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The Reception of Sir Walter Scott in Europe
Ed. Murray Pittock.
London: Continuum. Published 26 April 2007. ISBN 978 0 8264 7410 0. 470pp.
£125.


This latest addition to the Reception of British and Irish Authors in Europe
series provides the first examination of the critical reception of Sir Walter
Scott on European fiction, poetry and culture. Scott's writing influenced
Balzac, Dostoevsky, Flaubert, Dumas, Tolstoy and many others; and his vision of
historical change and picturesque bandit heroes were seized on by many in
Eastern Europe as adaptable versions of their own national histories. This book
gives a comprehensive account of Scott's impact, from the early and highly
influential (if politicized) translations of Defauconpret in France to the
censorship of Scott in Franco's Spain and the differing approaches to him in
East and West Germany. The influence of Scott's poetry and his presence in art
and opera are also examined by a leading team of international scholars from
the UK, US, Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary,
Poland, Russia and Slovenia. This exciting collection of essays will be an
indispensable research resource for Romanticists everywhere.

Murray Pittock is Professor of Scottish and Romantic Literature at University of
Manchester, UK.