Here, combined in one volume, are three of the books which made John Galt's reputation:
Annals of the Parish, The Provost and The Ayrshire Legatees. First published in the
early 1820s all three present a sharply observed picture of village life
in Ayrshire and satirise the colourful characters who live and work there.
The narrator of the Annals, the Reverend Micah Balwhidder of Dalmailing, shrewd and naive,
dignified and absurd by turns, is one of the great personalities of Scottish
literature, along with James Pawkie, the Machiavellian provost of Gudetown and the principal
legatee, Rev Dr Zachariah Pringle of Garnock.
But, as Professor Ian Campbell notes in his introduction, the novels do much more than entertain. The human comedy they convey is delightful, but they are far from being mere exercises in nostalgia for a simpler way of life. The period they deal with was one of turbulent change in the industrial and social life of Scotland bringing real threats to the traditional way of life of the people in general, and churchmen and local politicians in particular. Galt's concerns are the very modern ones of new technology and urbanisation and, behind the tranquil facade, he shows the old ways bending under the strain. Some of this characters recognose and respond to a different world while others are incapable of embracing the new order. In his study of the human effects of this, Galt addresses issues that are still with us.
'One of the best novelists fo the early nineteenth century
sensitive to the major social, political and economic issues of his day'
TREVOR ROYLE