John Galt

John Galt (1779-1839) has been described as the first political novelist in the English language. This edition is a development of the collection - published in 2001 by the Saltire Society in Edinburgh - which brought together the three early works 'Annals of the Parish' (1821), 'The Ayrshire Legatees' (1821) and 'The Provost' (1822). To these characteristic, and very successful, shorter novels - set in the rural Scotland of the late eighteenth century, as agricultural society was giving way to the new industrial growth - is now added 'The Entail' (1823), a full-length masterpiece. As Ian Campbell explains, in his new Introduction, the longer work has been added to give the reader an opportunity to appreciate fully the extent of Galt's talent as he develops his comic and constructional abilities to handle a longer plot, a larger cast of characters - and a splendid palette of language.

This witty novel can be seen as a reworking of Tobias Smollett's Roderick Random, albeit one in which the Scottish protagonist is able to navigate England with greater skill and adaptability. Galt offers a robust vision of Scottish masculinity, implying that it is the solution for a multitude of English problems, ranging from the familial to the judicial and the political. As a three-volume novel, Sir Andrew Wylie provides an example of how Galt was able to bridge the difference between the earlier, shorter 'theoretical histories' he crafted and the form of literature that was most popular at the time. As the first scholarly edition of this work, the introduction places the novel within its historical context and maps out its significance as well as providing a textual background and a discussion of the contemporary reception of the novel. The edition includes ample editorial notes and a glossary.