Scott, in the
introductory chapter to _Waverley_, disrespectfully passes in
review the modish novels, which, as it proved, were doomed to be
supplanted by the series of romances he was then beginning:
"Had I announced in my frontispiece, 'Waverley, A Tale
of Other Days,' must not every novel reader have
anticipated a castle scarce less than that of Udolpho,
of which the eastern wing has been long uninhabited,
and the keys either lost or consigned to the care of
some aged butler or housekeeper, whose trembling steps
about the middle of the second volume were doomed to
guide the hero or heroine to the ruinous precincts?
Would not the owl have shrieked and the cricket cried
in my very title page? and could it have been possible
to me with a moderate attention to decorum to introduce
any scene more lively than might be produced by the
jocularity of a clownish but faithful valet or the
garrulous narrative of the heroine's
_fille-de-chambre_, when rehearsing the stories of
blood and horror which she had heard in the servant's
hall? Again, had my title borne 'Waverley, a Romance
from the German,' what head so obtuse as not to image
forth a profligate abbot, an oppressive duke, a secret
and mysterious association of Rosycrucians and
Illuminati, with all their properties of black cowls,
caverns, daggers, electrical machines, trap-doors and
dark lanterns? Or, if I had rather chosen to call my
work, 'A Sentimental Tale,' would it not have been a
sufficient presage of a heroine with a profusion of
auburn hair, and a harp, the soft solace of her
solitary hours, which she fortunately always finds
means of transporting from castle to cottage, though
she herself be sometimes obliged to jump out of a
two-pair-of-stairs window and is more than once
bewildered on her journey, alone and on foot, without
any guide but a blowsy peasant girl, whose jargon she
can scarcely understand? Or again, if my _Waverley_ had
been entitled 'A Tale of the Times,' wouldst thou not,
gentle reader, have demanded from me a dashing sketch
of the fashionable world, a few anecdotes of private
scandal .
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