'It was early in a fine summer's day, near the end of the eighteenth century, wh
en a young man, of genteel appearance, having occasion to go towards the north-e
ast of Scotland, provided himself with a ticket in one of those public carriages
which travel between Edinburgh and the Queensferry...' So begins Scott's person
al favourite among his novels, in characteristically wry and urbane style, as a
mysterious young man calling himself 'Lovel' travels idly but fatefully toward t
he Scottish seaside town of Fairport. Here he is befriended by the antiquary Jon
athan Oldbuck, who has taken refuge from his own personal disappointments in the
obsessive study of miscellaneous history. Their slow unravelling of Lovel's tru
e identity will unearth and redeem the secrets and lies which have devastated th
e guilt-haunted Earl of Glenallan, and will reinstate the tottering fortunes of
Sir Arthur Wardour and his daughter Isabella.
