Walter Scott

The Bride of Lammermoor Walter Scott

The story recounts the tragic love of Edgar, Master of Ravenswood, and Lucy Ashton, the daughter of Ravenswood's enemy, Sir William Ashton. Sir William's wife, Lady Ashton, is the villain and evil perpetrator of the whole intrigue, haughty and manipulative in her objective to cancel the initial happy engagement between Edgar and Lucy and forcing the latter to a speedily arranged marriage with the Laird of Bucklaw. In the climax, when the intrigue takes its full course and the wedding celebrations have been held, Lucy stabs the bridegroom, severely wounding him, and descends quickly into insanity and dies. In the story, Caleb Balderstone, an eccentric old Ravenswood family retainer, provides some comic relief.