Annals of the Parish, John Galt

Offers Galt’s most successful novel, a microcosm of fifty years of Scottish history

• Provides a comprehensive Introduction by the volume editor which tells the story of this novel’s production and reception; describes the literary and intellectual traditions on which it drew; and explains its relation to the social and political turmoil of the years in which it was written and published
• Includes extensive Explanatory Notes which identify Galt’s biblical allusions, references to historical events, and social and cultural practices of the period in which the novel is set
• The appendices identify Galt’s real-life sources for some of his incidents, and explain the history and institutions of the Church of Scotland as relevant to the story
• Maps assist the reader to understand the geography on which the novel is acted out: south-west Scotland and its relation to the British Isles

John Galt’s Annals of the Parish is the first novel of the Industrial Revolution. Narrated by the minister of a rural Scottish parish, it chronicles with humour and pathos the fifty years 1760–1810 from the perspective of ordinary people swept up in social and economic transformation.