Softback. Navy leatherette cloth binding with gilt title on the spine.

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Quentin Durward is a classic 1823 historical adventure novel by Sir Walter Scott. Set in 15th-century France and Flanders, it follows a chivalrous young Scottish soldier who gets caught in a deadly political power struggle between King Louis XI of France and Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. 

Plot Overview: Quentin Durward travels to France seeking a better life and joins the King’s famous Scottish Guard. He is quickly pulled into court intrigue when he is assigned to protect and escort Isabelle, Countess of Croye—a Burgundian heiress. Isabelle is fleeing an arranged marriage to a brutal nobleman. Throughout the perilous journey, Quentin thwarts various assassination attempts, rescues the Countess, and ultimately falls in love with her, eventually winning her hand after a series of daring exploits. 

Themes and Historical Context

• Chivalry vs. Politics: The novel brilliantly contrasts the old-world chivalry of Quentin with the calculating, Machiavellian political maneuvers of King Louis XI.

This is part of the esteemed Nelson Classics series published by Thomas Nelson & Sons, which was widely distributed in the UK during the 1930s and 1940s.

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature. He is known for his Waverley novels (1814–1831), which were, for nearly a century, among the most popular and widely read novels in Europe. He is also known for his narrative poems Marmion (1808) and The Lady of the Lake (1810). He greatly influenced European and American literature.

As an advocate and legal administrator by profession, he combined writing and editing with his daily work as Clerk of Session and Sheriff-Depute of Selkirkshire. He was prominent in Edinburgh’s Tory establishment, active in the Highland Society, a long time president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1820–1832), and a vice president of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1827–1829). His knowledge of history and literary facility equipped him to establish the historical novel genre as an exemplar of European Romanticism. He became a baronet of Abbotsford in the County of Roxburgh on 22 April 1820; the title became extinct upon his son’s death in 1847.