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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS

OF

EMINENT NOVELISTS,

AND OTHER DISTINGUISHED PERSONS.

BY

SIR WALTER SCOTT, Bart.

VOL. I.

ROBERT CADELL, EDINBURGH;

WHITTAKER AND CO., LONDON.

1834.

268741

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ADVERTISEMENT.

THE following Biographical and Critical Sketches-for they claim no more important name-were written for the purpose of serving as prefaces to a Collection called Ballantyne's Novelist's Library; a work undertaken by the late Mr JOHN BALLANTYNE, bookseller in Edinburgh, a person whom no one knew without being desirous to oblige him. It was carried on after his death by Messrs HURST and ROBINSON of London, for the benefit, in some measure, of Mrs BALLANTYNE, but is for the present suspended. It has since been thought advisable to publish the Preliminary Notices in the present connected form. It may be necessary to observe, that the Lives do not lay claim to the merit of much research, being taken from the most accessible materials; and that the Critical Opinions are such as have

' [Published in 10 volumes, royal 8vo. London, 1821, &c.]

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