Tales of the Wars of Montrose
James Hogg author Gillian Hughes editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Edinburgh University Press
Published:30th May '02
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
In this collection of short stories Hogg focuses on the Scottish civil war of 1644-45, in which the Marquis of Montrose led his royalist forces in a series of stunning victories against the odds before his final defeat at Philiphaugh. Each of Hogg’s five tales centres on one of the five major battles of Montrose’s brilliant but ultimately futile campaign. Each tale is utterly different from the others in genre and tone, but taken together they build up a composite picture of what it was like to experience the ‘anarchy and confusion’ of the time at first hand. The importance of Tales of the Wars of Montrose was long obscured by the fact that the publisher of the first edition seriously mangled Hogg’s text, not least by including an unrelated sixth tale in order to bulk out the collection to the commercially-expected norm of three volumes. Gillian Hughes has restored Hogg’s coherent five-tale collection, and by returning to Hogg’s manuscripts in preparing her edition she has made possible the first appearance in print of an uncensored text of this lively and innovative collection.
Tales of the Wars of Montrose, too, though held together by internal connections and the common historical context, displays a similar delight in literary form, beginning with the conscious imitation of Defoe, ‘Some Remarkable Passages in the Life of an Edinburgh Baillie Written by himself’. The dates and details of the opening narrative (admirably glossed by Gillian Hughes) enable Hogg to follow Defoe in exploring the relationship between literature and history, truth and fiction, while also creating a foundation for the subsequent tales of romantic intrigue, Ossianic tragedy, adventure and vendetta all over Scotland. It is hard to imagine a tale less like the Edinburgh Baillie’s memoirs than that of ‘Sir Simon Brodie’, whose quixotic adventures include being thrown overboard in the Firth of Forth by the Duke of Argyll and rescued from his predicament by an amorous seal -- Fiona Stafford
Admirably glossed by Gillian Hughes -- Fiona Stafford
Tales of the Wars of Montrose is a big book about a big historical period, and it positions Hogg strongly in the line of historical writers who require to be taken seriously. -- Ian Campbell
ISBN: 9780748663187
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 339g
312 pages