The Pretty Girl of Perth

the Pretty Girl of Perth, or the Day of the St. Valentine's day is a Romance of Sir Walter Scott published the May 5th 1828, in three volumes, in the second series of the Chroniques of Canongate .

The two stories entitled the Mirror of my aunt Margaret and the Death of Laird de Jock were initially to be integrated in volume. However, Cadell and Ballantyne, the editors Scot, obtained that they are withdrawn.

the Pretty Girl of Perth was an immense and immediate success. The critic was almost unanimously favorable to him, Athenaeum informant which the novel can be arranged among the best and most admirable works of the author. the Pretty Girl of Perth represents, with Redgauntlet, one of the tops of the career of Scott.

Summary

The history is at the end of the 14th century, under the reign of Robert III. The son of the king, the duke of Rothesay, tries to remove Catherine Glover, the “pretty girl of Perth”, girl of an honest middle-class man of Perth. The intervention of Heny Smith, or Gow, an arms manufacturer, very skilful with the sword, prevents some; it wounds thus with the hand Sir John Ramorny, Master of cavalry of the duke.

Although approved by the father of Catherine, Simon, Henry seems too warlike to gain the hand of the “pretty girl”, of which the manners are softer. Ramorny tnte to be avenged for Henry, but it fails, and it defers anger on Rothesay, which drew aside it at the request of his/her father. Rothsay is misled, with the castle of Falkland, and is assassinated; the crime is discovered and Ramorny promptly carried out.

While waiting, a bitter competition is created between Henry and Conachar, its apprentice of the Highlands, one and the other seeking the love of Catherine. Conachar becomes chief of the Quhele clan after the death of his/her father. The king requires that the enmity of long time between the Quhele clan and the Chattan clan be solved by a mortal combat between thirty members of each clan. At the last time, one of the representatives of the Chattan clan withdraws itself and is replaced by Henry, who sees an occasion there to fight with Conachar.

At the end of a bloody battle, the two men come to the body to body. Betrayed by its natural cowardice, Conachar is run away and, full with shame, commits suicide. Henry, victorious of the combat and bloody, makes the wish that, henceforth, it will not fight any more that for the service of Scotland, and it is finally accepted by Catherine.

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