Sir Walter Scott

The Pirate Sir Walter Scott

For The Pirate, Scott drew on his memories of a voyage to the Northern Isles in 1814, as guest of a commission inspecting Scotland's lighthouses. The novel was finished in little more than three months and was ready for publication in late October 1821. Before it appeared on December 24, Scott had already begun work on The Fortunes of Nigel.

The Pirate is set in the seventeenth century in a distant part of Shetland, where Basil Mertoun lives as a tenant of Magnus Troil. In his youth, Mertoun has been betrayed by an unfaithful wife, and in a spirit of revenge, turned to piracy. Filled with self-reproach for his crimes, he lives as a recluse, along with his wife's son Mordaunt, whose paternity is doubtable.