Walter Scott

The first 'historical novel' in English, Waverley (1814) is set at the time of the Jacobite rising of 1745. Edward Waverley, a young English soldier in the Hanoverian army, is sent to Scotland. He visits a Jacobite laird in the Lowlands of Perthshire, and then makes his way into the Highlands, where he meets a chieftain and his clansmen. Before long Waverley is caught up in the Jacobite cause, offering his allegiance to Prince Charles Edward Stuart,...

"In a feud between the Scottish families of Ravenswood and Lammermoor, Enrico has gained the upper hand over Edgardo, murdering his kinsmen and usurping his estates. By the time of the opera's action, in the late 17th century, Enrico's fortunes have begun to wane; in political disfavor, he stakes all on uniting his family with that of Arturo, whom he means to force his sister, Lucia, to marry."--Container.

A tale of love, murder, and vengeance set in seventeenth-century Scotland. After Lucia is forced to marry Arturo she goes mad and kills him; her true love Edgardo is grief stricken and commits suicide.