The Bride of Lammermoor is a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1819, one of the Waverley novels. The novel is set in the Lammermuir Hills of south-east Scotland, shortly before the Act of Union of 1707 (in the first edition), or shortly after the Act (in the 'Magnum' edition of 1830). It tells of a tragic love affair between young Lucy Ashton and her family's enemy Edgar Ravenswood. Scott indicated the plot was based on an actual incident. The Bride of Lammermoor and A Legend of Montrose were published together anonymously as the third of Scott's Tales of My Landlord series. The story is the basis for Donizetti's 1835 opera Lucia di Lammermoor. Composition and sources It is not known exactly when Scott contracted to write Tales of my Landlord (Third Series), but he began composition at the beginning of September 1818, some two months after completing The Heart of Midlothian and finished it in late April or early May the following year. During March he had to suspend work after a near-fatal attack of gallstones, but about a week into April he set about dictating the final chapters (from a little into Chapter 26 to the end), apparently to John Ballantyne and William Laidlaw. Scott was acquainted with the central story of the novel from oral and printed sources, drawing on the various versions and modifying them for his fictional purposes (see 'The Ashton story' below). The presence of the Gowrie Conspiracy, familiar to him from his editorial labours in the 17th century, can be felt at a number of points in the work. For the hunting descriptions he was able to call on a work in his library, the second edition of George Turbervile's anonymous The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting (1611). Editions The first edition of Tales of my Landlord (Third Series), consisting of The Bride of Lammermoor and A Legend of Montrose was published by Archibald Constable in Edinburgh on 21 June 1819 and in London by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown on the 26th. As with all the Waverley novels before 1827 publication was anonymous. The print run was probably 10,000 and the price was £1 12s (£1.60). Scott appears to have made some small changes to the text of the Bride when it appeared later in 1819 in the octavo Novels and Tales, but his main revision was carried