20 h 28 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 20 h 28 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A child is born, a stranger reads the stars, and a Scottish family's future hangs on his warning.
Lost in Galloway, young Englishman Guy Mannering finds shelter at Ellangowan, the home of Godfrey Bertram. That night, the laird's son Harry is born. Mannering casts the child's horoscope and sees danger ahead. In Walter Scott's adventure, a stolen inheritance and a missing boy turn that warning into a mystery.
Around the troubled family stand people with sharply different loyalties. Meg Merrilies remains fiercely faithful despite being driven away, while ambitious lawyer Gilbert Glossin sees opportunity in their weakness. Across the hills, inns and rough roads of Scotland, smugglers, scholars and farmers fill a story that asks how much fate rules human choices.
What you’ll discover
- A warning in the stars Follow a mystery that begins with a horoscope its maker cannot fully trust.
- Meg Merrilies stands firm Meet a feared outsider whose loyalty challenges the claims of more respectable people.
- An inheritance under threat Watch ambition and poor judgment put the future of Ellangowan at risk.
- Warmth along rough roads Find welcome with generous farmer Dandie Dinmont and steadfast devotion in Dominie Sampson.
- Scotland beyond the mystery Explore hill farms, coastal smugglers and questions of law, land and belonging.
Who will love it
You will love this if you enjoy Scottish landscapes, tales of smugglers and lost heirs, warm comic characters, and mysteries that unfold over many years.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A lost traveler finds shelter at Ellangowan
- A kindly laird is heading for ruin
- A baby's horoscope warns of danger
- A new magistrate drives out his old friends
- A smuggler, an exciseman and a missing child
- Seventeen years pass and the estate is sold
- A new household forms at Woodbourne
- A walking soldier, a gypsy and a night of danger
- Gunfire, a shot, and a lawyer's cunning
- Fate, chance and the voice of the teller
Who’s who
- Guy ManneringA proud, thoughtful English officer who casts a horoscope in his youth and later returns to Scotland, drawn by an old mystery and a wish to help.
- Julia ManneringThe Colonel's lively, romantic daughter, who writes long letters about her secret attachment and struggles to obey her father.
- Lucy BertramThe sensible daughter of the ruined laird, who loves quietly and faces the loss of her home with courage.
- Dominie SampsonA gaunt, learned, nearly silent schoolmaster who never abandons the Bertram family and loves books above all.
- Meg MerriliesA towering gypsy woman with a gift for prophecy, fierce loyalty to the Bertrams and a long memory for wrongs.
- Gilbert GlossinA clever lawyer who rises from the laird's servant and wants Ellangowan for himself at any cost.
- Dirk HatteraickA violent Dutch smuggling captain who wants his cargo and his freedom, and fears what the past might reveal.
- Dandie DinmontA big-hearted Border farmer who shares everything he has with a friend and fears neither man nor witch.
Formats and delivery
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- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print hardcover
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Guy Mannering, o L’astrologo
by Walter Scott · 1815
A stranger casts a newborn's horoscope on a wild Scottish night, and its dangers shadow a family for years.
ChallengingOver 20 hours to readItaliano
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In short
What if the exact minute of a baby's birth could tell you how its life will go? On a black November night, a young Englishman named Guy Mannering is lost on a Scottish moor.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A lost traveler finds shelter at Ellangowan
The novel opens on an early November evening. Guy Mannering, a young Englishman fresh from Oxford, has spent the day sketching abbey ruins. As twilight falls he crosses a vast black moss, asking every passerby the way to Kippletringan. Each answer is different, and none is right.
His horse stumbles on, distant lights disappoint him, and a signpost cannot be read. At a wretched hut a woman screams directions that make no sense. Only the word pay brings her son Jock out of bed to guide him.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 9 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1815
- Language
- Italiano
- Reading time
- 13 h 20 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Scott, Walter. Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/guy-mannering-or-the-astrologer.
Scott, W. (2026). Guy Mannering; or, the astrologer. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/guy-mannering-or-the-astrologer (Original work published 1815)
Scott, Walter. Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/guy-mannering-or-the-astrologer.
@book{scott2026guy,
author = {Scott, Walter},
title = {Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/guy-mannering-or-the-astrologer},
note = {First published 1815}
}
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What is Guy Mannering about?
It follows a young Englishman who casts the horoscope of a newborn heir in Scotland, and the years of trouble that follow: a vanished child, a ruined family, a crooked lawyer, gypsies and smugglers, and a long search for the truth.
Who is Meg Merrilies?
Meg is a tall, fierce gypsy woman who knows the Bertram family well. She sings charms at the baby's birth, curses the laird who drives her people out, and watches over the family's fate. She is the best-known character in the novel.
Is Guy Mannering a true story?
No, it is a novel published in 1815, but Scott drew on real people and places. Meg is based on Jean Gordon, Dominie Sampson on a devoted tutor, and readers linked Dirk Hatteraick to a Dutch smuggler.
The author
Walter Scott
1771–1832 · Scottish novelist and poet
Walter Scott (1771–1832) was a Scottish novelist, poet and playwright. He was born in Edinburgh and lived in Scotland, including at Abbotsford near Melrose, where he died. He wrote Marmion (1808), The Lady of the Lake (1810), Waverley (1814), Rob Roy (1817) and Ivanhoe (1819).
More by Walter Scott
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