The Antiquary

Prolix and meandering like the titular character, The Antiquary seemed often in its earliest pages to lose its way. For quite a while, I was uncertain whether this is a gothic horror tale, comedy, romance, an action-and-adventure tale or a political tract. There’s even a folktale thrown in about a certain demonic spirit that seems to have little to do with the story at all (however, it becomes pertinent later so it bears remembrance). Therefore, this reader merely settled back to immerse herself in the characters and dialogue.

The Scottish slang is almost impossible to follow for modern English readers; Scott hewed precisely to the way rural people talked in the 18th century. So this book also comes with a helpful glossary in back as well as copious notes about the various literary references and translations of Latin phrases.

All that aside, Scott’s novel delves expertly into the lives of the various beings trotted into this story. The local vernacular, the settings, the people and the plot (which involves a lost heir and an inheritance, among other things) all wind together to create a lively tapestry of a certain part of 18th-century Scotland. Nobles, peasantry, landed gentry and beggars are all represented with a keen eye to their respective places in life. The book both respects and rejects the pedantry of the bombastic title character and soars into nothing less than a sharp-eyed, delightful look into a long-ago past.

The Antiquary is the most humorous historical fiction in the Waverley series that I've read so far. Sir Walter Scott pens a satirical story on superstition and deeply rooted absurd conventions entertained in Scotland in the 18th century. Unlike in most of Scott's novels, this one centers on the titular character, the Antiquary, an amateur historian, archeologist, and a collector of antiques who brings much interest and comicality to the story.

The Antiquary is an unusual hero for a historical fiction, being someone past his prime of life and eccentric. But he was the most entertaining character of the story. He was closely followed by Sir Arthur Wardour, a baronet of ancient descent. However, the comicality is balanced off with some pathos by the story of Major Neville (alias Lovel), a young and promising officer in the army whose love for Miss Isabel Wardour is marred by his questionable birth.

If you look at this novel as a story to delve in, I'd say there isn't much. Except for the thematic touch on possible illegitimacy and its consequences, the story is more of a commentary on the general life and beliefs of the last decade of the 18th century in which time it is set. But what lacks in the story is made up by the characters, for Sir Walter Scott has brought some interesting characters to entertain the readers. There wasn't a single character that I disliked. Even the villain Dousterswivel I found to be entertaining. :)

Here too as always, Sir Scott transports the reader to the Scottish setting with its beautiful landscape and its diverse inhabitants. This mixture of nature and diversity of class always connects the reader to the novel so that despite what faults the reader may find in it, he never loses interest in the story. Although, except for Ivanhoe I've only read novels in the Waverley series, I can safely say that Sir Walter Scott's historical fictions are quite entertaining. And The Antiquary is the most entertaining that I've so far read.

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Read this from Rhoda Wheeler Sheehan's library filled with glass-windowed bookshelves, while I rented a room above the library in my first year as her teaching colleague at Bristol Community College, Fall River, Mass. Rhoda was Vassar '33, her classmates Elizabeth Bishop and Mary McCarthy (who wrote The Group and I think put Rhoda in it); Bishop rented the Hurricane House (which floated across Westport Harbor in the '38 hurricane) every summer, finished her memorable Art of Losing villanelle there after the death of her longtime Brazilian lover. Bishop's most famous poem was The Fish, and I once cleaned a fish--a bluefish--for the writer of The Fish.

But getting back to Walter Scott and The Antiquary (1815): Mr Oldbuck of Monkbarns, a humorist, is the title character, and Mr. Lovel, a young guest. This, by far my favorite Scott novel, witty and literary-historical as it is. The foreword "Advertisement" focuses on Scottish mendicants, early called "Jackies, who go about begging; and use still to recite the Sloggorne, war-cries of the most ancient surnames in Scotland (8).*
"It was some fear of Andrew's [Gemmell's] satire, as much as a feeling of kindness or charity, which secured him the general good reception he enjoyed everywhere"(9). The King's Bedesmen, or Blue Gowns, were every year granted as many beggars as his age, and as many shillings as his age"(11). "On the same occasion one of the Royal Chaplains preaches a sermon to the Bedesmen, who (as one of the reverend gentlemen expressed himself) are the most impatient and inattentive audience in the world. Something of this may arise from the feeling on the part of the Bedesmen, that they are paid for their own devotions, not for listening to those of others."

Scottish traditions include the Clavi-geri (Latin), or club-bearer (armed by the monks). "For the truth of this custom, Mr. Oldbuck quoted the chronicle of Antwerp, and that of St Martin; against which authorities Lovel had nothing to oppose, haing never heard of them until that moment"(48).
Anecdote of "Snuffy Davy Wilson," who bought the first book published in England, "The Game of Chess," 1474, for two pence (groschen) in Holland stall, and eventually sold it to royalty for £170. Mr Oldbuck confesses, "How often have I stood haggling a halfpence, lest, by a too ready acquiescence in the dealer's first price, he should be led to suspect the value I set upon the article!--how have I trembled, and regarded each poor student of divinity that stopped to turn over the books in the stall, as a rival amateur, or prowling bookseller in disguise!"(51).

