Lawrie Todd - (The Edinburgh Edition of the Works of John Galt) by John Galt (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

In Lawrie Todd (1830; rev. ed. 1832), John Galt paints an optimistic portrait of Scottish emigration to North America. Designed as a fictional autobiography, the novel charts the fortunes of its protagonist from his departure from Scotland--to avoid being tried for treason over his French Revolutionary sympathies--to his rise to prosperity as a shopkeeper in New York City and imaginary towns near Rochester. This edition of the novel provides a contextual introduction, explanatory notes, and maps that connect Todd's life story with boom times in New York and with Galt's own efforts at social entrepreneurship in Canada as well as with debates over emigration and political reforms in Britain. It sheds light on Galt's methods of characterisation, including his use of Scots and 'Yankee' speech habits and adaptation of real-life models, and on his popularity with readers in his own time.

From the Back Cover

[Front cover flap copy] In Lawrie Todd (1830; rev. ed. 1832), John Galt paints an optimistic portrait of Scottish emigration to North America. Designed as a fictional autobiography, the novel charts the fortunes of its protagonist from his departure from Scotland - to avoid being tried for treason over his French Revolutionary sympathies - to his rise to prosperity as a shopkeeper in New York City and imaginary towns near Rochester. This edition of the novel provides a contextual introduction, explanatory notes, and maps that connect Todd's life story with boom times in New York and with Galt's own efforts at social entrepreneurship in Canada as well as with debates over emigration and political reforms in Britain. It sheds light on Galt's methods of characterisation, including his use of Scots and 'Yankee' speech habits and adaptation of real-life models, and on his popularity with readers in his own time.

Review Quotes

What makes this edition of Lawrie Todd so enjoyable and readable is, without a doubt, Hewitt's apparatus in setting up Galt's work, commenting upon it, and providing tools to understand and decipher it. [...] This edition will be essential for scholars of the period as they continue to grapple with Romanticism as a global phenomenon and, particularly, with the transatlantic texts and themes that now pepper Romantic scholarship.--Jeffrey Cass, Arkansas Tech University "European Romantic Review"

At last! A scholarly edition of Lawrie Todd, nineteenth-century best-seller and pioneering British novel of American immigration and pioneer life. A Scottish radical becomes a successful frontier businessman: John Galt's characteristic wit and bite is matched only by Regina Hewitt's imaginative editorial detective work.--Katie Trumpener, Yale University

About the Author

John Galt was a Scottish novelist, entrepreneur, and political and social commentator.

Regina Hewitt is Professor of English at the University of South Florida. Her most recent publications include Commemorating Peterloo: Violence, Resilience and Claim-Making during the Romantic Era, co-edited with Michael Demson (2019), and an edition of Lawrie Todd for the Edinburgh University Press Edition of the Works of John Galt (2023). In 2023, she was elected Chair of the John Galt Society. Formerly Co-Editor of the European Romantic Review, she now serves as a Consulting Editor for that journal.