Readings from the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels

This is the first Waverley Novel I read, at the age of 14, while at George Watson's College, Edinburgh. The passage that I quote made a great impression on me then and to this day is my favourite. The lead-up to the excerpt is as follows: Effie Deans, the sister of the heroine, Jeanie, has been condemned to death for child murder in 1736. Jeanie refuses to commit perjury, which might have saved her sister's life. Instead she walks from Edinburgh to London to seek pardon in person from Queen Caroline, wife of George II.
  
Click on the button below to listen and learn if she is successful. (13mins)
If the Media-player is not visible here then please either use the one at the foot of the page or click on the download button on the left.

The Interview of Jeanie Deans with the Queen an engraving made in 1832 by Charles Heath based on a drawing by C. R. Leslie of a scene from Scott's novel The Heart of Mid-lothian. Used here with the permission of the Walter Scott Digital Archive Image Collection.

Read along as you listen to the recording - a facsimile copy of the text is below.

The Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels. Volume Six. The Heart of Mid-Lothian by Walter Scott. Edited by David Hewitt and Alison Lumsden. Published in 2004 by Edinburgh University Press. © The University Court of the University of Edinburgh. Permission has been granted to The Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club for usage on this website until December 2012.

Read more about this Edition on the EUP website

Use this player only if the one at the top of the page is not visible.