A complete, critically edited edition of the Waverley Novels as Scott originally wrote them! The first of Scott's "Waverley" novels burst upon an astonished world in 1814. Its publication marked the emergence of the modern novel in the western world, influencing all the great 19th-century writers. This edition of Sir Walter Scott's novels captures the original power and freshness of his best-loved novels. Going back to the original manuscripts, a team of scholars has uncovered what Scott originally wrote and intended his public to read before errors, misreadings and expurgations crept in during production. This edition offers: a clean, corrected text; textual histories; explanatory notes; verbal changes from the first-edition text; and full glossaries. This novel is set during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, which sought to restore the Stuart dynasty in the person of Charles Edward Stuart (or "Bonnie Prince Charlie"). The hero is a young Englishman, Edward Waverley. Neglected by his pro-Hanoverian father, Edward is brought up by his elderly uncle, the Jacobite-leaning Sir Everard Waverley. Like Scott himself, Edward reads widely in poetry and romance as a child, creating an imaginary world that he much prefers to a lacklustre present. Having obtained a commission in the army, he is sent to Scotland in 1745.