Guy Mannering or The Astrologer

The account of the year's work which preceded "Guy Mannering" is given by Lockhart, and is astounding. In 1814 Scott had written, Lockhart believes, the greater part of the "Life of Swift," most of "Waverley" and the "Lord of the Isles;" he had furnished essays to the "Encyclopaedia," and had edited "The Memorie of the Somervilles." The spider might well seem spun out, the tilth exhausted. But Scott had a fertility, a spontaneity, of fancy equalled only, if equalled at all, by Alexandre Dumas.

On November 7 of this laborious year, 1814, Scott was writing to Mr. Joseph Train, thanking him for a parcel of legendary lore, including the Galloway tale of the wandering astrologer and a budget of gypsy traditions. Falling in the rich soil of Scott's imagination, the tale of the astrologer yielded a name and an opening to "Guy Mannering," while the gypsy lore blossomed into the legend of Meg Merrilies. The seed of the novel was now sown. But between November 11 and December 25 Scott was writing the three last cantos of the "Lord of the Isles." Yet before the "Lord of the Isles" was published (Jan. 18, 1815), two volumes of "Guy Mannering" were in print (Letter to Morritt, Jan. 17, 1815.) The novel was issued on Feb. 14, 1815. Scott, as he says somewhere, was like the turnspit dog, into whose wheel a hot cinder is dropped to encourage his activity. Scott needed hot cinders in the shape of proof-sheets fresh from the press, and he worked most busily when the printer's devil was waiting. In this case, not only the printer's devil, but the wolf was at the door. The affairs of the Ballantynes clamoured for moneys In their necessity and his own, Scott wrote at the rate of a volume in ten days, and for some financial reason published "Guy Mannering" with Messrs. Longmans, not with Constable. Scott was at this moment facing creditors and difficulties as Napoleon faced the armies of the Allies,―present everywhere, everywhere daring and successful. True, his "Lord of the Isles" was a disappointment, as James Ballantyne informed him. "'Well, James, so be it; but you know we must not droop, for we cannot afford to give over. Since one line has failed, we must just stick to something else.' And so he dismissed me, and resumed his novel."