Scott next asseses Lovel: not an actor, but mysteriously unsociable--neither tea circles nor coffee house. Everyone would have known if any evil could be said of him, "for the natural desire of speaking evil of our neighbor could in his case have been checked by no feelings of sympathy for a being so unsocial"(70). This approaches the irony of Austen, published in the same years, though probably not read by Sir Walter up north.
Similarly, on why Sir Anthony, a Jacobite, does not ride in the cause for a King James. "His demi-pique saddle fit only one of his horses, the one that would not stand fire. Perhaps the worshipful owner sympathized in the scruples of his sagacious quadruped, and began to think, that which was so much dreaded by the horse could not be very wholesome for the rider"(73).
Ch.VI features a dinner party with Lovel, Oldbuck and Sir Arthur Wardom. Lovel is asked to settle the dispute, but hadn't listened for the last hour. Oldbuck, "I thought how it would be when the womankind were admitted--no getting a word out of a young fellow for hours after." They're debating about philology, whether the Pict language, of which only one word remains, "Benval," was Celtic or Saxon (91). Both cited authoritites.
The dispute decends, testily, from philology to Scots kings, like Eachan MacFergus, whom Oldbuck laughs at, calls "mushroom monarch." Then he defends his ancestor, a typographer. Sir Arthur takes off in a pique, looking for the room where his wife's having tea, slamming doors in the dark "with each disappoitment." ( Scottish food, "callops" a kind of stewed meat.) Grisel, the story of the haunted Green Room at Monkbarns.
"I hate the word 'but'..."But" is a more detestable combination of lettrs than No itself. 'NO' is a surly, honest fellow...BUT is a sneaking, evasive, half-bred, exceptious sort of conjunction which comes to pull away the cup just when it is at your lips"(152) [Compare Anthony and Cleopatra, II.iv.52]
Oldbuck suggests Lovel excercise his poetic pretensions in an epic, with Oldbuck's own "Essay on Castramentation" appended. "Then we shall revive the good old forms so disgracefully neglected in modern times. You shall invoke the Muse...then we must have a vision in which appears the Genius of Caledonia, with a succession of real Scottish monarchs"(192).

* Pagination from edition published by Ticknor and Fields: Boston, 1868.

This is one of my favorite Sir Walter Scott novels. It has tragedy, satire, treasure, a duel, a conman and romance.

The Antiquary Jonathan Oldbuck of Monkbarns is on his way home when he meets the mysterious Lovel. He becomes friends with him and likes his manners and behavior. However, Lovel has a past which he is ashamed.

Oldbuck finds out Lovel is illegitimate and is wealthy from a large estate left to him. Lovel is in in love with Sir Wardour’s daughter Isabella but she cannot marry him due to his questionable lineage. Sir Wardour is also the brink of bankruptcy thanks to a German conman. There is a comical scene with him and the beggar Edie Ochiltree.

Best name for a character is Oldbuck’s penpal Mr Dryasdust. Oldbuck’s nephew Hector who is hot headed and obsessed with hunting is funny as well with the ongoing joke between him and his uncle over a battle Hector has with a seal or as the antiquary calls it a phoca.

This is a great adventure story and I understand it was Sir Walter Scott’s favorite. It is set around 1794 where France was threatening to invade England which is woven into the story.

This was a wonderful novel and apparently Scott’s favourite. It was at times very funny with lots of amusing incidents and names and many twists and turns in the narrative to keep the reader on their toes. Looking forward to more of Scott’s novels

A pesar de ser de Sir Walter, se me ha hecho cuesta arriba. Ciertos personajes, diálogos y situaciones memorables, pero una trama en exceso folletinesca para mi gusto. Una especie de culebrón escocés con elementos románticos y sobrenaturales.

Provincial panorama…

On his way home from Edinburgh, antiquarian Jonathan Oldbuck of Monkbarns meets a young man, William Lovel, travelling in the same direction. They strike up a friendship and Oldbuck invites Lovel to Monkbarns and introduces him to his family and neighbours. One of the neighbours is Isabella Wardour, daughter of the snobbish but impecunious Sir Arthur Wardour. It is soon apparent that Lovel and Isabella have met before and are in love, but, for reasons not immediately made known to the reader, Isabella knows her father would never countenance the match. But there is a mystery around Lovel. Who is he? Where has he come from? And why is he visiting this provincial district?

