Walter Scott's 'unworthy' final works

Two “lost” works by Sir Walter Scott that were deemed unworthy of publication by his friends and family will be brought out at last, nearly 200 years after his death, from The UK TimesOnline:

Scott's final manuscripts, The Siege Of Malta and Bizarro, were written in 1831 and 1832 after he had had a succession of strokes and his fragile health was in terminal decline. His frailty brought a marked deterioration in his literary abilities and those who read the manuscripts - notably his publisher, Robert Cadell - believed that they should never see the light of day..

“If he had recovered his health, he probably would have published The Siege of Malta, but not in this form. These two works will not enhance his literary reputation, but they are a very moving testimony to the spirit which made him write,” she said.

Both works were written in the period after Scott's life had crashed about his ears. Books such as Waverley and Ivanhoe had established him as a literary success but in 1826 the publishing firm that he part-owned was bankrupted and he resolved to pay off all his creditors using the power of his pen to generate money. Over the next five years he produced a prodigious amount of work before becoming ill.

In summer 1831, for the good of his health, his doctors ordered him to take a tour of the Mediterranean. He travelled to Malta, where he soon devoured the local history and again took up his pen. A quarter of The Siege of Malta had been finished by December and Scott sent the final draft to his publisher from Rome in spring 1832. He died in London later that year. It is a work of historical fiction based on the defence of the island by the Order of St John of Jerusalem against a larger Moorish force...

Scotland on Sunday: Grave robbing; More here including reference to Donald Sultana's research on Scott