Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913 edition. Excerpt: ... that he was exposing his wife to such a risk. But to expose her to it at the very moment when he was expecting her within a year to become the mother of a God-given heir, argued either an astounding thoughtlessness or a no less astounding presumption. Either he acted with a disregard of probable consequences most unlike the gravity of his character, or he ventured to presume in a culpable degree on a second interposition of God. One thing, however, is certain, that Abraham sought to escape unpleasant consequences at the cost of his own self-esteem. T John Lawrence was nothing if he was not truthful; he was transparent as the day, and my highest aim has been to render to so "heroically simple" a character that homage which is its due--the homage of unalloyed truth.... He always said... exactly what he thought. He always acted... exactly as he spoke.1 T When last in Edinburgh, Scott had given his friend William Burn, architect, directions to prepare at his expense a modest monument for the grave of Helen Walker, the original of Jeanie Deans, in the churchyard of Irongray. Mr. Burn now informed him that the little pillar was in readiness, and on the 18th October Sir Walter sent him this beautiful inscription for it: --"This stone was erected by the Author of Waverley to the memory of Helen Walker, who died in the year of God, 1791. This humble individual practised in real life the virtues with which fiction has invested the imaginary character of Jeanie Deans; refusing the slightest departure from veracity, even to save the life of a sister, she nevertheless showed her kindness and fortitude in rescuing her from the severity of the law, at the expense of personal exertions which the time rendered as difficult 1 Bosworth Smith, ...