Introduction

This novel, regarded as one of Scott’s finest, opens with the Edinburgh riots of 1736. The people have been infuriated by the actions of John Porteous, Captain of the Guard; when his life is saved by the distant monarch they ignore the Queen and resolve to take their own revenge.

Plot and Themes

Closely connected with these events is the story of the novel’s heroine, Jeanie Deans, a peasant girl of remarkable religious faith. Like the people of Edinburgh she refuses to accept a legal decision, in this case against her sister Effie, condemned under a harsh law of child-murder.

The novel follows Jeanie’s prodigious determination to save her sister’s life. At the centre of both narratives is Edinburgh’s forbidding prison, the Tolbooth, known by all as the Heart of Midlothian.

(Amazon)