Scott is above my paygrade. His accomplishments, along with what he brings to the table, elude a simple review; I will try.
This second novel is much like the first in its overall texture: the elevated narrative language, the Scots dialect and setting, etc. It differs in its dual protagonist approach. The introduction to the Penguin volume by Jane Milgate is very English major-y, attributing to Scott profound and penetrating intellectual lessons that kind of blew my mind. I certainly didn't see such symbolism and thematic commentary underlying the text. But the introduction did help to tie things together. Do read it.
As far as I'm concerned, the claim that Scott wrote the novel with a burst of inspiration over a 6 month period kinda contradicts the notion that he planned a novel deliberately with the thematic and symbolic components argued for by the introduction. What I see is a story that started out similar to Waverley, with a young English protagonist who had made his way into Scotland, but here Scott wanted to throw the variant of astrology into play. The story slowly comes to shift towards the Bertram family, however, and Scott realized a better story of romanticism could be told in the journey of the exiled Harry Bertram returning to claim his lost title. This becomes the core plot of the story, accompanied with the framing device of presenting to the non-Scottish reader further snippets of Scottish language, life, culture, and history. Although the protagonist for 2/3 of the story is thus Brown/Bertram, that initial element with Guy Mannering the astrologer was still present. So Scott welded together these two narrative strands, resulting from a burst of inspiration, and created a fusion of a book that is rather misleadingly called Guy Mannering.
Scott's writing is very dense, and if you blink or read over a paragraph too quickly you might get lost. But I did grasp the main thrust of the plot. I didn't read the endnotes -- there are plenty, but I find such things interrupt my focus and often provide trivial details about things I really don't need to know. I did look up some of the Scots words that were totally unintelligible in the glossary.
Scott excels at description. Like in Waverley, he takes precious time to build a few crucial locations that are recurrent throughout the story. Here we have the Bertram estate, the ruined watchtower, Woodburne, the prison, etc. If you take the time to build up these places in your mind it's vividly clear and almost cinematic, except for the fact that Scott tends to shy away from describing what characters look like beyond the color and articles of clothing that they wear and their hair-color. It is impossible to see any of the characters' faces. I think that's one of the lacking elements in Scott's otherwise picturesque style.
Overall this is a long, slow read. It took me a few weeks, read alongside other books. It'd be exhausting and challenging to focus on this book alone, given the level of language Scott uses, the often complicated Scots dialogue, and the general slow speed of the plot.
I'd put this novel on the same level as Waverley. They have the same sort of feeling and certainly take you on a long journey. Once I've recovered from the task of completing this novel in a few weeks, I'll start on The Antiquary, which does not seem to have a Penguin version, so I've ordered the one from Oxford World Classics.
I will give this 5 stars. In the richness of his worldbuilding, descriptive ability, level of language, and contributions to the development of the novel and historical fiction, Scott blows away modern authors and ranks as one of the best in English literature. I could certainly never achieve what he has. He is the master, and I but the learner.
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- LouvreReviewed in the United Kingdom on April 25, 2014
"Guy Mannering" subtitled "The Astrologer"
