Recommendations
Books Like The Bride of Lammermoor
Best books to read after The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott
Readers who love The Bride of Lammermoor — Scott's Gothic tragedy of the last Ravenswood and the daughter of his family's enemy, destroyed by her mother's scheming and his pride — will enjoy these works of Gothic romance, tragic love, and the great tradition of the doomed-lovers narrative.
- 1Buy
Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontë
The Victorian Gothic heir to The Bride of Lammermoor — Heathcliff and Cathy's doomed passion inhabits the same moor-and-ruin landscape as Ravenswood and Lucy; the narrative of two families divided by old hatred and the lovers destroyed between them is common to both.
- 2Buy
Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare
The original doomed-lovers-between-warring-families narrative — Scott's situation (the last Ravenswood and Ashton's daughter destroyed by family hatred and parental scheming) is the Scottish Gothic version of Shakespeare's Veronese tragedy; reading both shows the archetype in its two greatest English forms.
- 3Buy
The Italian
by Ann Radcliffe
The Gothic romance that The Bride of Lammermoor most closely resembles in its use of atmosphere, the sinister female schemer, and the persecution of virtuous young love by powerful parental authority — Lady Ashton is Mrs. Montoni's Scottish Protestant counterpart.
- 4Buy
The Heart of Midlothian
by Walter Scott
The companion Scott novel that shows his other emotional register — where The Bride of Lammermoor is Gothic tragedy, The Heart of Midlothian is moral heroism and vindicates its heroine; the contrast between the two shows Scott's full emotional range.
- 5Buy
Manon Lescaut
by Abbé Prévost
The French novel of doomed love most comparable to The Bride of Lammermoor — Des Grieux's love for the beautiful, unreliable Manon destroys them both, as Ravenswood's love for Lucy destroys him; both are about lovers destroyed by a social system that refuses to accommodate their passion.
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The Old Curiosity Shop
by Charles Dickens
Dickens's most Gothic novel and the one most deeply influenced by Scott's tragic mode — Little Nell's destruction by the forces arrayed against her echoes the helplessness of Lucy Ashton; Dickens acknowledged Scott's influence on his imagination throughout his career.
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Tess of the d'Urbervilles
by Thomas Hardy
Hardy's tragic heroine is the Victorian heir to Lucy Ashton — both are young women of genuine goodness destroyed by the scheming of others and the indifference of the men who love them; both novels refuse consoling endings.
- 8Buy
The Amber Spyglass
by Philip Pullman
Pullman's tragic conclusion to His Dark Materials echoes The Bride of Lammermoor's theme of love destroyed by external necessity — Will and Lyra, like Ravenswood and Lucy, cannot have each other because the structure of the universe forbids it; the most powerful modern heir to Scott's tragic mode.
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