hamburgerpatty

Novels about strong women? For my money it is hard to beat Sir Walter Scott's Heart of Midlothian. Jeanie Deans (to use modern parlance) is a values-led woman. Based on a true eighteenth century circumstance, Jeanie is forced to make a choice either to perjure herself at a court trial or to tell the truth. She tells the truth and in doing so condemns her own sister to be hung for the crime of infanticide. However Jeanie Deans then walks from Edinburgh to London and secures an audience with Queen Caroline and in one of finest (and shortest) speeches in all literature, she pleads successfully for her sister's stay of execution. Walter Scott wrote that as Jeanie addressed Her Majesty she reminded the Queen of the end which awaits us all - rich or poor - 'then', Jeanie says' it isna what we hae dune for oursells, but what we hae dune for others, that we think on maist pleasantly'. Heart of Midlothian is a (largely) forgotten masterpiece and Jeanie Deans is a great heroine.