This rather slight plot is the vehicle Scott uses to hold together a wonderfully insightful and humorous depiction of provincial life in Scotland in 1794, with the French Revolutionary Wars rumbling along in the background and invasion scares even in this quiet backwater in the northeast of Scotland. It’s a panoramic view of all levels of society, from the lofty Countess of Glenallan, through the minor lairds like Oldbuck and Wardour, the military and naval men stationed at the local harbour town of Fairport, the local fishermen and their families, all the way down to the licensed beggar, Edie Ochiltree. Not that in Scott’s world those at the bottom of society can really be described as “down” – in fact, Edie the beggar could make as good a claim to be the book’s hero as anyone else, while those in exalted positions come in for a good deal of mockery and criticism, especially over their haughtiness and vanity.

The question of the hero is a bit of an enigma. It’s obvious that Lovel is to be our romantic lead, but, very much like the eponymous hero in Guy Mannering, he actually disappears for a huge part of the book. Oldbuck is the title character which would suggest he should be the hero, but while he is the main character and the lynchpin around which all the various strands of the story turn, he is hardly heroic – his fascination with all things past means he’s often quite oblivious to what’s happening in the here and now, and he doesn’t play much active part in the eventual denouement. Edie tends to act as a kind of plot facilitator, turning up just at the crucial moment with a piece of information that moves the story forward, or warning of some kind of danger, or acting as an intermediary between other characters. But he also acts heroically when required, and has more common sense than most of the rest of the characters put together.

The characterisation is great, with an array as varied as a Dickens novel. In fact, the word Dickensian was in my head most of the time I was reading, and I kept having to remind myself that it’s really Dickens who was “Scottian” rather than the other way round. The antiquary himself ought to be an irritating character. He lectures endlessly on his favourite subject of antiquities at the drop of a hat, dropping in quotes and misquotes from poetry and the classics complete with Latin and French tags, and he’s incredibly rude about his “womankind” – his sister Griselda and niece Maria who live with him, and vaguely extending out to cover the entirely female staff of domestics that run his house. One might accuse him of misogyny if it weren’t obvious that in reality he feels a deep affection and sense of responsibility for these women, even if he does think of them as a kind of inferior species. But the characterisation is done with such warmth and humour that it’s easy to overlook his faults, and to like him just as much as his much maligned womankind clearly do. Scott claimed the character of Oldbuck was based on a friend of his, but it seems to be generally accepted that he’s actually the alter-ego of Scott himself.

The pace is leisurely, filled with much conversation among the various characters which gives Scott an opportunity to display his remarkable skill in reproducing dialects. Each layer of society speaks a different version of Scots, from the educated landowners whose language is largely standard English, to the much broader speech of the fishermen and their wives and of Edie the beggar. For the most part it’s easy enough to read although I did find that the broadest versions required me to work a bit harder and pay closer attention. In my Oxford World’s Classics edition, there is a glossary, but I think on the whole the meaning is usually clear even if some words may be unfamiliar. It is a virtuoso performance from Scott, and not just in dialects – he also shows the customs and habits of the various ranks of people that make up this community and how they interact, all done with none of the condescension towards the lower classes that often appears in novels from as long ago as this.

The plot plays out much as expected, but there are lots of dramatic and comic set-pieces along the way to keep the reader’s attention engaged. For example, there’s the great storm which leads to a daring rescue; the funeral of a fisherman; the German conman Dousterswivel attempting to dupe poor Sir Arthur; Hector’s run-in with a seal, in which the seal comes out the winner; the duel; and the dramatic moment when it looks as if the French really might be about to invade after all! And behind the plot is a rather darker story than one might expect, of the cruelty people do to one another in the name of family pride.

I first read this many decades ago and didn’t remember anything about the plot, but I clearly remembered that I had felt that Scott might replace Dickens as my favourite author. That didn’t happen, but on re-reading this one I see again why I had that reaction. There is a definite similarity in the way they both show the various strata of society and their fascination with the quirks in human nature, and in the way they slip easily between the comic and the tragic. Although this one has more of a plot, it feels to me a bit like Pickwick Papers – a series of loosely connected events intended to conduct the reader through society, gazing with a mocking but affectionate eye. A true joy of a novel!

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This is the first Scott novel I have read, and it was a great first choice. I picked it out of a list of favorites from one of my GR friends, who is a big Scott fan. One of the things I really like about this book is Scott’s use of language, and how he brings characters and settings into vivid relief. I also liked the character of Jonathan Oldbuck, the Anitquary himself. Scott created a very memorable and believable character in Mr. Oldbuck, and I could easily see the attraction of being an antiquarian. (His grumbling about his sister and niece was amusing.) The plot was good, and was well maintained; I didn’t lose interest at all, and this is a long novel. The character names: Herman Dousterswivel, Mrs. Mailsetter (a postmistress, naturally), the Mucklebackits are fun. My only quibble, and it’s a minor one, is with the character of William Lovel, who is built into a principal character, but then disappears for a while. I kept turning pages, expecting him to reappear in short order. This was a really good reading experience and I’m going to read Ivanhoe next.