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Count Robert of Paris
Count Robert of Paris (1832) was the second-last of the Waverley novels by Walter Scott. It is part of Tales of My Landlord, 4th series, along with Castle Dangerous. The novel is set in Constantinople at the end of the 11th century, during the build-up of the First Crusade and centres on the relationship between the various crusading forces and the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus.
After completing Anne of Geierstein at the end of April 1829, Scott's energies were devoted principally to non-fictional works, most notably a two-volume History of Scotland. But a new novel was always on his schedule; by February 1830, Scott had determined on a narrative of the First Crusade, and was soon undertaking appropriate research while working on Tales of a Grandfather and Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft. The title Robert of Paris was settled by 5 September, and composition began in November.
In spite of concern caused by unfavourable comments on the opening chapters by James Ballantyne and Robert Cadell, Scott finished the first volume before the end of January 1831, using the services of William Laidlaw as amanuensis when he was available. In mid-March, Scott thought the second volume was complete and began the third, but there had been a miscalculation, and he had to provide additional material to bring the second volume up to the usual length. Towards the end of April only a third of the final volume remained to be written, but Scott was delayed by objections by Ballantyne and Cadell to Brenhilda's pregnancy and her combat with Anna Comnena.
After a fitful attempt to change his text, Scott laid it aside to work on the second French series of Tales of a Grandfather (which was never completed), and then spent late June, July, and August writing Castle Dangerous, before completing Count Robert on 14 September: these final stages involved a good deal of textual maneuvering, including the provision of extra material consisting of an approach by Alexius to the Manichaeans, which in the event was not needed. Two days later, on 16 September, Scott accepted a suggestion by J. G. Lockhart that Count Robert should appear together with Castle Dangerous as a fourth series of Tales of my Landlord. After he had left for the Mediterranean on 29 October, Cadell and Lockhart radically revised Scott's text without any further authorial input, completing their work early in November.
The two principal sources for Count Robert were Histoire de l'Empereur Aléxis by Anna Comnena, included in Histoire de Constantinople by Louis Cousin (1672–74), and The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88) by Edward Gibbon. Scott was more inclined towards Gibbon's sceptical approach as opposed to Anna's panegyrics.
Tales of my Landlord, Fourth and Last Series, dated 1832, was published on 1 December 1831 by Robert Cadell in Edinburgh and Whittaker and Co. in London. The print run was 5000, and the price two guineas (£2 2s or £2.10). Scott may have had some input into the text of the 'Magnum' edition of the series, which appeared posthumously as Volumes 46, 47, and 48 (part) in March, April, and May 1833; he sent Lockhart a list of errata from Naples on 16 February 1832, but it has not survived. He also provided an introduction for Castle Dangerous, but apparently none for Count Robert.
The standard modern edition of Count Robert of Paris, by J. H. Alexander, was published as Volume 23a of the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels in 2006; this is based on the first edition, with extensive emendations mainly from the surviving fragments of manuscript and proofs, which are designed to restore as much of Scott's original work as possible.
Set in Constantinople at the time of the First Crusade, Count Robert of Paris portrays the impact of Western medieval values and attitudes on the sophisticated Romano-Greek classical society of the Byzantine Empire. The two main characters are Count Robert, a Frankish knight, and Hereward, an Anglo-Saxon refugee from the Norman conquest of England, serving as a mercenary soldier in the Varangian Guard of the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Count Robert was based on an actual but minor historical figure who disrupted negotiations between the Crusader leaders and the Emperor by occupying the latter's throne when it was temporarily vacated.
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Count Robert of Paris
Count Robert of Paris (1832) was the second-last of the Waverley novels by Walter Scott. It is part of Tales of My Landlord, 4th series, along with Castle Dangerous. The novel is set in Constantinople at the end of the 11th century, during the build-up of the First Crusade and centres on the relationship between the various crusading forces and the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus.
After completing Anne of Geierstein at the end of April 1829, Scott's energies were devoted principally to non-fictional works, most notably a two-volume History of Scotland. But a new novel was always on his schedule; by February 1830, Scott had determined on a narrative of the First Crusade, and was soon undertaking appropriate research while working on Tales of a Grandfather and Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft. The title Robert of Paris was settled by 5 September, and composition began in November.
In spite of concern caused by unfavourable comments on the opening chapters by James Ballantyne and Robert Cadell, Scott finished the first volume before the end of January 1831, using the services of William Laidlaw as amanuensis when he was available. In mid-March, Scott thought the second volume was complete and began the third, but there had been a miscalculation, and he had to provide additional material to bring the second volume up to the usual length. Towards the end of April only a third of the final volume remained to be written, but Scott was delayed by objections by Ballantyne and Cadell to Brenhilda's pregnancy and her combat with Anna Comnena.
After a fitful attempt to change his text, Scott laid it aside to work on the second French series of Tales of a Grandfather (which was never completed), and then spent late June, July, and August writing Castle Dangerous, before completing Count Robert on 14 September: these final stages involved a good deal of textual maneuvering, including the provision of extra material consisting of an approach by Alexius to the Manichaeans, which in the event was not needed. Two days later, on 16 September, Scott accepted a suggestion by J. G. Lockhart that Count Robert should appear together with Castle Dangerous as a fourth series of Tales of my Landlord. After he had left for the Mediterranean on 29 October, Cadell and Lockhart radically revised Scott's text without any further authorial input, completing their work early in November.
The two principal sources for Count Robert were Histoire de l'Empereur Aléxis by Anna Comnena, included in Histoire de Constantinople by Louis Cousin (1672–74), and The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88) by Edward Gibbon. Scott was more inclined towards Gibbon's sceptical approach as opposed to Anna's panegyrics.
Tales of my Landlord, Fourth and Last Series, dated 1832, was published on 1 December 1831 by Robert Cadell in Edinburgh and Whittaker and Co. in London. The print run was 5000, and the price two guineas (£2 2s or £2.10). Scott may have had some input into the text of the 'Magnum' edition of the series, which appeared posthumously as Volumes 46, 47, and 48 (part) in March, April, and May 1833; he sent Lockhart a list of errata from Naples on 16 February 1832, but it has not survived. He also provided an introduction for Castle Dangerous, but apparently none for Count Robert.
The standard modern edition of Count Robert of Paris, by J. H. Alexander, was published as Volume 23a of the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels in 2006; this is based on the first edition, with extensive emendations mainly from the surviving fragments of manuscript and proofs, which are designed to restore as much of Scott's original work as possible.
Set in Constantinople at the time of the First Crusade, Count Robert of Paris portrays the impact of Western medieval values and attitudes on the sophisticated Romano-Greek classical society of the Byzantine Empire. The two main characters are Count Robert, a Frankish knight, and Hereward, an Anglo-Saxon refugee from the Norman conquest of England, serving as a mercenary soldier in the Varangian Guard of the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Count Robert was based on an actual but minor historical figure who disrupted negotiations between the Crusader leaders and the Emperor by occupying the latter's throne when it was temporarily vacated.