Claire Lamont (born 1942,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

) is an Emeritus Professor of English literature at Newcastle University and a specialist in the oeuvres of Jane Austen and

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' ...

. She was a winner of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars spa ...

's Rose Mary Crawshay Prize in 1983.

Life

Claire Lamont was born in London in 1942. Her maternal grandfather, Sir Edward Appleton, was the Principal of

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted ...

(1949-65). She attended Esdaile's (The Ministers' Daughters' College) in Edinburgh, and read English at Edinburgh University. She took up a research role at

Leeds University , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

followed by a graduate studentship at St Hilda's College, Oxford, where she researched the literary papers of the Fraser Tytler family from Invernesshire. She worked at an antiquarian bookseller in London, then became a Junior Research Fellow at Somerville College, Oxford, matriculating in 1969. In 1971, Lamont joined Newcastle University as a lecturer in English literature.

Academic work

Lamont discovered a manuscript by William Collins titled ''Popular Superstitions Ode'' in 1967. In 1970, Lamont edited and published Jane Austen's ''

Sense and Sensibility ''Sense and Sensibility'' is a novel by Jane Austen, published in 1811. It was published anonymously; ''By A Lady'' appears on the title page where the author's name might have been. It tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor (age 19) a ...

'' as part of an Oxford University series of English novels. Her introduction was well-received as ''elegantly written'', though her ''traditional, correct and unexceptionable'' account of the novel was criticised for not addressing its true import, namely the clash between

Marianne Dashwood Marianne Dashwood is a fictional character in Jane Austen's 1811 novel '' Sense and Sensibility''. The 16-year-old second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Dashwood, she mostly embodies the "sensibility" of the title, as opposed to her elder siste ...

and her social suffocation by her sister and others. At Somerville, Lamont was supervised by

Mary Lascelles Mary Madge Lascelles (7 February 1900 – 10 December 1995) was a British literary scholar, specialising in Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, and Walter Scott. She was vice-principal of Somerville College, Oxford, from 1947 to 1960, a ...

. She prepared a new edition of

's ''

Waverley Waverley may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Waverley'' (novel), by Sir Walter Scott ** ''Waverley'' Overture, a work by Hector Berlioz inspired by Scott's novel * Waverley Harrison, a character in the New Zealand soap opera ''Shortland Stree ...

'', which was published in 1981. Based on Scott's first edition rather than the later ''Magnum Opus'' edition, her work, the first by a modern editor, was called a ''foundational'' edition. The

Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels The Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels by Walter Scott appeared in thirty volumes between 1993 and 2012. Published by Edinburgh University Press, it was the first complete critical edition of the novels. History On 22 June 1983 Archie Turnbul ...

, work on which began in 1984 and continued until the publication in 2012 of the last two volumes in the series, was co-edited by Lamont.

Honours

For her edition of ''Waverley'', Lamont received the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize in 1983. She became a Fellow of the English Association of the

University of Leicester , mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type = public research university , endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor = David Willetts , vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah , head_lab ...

in 2004. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies. In 2011–2012 she was President of the Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club.

Selected publications

* * * * * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lamont, Claire 1942 births Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Academics of Newcastle University Rose Mary Crawshay Prize winners Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford British academics of English literature Living people