The Black Dwarf

By 1816 Scott had written three successful novels and the public was clamoring for more. In a change of direction Scott set out to write four "tales" illustrating the manners and customs of Scotland, to be issued together as Tales of My Landlord.The first of these, The Black Dwarf is a novella set in Liddesdale in the Scottish Borders. It is 1708; in the aftermath of the Union of Scotland and England a group of Jacobites plots the restoration of the Stuart monarchy and Scottish independence. Against this turbulent backdrop of nationalist passions and cross-border feuding, a gothic tale of love and danger unfolds. At its center is the grotesque figure of the mysterious and solitary Black Dwarf who symbolically frees the heroine Isabella Vere from a violent, patriarchal past, and helps her choose a peace-loving Scottish laird as her husband.