Where I Meet Some Irascible Old Guys--And Like Them Just Fine

The Antiquary by Sir Walter Scott, Fiction, Historical, Literary, Classics by Walter Scott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sir Walter Scott has a way with characters. That's what makes this novel worth looking into.

I know, Dickens is famous for his quirky characters, giving them to us by the hundreds. But Sir Walter Scott creates characters who are as odd and full of life as anybody, but they feel more genuine to me, more like a real human, than any I have found in literature of the era.

In this novel, we find Mr. Oldbuck, the educated old gentleman known as the antiquary. He's a bit of a buffoon, but not in the final analysis; a bit of a misanthrope, but not truly; a bit of a tyrant, but maybe not after all. The author gives us such a complete picture of this grumpy old man who wearies his visitors with stories about historical minutiae and makes unending complaints and demands that plainly put him in the wrong and needles and pesters others in a way that no one should have to put up with... but then he helps a stranger in need, and takes the part of a friend he has offended, and shows such patience and thoughtfulness toward the poorest in his community, especially when they need it the most. They know him to be both a blowhard and a man of uncommon good sense, a frivolous man and a man entirely to be counted on.

He's real. He's that relative that drives you nuts at family gatherings but would drive a hundred miles to get you out of trouble. He's not the most fun to be with, but he is absolutely necessary.

Edie Ochiltree is an old beggar, a mendicant authorized by the crown to live off the kindness of the community, a dispensation made visible by the blue gown all such beggars wear. He is the glue of this novel, the man who connects everyone else together. He knows what is happening everywhere in the area and is full of the lore of the place, remembering every story about every family. He is both entertaining and difficult, a little like jester, which he is sometimes compared to. But he is kindhearted and thinks nothing of spending whole days trudging from one town or castle to another carrying messages or warnings or working on someone's behalf, refusing any reward other than the handful of grain or smallest of coins. No, he won't come in the house. No, he won't take a silver coin. No, he won't accept anything more than he is entitled to as a blue-robed beggar. But he will repeat all the news, and he will sing an old song that you forgot you knew, and he will remind you of something embarrassing that you did years ago. There is kindness but no sentimentality in Edie.

Senile old Elspeth was remarkable. The German scam artist was entertaining. And any number of minor characters were just as finely drawn, even if they were only found on a few pages. They made the novel for me.

The plot is less central and the action less compelling in this novel than others I have read by Sir Walter Scott, but I enjoyed it just about the same as the rest. Maybe I struggled a bit with the long passages of dialogue in dialect, but that was okay, and a few passages were dense with exposition. I didn't mind. I enjoyed visiting these characters and following them to the end of their journey and the unraveling of all the mysteries. I won't lie--I'm looking for more adventure in the next one. But as long as it is as engrossing as The Antiquary in some way or another, I'm good.

Recommended for readers of old books.

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