Between 1814 and 1819 Walter Scott published a remarkable sequence of eight historical and regional novels, beginning with Waverley and culminating in The Bride of Lammermoor and A Legend of Montrose. In the process he made the Author of Waverley into the most successful and famous novelist in the world; by chooseing to remain anonymous, however, Scott deliberately separated this new achievement from the fame he had already gained as editor and poet.

This study of the first and major phase of Scott's career as a novelist reconsiders his act of secession from his own literary past and examines the interconnections between Scott the antiquarian and editor, Scott the romantic poet, and Scott the novelist.