Walter Scott and the historical novel
In a
period, called by historians "Age of Revolutions", in which the
middle class was achieving more power and people had many rights, there was a
writer who represented, and exprimed, t 444b11e houghts of respectful people as the
Scottish one: sir Walter Scott. He cames from Edinburgh, a town which was
growing and falling under the new social class of merchants and businessmen. In
his life he didn't follow his father's career, who wanted to introduce the son
in legal fields, but he choise literary studies. After the first novel
"Warvely", which gave him the succes, he wrote others famous novels
as "Ivanhoe", "Rob Roy" and "The Antiquary". Fame
conquered by his books, found his reason in themes and style characterising his
works: historical context, in which Scott use setting stories.
He was often compared with the Italian Romantic writer more representative in
european culture: Alessandro Manzoni. Even if they share lots of theories, they
have also some differents points of views: the most important one they share is
the definition of historical novel, an invented story sets in a real historical
context. And the story obliged them to start their works. In 1707, Act of Union
had been joined England and Scotland, even if Scottish had their autonomy only
in political field, but in that new age, english middle class plucked out
scottish traditions, in which there never was been a classes division; families
was only divided in "clan" and they had social relationships. Now, the
new ones couldn't interact, every class had to follow his laws; Scottish had to
acquired English customs too, so Scott tried to recove his people's folk,
celebrating Scotland past history. On the contrary, Manzoni's target was much
more difficult to realize: Italy wasn't a nation such as Scotland, it was
divided in lots of states.
The reason of Manzoni's history's use had been given by the people situation:
he wanted to teach them to have a conscience and to join together becoming a
nation. It seems impossible during a period in which political situation was at
the opposite of his ideas. So we can see how history is the main theme in those
authors works, and how it is also interpreted at the same way: they always
thought history as a sequel of events based on a "middle hero", an
ordinary person belonging to the people. The great and important hero is less
considered, he can start a revolution, but he needs the ordinary people to
balance his role, this is because this theory come from the idea supported by
Scott and Manzoni, that is to say, history is the way of life of a nation, of a
people.
