The Heart of Mid-Lothian

About This Book

Published in 1818, The Heart of Midlothian is a novel by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), widely regarded as his finest work. The story is set in early eighteenth-century Edinburgh and follows Jeanie Deans, a humble Scottish country girl who walks from Edinburgh to London to plead for a royal pardon for her sister Effie, unjustly condemned to death for child murder under a harsh Scottish statute. Scott based the novel on real events — the Porteous Riots of 1736 — and created in Jeanie Deans one of the most admired heroines in English fiction: plain, devout, and incapable of telling a lie even to save her sister's life. The novel is in the public domain.

Publication Details