Sir Walter Scott as a Critic of Literature

Sir Walter Scott as a Critic of Literature is a study by Margaret Ball. The preface names the lack of any adequate discussion of Scott's critical work as a sufficient reason for the study. The preface also says the criticism has been so overshadowed by the romances that its importance is scarcely recognized.

A chapter headed Chapter II Scott's Qualifications as Critic lists, among others, Scott the antiquary and Common-sense in criticism. Scott was engaged in the intervals of other occupations in writing introductions and notes for his novels from the beginning of 1828 until the end of his life in 1832, for an edition he always called the Opus Magnum. A line said of Waverley runs: "While he was thus permitted to read only for the gratification of his amusement, he foresaw not that he was losing forever the opportunity of acquiring habits of firm and assiduous application." One discussion weighs whether Bedford was mistaken in saying that Scott had ignored the moral aspect of the poem, or else succeeded in getting a passage interpolated.