Upon the whole, it is hoped that the Waverley Novels, in their new dress,
will not be found to have lost any part of their attractions in
consequence of receiving illustrations by the Author, and undergoing his
careful revision.
ABBOTSFORD, January, 1829.
GENERAL PREFACE TO THE WAVERLEY NOVELS
And must I ravel out
My weaved-up follies?
Richard II, Act IV.
Having undertaken to give an Introductory Account of the compositions
which are here offered to the public, with Notes and Illustrations, the
Author, under whose name they are now for the first time collected, feels
that he has the delicate task of speaking more of himself and his
personal concerns than may perhaps be either graceful or prudent. In this
particular he runs the risk of presenting himself to the public in the
relation that the dumb wife in the jest-book held to her husband, when,
having spent half of his fortune to obtain the cure of her imperfection,
he was willing to have bestowed the other half to restore her to her
former condition. But this is a risk inseparable from the task which the
Author has undertaken, and he can only promise to be as little of an
egotist as the situation will permit.
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