Sir Walter Scott Appreciation discussion

I have opened this thread for those who want to comment freely on Guy Mannering.

I will open weekly threads if anyone is interested in reading the book that way.

This book is now my favourite book by Scott. It has everything, love, adventure, smugglers and young lovers.
Plus the one and only Meg Merrilies.

I was reading in a biography of Dostoevsky a quote of him highly praising Guy Mannering and Scott for having written it only a few months after Waverley
It was one of the most highly anticipated and bestselling books of the 19th century, the first edition selling out on the very first day. It was one the first books to sell out throughout the world.
Thought it was sensational

Scott published Guy Mannering under a pen name. He was already very popular as a poet, so he didn't want to jeopardize his reputation if readers didn't like his work.
I guess he didn't have to worry any more if the book sold out in one day!

Some months back, I was writing an essay on the roseate spoonbill and ended up down a rabbit hole, reading about the murder of Guy Bradley, a game warden for the Everglades, at the beginning of the 20th century. The herons, egrets, and spoonbills had all been hunted to near (local) extinction in Florida because the feathers were worth a lot of money. It had recently become illegal to hunt these birds, and Bradley was put in charge of enforcing the law. A plume-hunter murdered him.

When I read about Guy Bradley, it reminded me of the gauger's fate in Guy Mannering.

Those feathers were used for hats for wealthy women.
It is really a shame the way fashion can cause pain and death of creatures and their human guardians.

Yes, it is. Women played a large part in stopping the practice, too. Some boycotted milliners who used feathers. Women in the Audubon society designed a fashionable feather-free hat they called an "audubonnet."