Edward Waverley is a young, cultured man whose sensibilities lead to his involvement in the Jacobite Rising of 1745. In his journey into Scotland, down to Derby, and back up again he explores the cultural and political geography of Great Britain.

Waverley; or, 'tis Sixty Years Since was Scott's first novel, but like its final chapter, 'A Postscript, which should have been a Preface', it appears as one of the last in this series, so that the full weight of experience gained from editing Scott's fiction can be brought to understanding his most influential novel, the one which gave its name to the Waverley Novels. To this edition, P. D. Garside brings new insights and new information, and he establishes a text which is significantly different from its predecessors.