SOURCE: "Sir Walter Scott as a Master of the Short Tale," in Festschrift Prof Dr. Herbert Koziol zum Siebzigsten Geburtstag, edited by Gero Bauer, Franz Stanzel, and Franz Zaic, Wilhelm Braumüller, 1973, pp. 255-65.
In the following essay, Riese compares the narrative structure of Scott's short stories to that of his novels, focusing on "Wandering Willie's Tale," "The Highland Widow," and "The Two Drovers."
Sir Walter Scott's short narratives, though never entirely neglected, have always been overshadowed by his achievement as a novelist whose strength lies rather in breadth of scope and a leisurely unfolding of the plot than in the virtues essential to the art of the short tale: concentration and conciseness. Such a view is corroborated by the author's own insight into his way of practising the storyteller's craft. Reflecting on his method of composition—or, rather, on the lack of it—he writes in the "Introductory Epistle" to The Fortunes of Nigel:
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