Reading Order
The Heart of Midlothian Reading Order
The Heart of Midlothian (1818) by Walter Scott is widely regarded as Scott's greatest novel and one of the masterpieces of nineteenth-century fiction — the story of Jeanie Deans, a young Scottish woman of Covenanting family, who must decide whether to lie in court to save her sister Effie from execution for child murder, and who decides she cannot. The first volume (the Porteous Riots, drawn from actual events of 1736) is a set-piece of crowd psychology and urban social history. The central narrative follows Jeanie's decision to walk to London to seek a royal pardon for Effie from Queen Caroline — a journey of 350 miles on foot that Scott renders as simultaneously heroic, pathetic, and deeply real. The third volume (Effie's subsequent career and her marriage to the Jacobite robber Robertson/George Staunton) is structurally weaker and reveals Scott's difficulties with plotting, but the first two volumes are as good as anything in the Scottish tradition. What makes the novel extraordinary is Scott's portrait of Jeanie: she is plain, uneducated, and provincial, but she has an inflexible moral integrity that makes her one of the great heroines of English fiction. Her refusal to lie — even to save her sister's life — is not fanatical (she understands perfectly what her refusal costs) but is the expression of a character for whom truth is not negotiable.
Where to start
The Heart of Midlothian (1818) — the Oxford World's Classics edition edited by Tony Inglis, with an introduction by Claire Lamont (2008), is the standard scholarly edition. The Penguin Classics edition edited by Tony Inglis (2004) is also excellent. The first volume (the Porteous Riots) is thrilling and can be read fast; the slower third volume can be read selectively without losing the emotional core of the novel.
Complete The Heart of Midlothian Book List
- 1Buy
The Heart of Midlothian (Oxford World's Classics)
Walter Scott (ed. Tony Inglis, intro. Claire Lamont)·2008·The standard scholarly edition — Lamont's introduction is the best account of the novel's historical basis (the Porteous Riots, the real Scottish woman whose petition inspired Jeanie's story) and its place in Scott's career. - 2Buy
Waverley
Walter Scott·1814·The founding novel — read first to understand Scott's historical method before approaching his most ambitious work; Waverley establishes the formal conventions that The Heart of Midlothian both uses and transcends. - 3Buy
Old Mortality
Walter Scott·1816·The companion novel in the Scottish Covenanting tradition — Jeanie's Covenanting background is deepest context for her character, and Old Mortality is Scott's most sustained exploration of that tradition; read the two together to understand what Jeanie represents in Scottish cultural history. - 4Buy
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
James Hogg·1824·The companion text from Hogg, Scott's friend and rival — Hogg's antinomian Calvinist is the dark underside of the Covenanting tradition that Scott treats in The Heart of Midlothian; reading the two together shows the full range of what Scottish Calvinism produced in fiction. - 5Buy
Middlemarch
George Eliot·1871·The Victorian novel that most fully inherits The Heart of Midlothian's concern with the heroism of the ordinary — Dorothea Brooke's desire for a heroic life and her eventual acceptance of a domestic one echoes Jeanie's heroism; both are novels about the epic possibilities of ordinary life.
The Heart of Midlothian — Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Heart of Midlothian about?
The Heart of Midlothian (1818) by Walter Scott follows Jeanie Deans, a young Scottish woman of Covenanting family, whose sister Effie is condemned to death for child murder. Jeanie refuses to lie in court to save her — not because she doesn't love her sister, but because she believes truth is not negotiable. Instead, she walks 350 miles to London to plead for a royal pardon from Queen Caroline. The first volume covers the Porteous Riots of 1736 (drawn from historical events); the central narrative is Jeanie's journey and her interview with the Queen; the final volume follows Effie's tragic later life.
Why is The Heart of Midlothian considered Scott's best novel?
The Heart of Midlothian (1818) is considered Scott's masterpiece because of Jeanie Deans — one of the most fully realized heroines in nineteenth-century fiction. Where most of Scott's heroes are young men of romantic imagination who mature into practical acceptance, Jeanie is plain, provincial, and uneducated, but possesses an inflexible moral integrity that is entirely unromantic and entirely heroic. Her refusal to lie, even to save her sister's life, is comprehensible and appalling and deeply admirable all at once, and Scott renders her 350-mile walk to London with a vividness and psychological precision that he rarely achieves elsewhere. The first two volumes also contain some of Scott's finest crowd scenes and social history.
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