''Bizarro'' is an unfinished novel or novella by Sir

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...

written in the spring of 1832 but not published until 2008. Scott came across the story of the

brigand Brigandage is the life and practice of highway robbery and plunder. It is practiced by a brigand, a person who usually lives in a gang and lives by pillage and robbery.Oxford English Dictionary second edition, 1989. "Brigand.2" first recorded usa ...

Francesco Moscato, known as "Il Bizarro", while he was travelling in Italy, trying to recruit his ruined health. It was told to him as true by an English

apothecary ''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and North Ameri ...

, resident in Italy, whom Scott considered "a respectable authority".

The original story

The story that Scott heard, and jotted down in his journal, concerns a

Calabria , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

n bandit-leader, who is hard pressed by a French military force sent to capture him. At one point, while alone except for his wife and infant son, he is in imminent danger of capture, and is forced to strangle his son to prevent his crying from giving them away. His wife cannot forgive him for this crime, and takes her revenge in the middle of the night by shooting the sleeping bandit, cutting off his head, and taking it to the authorities to claim the price set on it. The members of Il Bizarro's gang then give themselves up. Scott finally goes back to mention one of Il Bizarro's former atrocities, in which he murdered a French officer by having him eaten by insects.

Manuscript and publication history

Drawing on this narrative, and on some pamphlets dealing with Italian brigands, Scott did his best to produce a publishable story, but his death later in the year left the manuscript of the still uncompleted ''Bizarro'', and another novel called '' The Siege of Malta'', in the hands of his son-in-law and literary executor

J. G. Lockhart John Gibson Lockhart (12 June 1794 – 25 November 1854) was a Scottish writer and editor. He is best known as the author of the seminal, and much-admired, seven-volume biography of his father-in-law Sir Walter Scott: ''Memoirs of the Life of Sir ...

. Lockhart did not consider either work good enough for publication, but in his biography of Scott he included the synopsis of Il Bizarro's adventures recorded in Scott's journal. Lockhart's poor opinion of both novels was shared by

John Buchan John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. After a brief legal career ...

, who in 1932 said he "hoped that no literary resurrectionist will ever be guilty of the crime of giving them to the world." In 2008 ''Bizarro'' was finally published, together with ''The Siege of Malta'', in an edition by J. H. Alexander, Judy King, and Graham Tulloch, published by Edinburgh University Press and Columbia University Press. This edition presents a literal transcript of the manuscript together with a reading text in which the more obvious errors are corrected. It also includes a CD-ROM scan of the manuscript.

Notes

References

External links

Review by Porscha Fermanis of the Edinburgh edition
from ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

''
"'Indeciperable' Walter Scott stories to be published"
from the ''

Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unite ...

''
"Publisher accused of 'grave robbing' for printing last two novels marred by Sir Walter Scott's ill-health"
from ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

''
Scott's original record of the story of El Bizarro, taken from his Journal
{{Authority control 1832 British novels 2008 British novels Novels by Walter Scott Novels published posthumously Novels about Italian bandits Calabria Unfinished novels Edinburgh University Press books