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The Historical Novel (Critical Survey of Long Fiction)

Origins

Popular legend records that the historical novel was born out of frustration—specifically out of Sir Walter Scott’s frustration at having been displaced by Lord Byron as the most popular poetic romancer of his day. Scott’s early narrative poems, such as Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field (1808) and The Lady of the Lake (1810), had established him as the premier...

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