Another Amazing Character

The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have become a Sir Walter Scott superfan. Wasn't expecting to.

I can stipulate that the novels of Sir Walter Scott contain problematic language and attitudes. The intolerance we see toward Roma folk, autistic people, and Jews (the first two in Guy Mannering, the last in Ivanhoe) and the insensitive language used to describe many types of people is jarring to modern sensibilities. In this novel, which even has a coarse title, Elshie, the titular character, is regarded as horrifying and frightening because of his appearance. But despite the intolerance and casual cruelty displayed in the stories as part of cultural norms, the author never seems to join in. The authorial voice behind the narrator feels much more progressive than the characters he invented, so much so that it one could argue that his novels are an exercise in humanizing those who had been marginalized in our thoughts. This is somewhat true of the Jewish characters in Ivanhoe, but even more so with the Roma woman and the autistic scholar in Guy Mannering, the incredible character of the beggar in The Antiquary, and the little person in The Black Dwarf. In each case, Scott has created a character that is not just sympathetic but memorable and even inspiring. None of them are wholly good, but all of them are so well drawn that their personalities exceed the limits placed on them by their condition or ethnicity.

Elshie (who I couldn't help but picture as Peter Dinklage) isn't a nice man and is deservedly called a misanthrope. Over the course of this short novel we discover the cause of it, but that isn't what makes him sympathetic. It's his capacity for altruism in spite of his personal feelings that makes him exceptional. He's complex and interesting and a real person--not the monster or sorcerer or brute that his neighbors think him.

In the introduction, the author admits that he planned a longer novel but was convinced by a friend that his readers would not be interested in such a character. That's a shame. It's an outstanding novel anyway (IMO) but could have been nearer his usual length. Never mind the fact that there are a number of interesting and complex characters in the novel; Elshie was a worthy protagonist and could have sustained a fuller narrative.

Oh, well. What we have is exceptional.

Recommended (for readers of classic adventure novels, anyway).

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