The Antiquary

The Antiquary first published in 1816. The Antiquary deals with the problem of how to understand the past so as to enable the future. Set in the tense times of the wars with revolutionary France it displays Scotts matchless skill at painting the social panorama and in creating vivid characters from the earthy beggar Edie Ochiltree to the loquacious and shrewdly humorous Antiquary himself. The Antiquary Scotts personal favorite among his novels is characteristically wry and urbane. A mysterious young man calling himself Lovel travels idly but fatefully toward the Scottish seaside town of Fairport. Here he is befriended by the antiquary Jonathan Oldbuck who has taken refuge from his own personal disappointments in the obsessive study of miscellaneous history.