The Magnum Opus edition, as it was familiarly know, defined the final shape of
Scott’s fiction for the 19th century. Scott’s introductions are semi-autobiographical essays in which he muses on his own art and the circumstances that gave rise to each of his works of fiction. His notes illustrate his text, sometimes with simple glosses, sometimes by quotations from historical sources, but most strikingly with further narratives which parallel rather than explain incidents and situations in the fiction.