
  82. 82
  83. 83
  84. 84
  85. 85
  86. 86
  87. 87
  88. 88
  89. 89
  90. 90
  91. 91
  92. 92
  93. 93
  94. 94
  95. 95
  96. 96
  97. 97
  98. 98
  99. 99
  100. 100

FAQ

What is the difference between the complete edition and the serialized edition? The complete edition contains the full text of The Antiquary, with continuous plot and character threads, and is suitable for reading straight through or teaching the whole book; the serialized edition is split into volumes, with the second volume continuing from the first, so reading a volume on its own can feel disjointed. If you have not read the previous volume, choose the complete edition; if you are already proceeding volume by volume, the serialized edition makes pacing easier.
Is this book suitable for English beginners? Not really. The original is nineteenth-century English with long sentences and possibly Scottish dialect and antiquarian vocabulary, which poses a considerable barrier for beginners. It suits readers at university English reading level or accustomed to classic fiction; beginners can first use a Chinese translation to follow the plot, then try the original.
What should I keep in mind when reading the electronic edition? This is a public-domain electronic text with no modern annotations or introduction mentioned, so you will need to supply background knowledge yourself. Use reading software that supports dictionary lookup and bookmarks; mark dialect and antiquarian terms and return to them later rather than stopping at every word, which would disrupt the overall pace.
Where does this book stand among Scott's works? The Antiquary belongs to Scott's Waverley novels and is often seen as a work emphasizing character, manners, and local color rather than one of the most recommended introductory works. It suits readers who have already read other works by Scott and are interested in his narrative style; those new to Scott might start with a more commonly mentioned introductory work.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Scott, Walter, 1771-1832 Author

Walter Scott (Scott, Walter, 1771-1832) was a British writer known for his historical novels and narrative poetry. The library holds 94 of his works, including the representative Ivanhoe and Waverley Or ‘Tis Sixty Years Since — Complete, as well as The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Volume 2. His historical novels often draw on the history of Scotland and England, weaving real historical events into the fates of fictional characters, with unhurried plotting and vivid characterization; they exercised a profound influence on the development of the European historical novel. Ivanhoe, set in medieval England, is among his most widely read works. Publicly available information on his nationality, dates of birth and death, and other biographical details is limited, so no speculation is offered here.