Colloquium on The Heart of Midlothian
Saturday 18th August 2018
Summary of the Colloquium:
Professor David Purdie delivered a richly engaging presentation on Sir Walter Scott’s The Heart of Midlothian, focusing on his own redacted edition and the novel’s literary, historical, and cultural significance. The event was part of the Sir Walter Scott Club’s annual colloquium, traditionally timed near Scott’s birthday and held within Edinburgh’s historic centre—a fitting setting for a novel deeply tied to the city.
Purdie explained that his redaction aimed to bring Scott to a new generation by reducing the novel's length and clarifying archaic language, without losing the integrity of its powerful story. The original text—nearly 190,000 words—was trimmed to 90,000, more in line with modern novels. He described this editorial process as analogous to surgery: removing unnecessary tissue while preserving the life of the patient.
The story's historical foundation in the 1736 Porteous Riots was explored in depth, as was Scott's likely inspiration from the real-life tale of Helen Walker. Purdie noted how Scott fused historical fact with fiction and emphasised Jeanie Deans as one of his most compelling heroines—a symbol of moral integrity, even at great personal cost.
Purdie also reflected on Scott’s polymathic mind, his meticulous historical research, and his contribution to Scottish cultural identity, including his resistance to the erasure of Scottish institutions like its legal system and currency.
Interesting Points
1. Redaction as Surgical Editing:
Purdie likened editing the novel to surgery—cutting unnecessary material while keeping the novel’s essence alive. He removed around 1,700 commas and many colons, restructured sentences, and clarified vocabulary, making the text more readable for contemporary audiences.
2. Storyline as the Engine:
The main goal was to maintain Scott’s “tremendous storyline.” Purdie aimed to keep the dramatic arc intact—particularly the power of Jeanie Deans’ journey and the moral dilemma at the novel’s heart.
3. Jeanie Deans’ Moral Choice:
A major discussion point was whether Jeanie should have told a "white lie" to save her sister Effie. This moral integrity is a linchpin of the novel and provoked lively audience debate, with reference to George Bernard Shaw’s view that in a stage version, audiences would beg her to lie.
4. National Identity and Politics:
Themes of Scottish identity and resentment at English overreach surfaced, especially in relation to the Porteous Riots and Jeanie’s journey to London. Scott’s nuanced patriotism—valuing Scottish institutions within a British framework—was evident. He was proud of Scotland’s legal and religious autonomy and defended its right to retain unique features, like its own banknotes.
5. Personal Anecdotes and Humour:
Purdie added levity with stories, including childhood visits to Edinburgh, family links (possibly!) to Tom Purdie, Scott’s loyal servant, and reflections on Scott’s lameness from polio, which may have shaped his path as a writer rather than a soldier.
6. Artistic Legacy and Misreadings:
He discussed evolving portrayals of characters like Effie Deans, noting that Victorian and later artists sometimes romanticised or reinterpreted characters in ways that may not align with Scott’s original vision.
7. The Unnecessary Final Volume?
Purdie cut the final part of the novel, arguing it lacked narrative energy and coherence with the main storyline. He felt it had been added to fulfil contractual obligations and offered a more melodramatic and idealised vision of Scotland that diluted the earlier dramatic tension.
8. Educational Challenges:
Purdie noted how modern readers—especially students—struggle with Scott’s density, vocabulary, and unfamiliar references. His footnotes were designed to be “chatty and humorous,” helping readers bridge the cultural gap.
Introduction by Prof. Peter Garside:
Welcome everybody to this year’s Scott Club Colloquium, an event which is customarily timed to be as close as possible to Scott’s birthdate on 15 August (we’re within three days on this occasion). In the last two decades we’ve also been blessed by the opportunity to celebrate a number of key literary bicentenaries, such as the Lady of the Lake in 2010 and Waverley in 2014. An effort has also been made in some instances to fit the location of the colloquium to the work in question, the Trossachs in the case of the Lady or in that of Waverley Abbotsford, where Scott is famously supposed to have retrieved his unfinished first novel from a desk drawer in a lumber room before resuming it during the Christmas vacation of 18134/14. Last year we first intended to hold the colloquium on Rob Roy in Ross Priory at the foot of Loch Lomond before the cost of the booking and travel made this inadvisable, turning instead to the the New Club at lunchtime, a venue and timing which from the turnout appears to suit a number of our members. This year round one might claim (if the expression has any remaining validity) to have a Cake-and-Eat-It situation, in that the location admirably fits the present work under consideration: that is, The Heart of Mid-Lothian, first published in the summer of 1818, and arguably Scott’s one and only fully Edinburgh novel in terms of setting and leading concerns. Of course it hasn’t been possible to hold this colloquium exactly in the location that gives the novel its title—no, not the football Club, but the old Edinburgh Tolbooth, demolished in 1817—but we are within a mile or so of some of the places where main events in the story occurred, the site of then gallows in the Grassmarket, the Edinburgh Law Courts in Parliament Square, and the grasslands beneath Salisbury Crags.
We also have a specially qualified speaker today in Professor David Purdie, already known to many of you I’m sure as a two-term Chairman of this Club, holding the office that is for six years during which he helped raise the profile of meetings and hosted some memorable dinners. David is a medical Professor Emeritus and a former Clinical Sub-Dean of the Leeds University Medical School, his specialism I believe being Osteoporosis, the brittle bone disease. Since retirement he has given fuller vent to another side of his intellectual interests, establishing himself as a leading light on the Edinburgh intellectual scene, and an authority on Burns, Scott, and the Scottish Enlightenment among other things. As well as work in preparing the 4th edition of The Burns Encyclopedia, he is the author of a humorous book on golf, and an Honorary Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Edinburgh, where he has been working on a revision of David Hume’s key philosophical texts. More apposite still to our present situation, he has published redactions of two novels by Scott aimed at facilitating the modern reader, Ivanhoe in 2012 and the Heart of Mid-Lothian in 2014 (of which I note there have already been four reprintings). The main plan today is that Professor Purdie will talk for about 20-25 minutes, covering both the novel and his own work in adapting it, this being followed by a general discussion amongst those present, the formal meeting then ending with sandwiches at about 1pm. I have with me copies of some of the main manifestations of the Heart during its long publishing history, including parts of the 4-volume first edition and Magnum Opus version, the EEWN volume, and David’s own redaction, in case anyone would like to consult these afterwards. Also a short list of possible topic for discussion, if needed, though this may well be left behind by the time our speaker has finished. Professor Purdie.
