The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Third of the Tales of My Landlord

The Heart of Mid-Lothian is precisely focused on the murder trials of John Porteous and Effie Deans in 1736 and 1737. Scott's chronicle spans the eighty years of David Dean's life. A complex and challenging narrative that acutely raises the problem of a judicial system that does not produce justice. Placed within its immediate political context, history is represented through the life of the Deans, accompanied by the justice of Providence as perceived by his daughter Jeanie, the greatest of Scott's heroines.

This edition of The Heart of Mid-Lothian provides a new text established in accordance with the tired policies and practices of the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels. Its annotation comprehensively treats the novel's historical, legal, religious and cultural sources.