The historical novel is obviously a subdivision of the novel of life
and manners. But, dealing as it does with remote ages, with forgotten
opinions and long-disused customs, it has to reconstruct where the
novel of contemporary life has only to illustrate. Strict historical
accuracy can hardly be expected in fiction concerned with the past. The
details of life, always difficult to seize, are almost beyond the reach
of the novelist who deals with a subject with which he has had no
personal experience. A certain amount of accuracy concerning dress,
customs, peculiarities of opinion and language are necessary to give to
a historical novel the effect of verisimilitude. But what is chiefly
requisite in such a work is that the general spirit of the period
treated should be successfully caught; that the reader should find
himself occupied with a train of associations and sympathies which
insensibly withdraws his thoughts from their ordinary channels, and
occupies them with the beliefs, opinions, and aspirations of a totally
different state of society.

Such is the special merit of Scott's historical novels. Many
inaccuracies of fact might be pointed out in them. His study of the
character of James I, in "The Fortunes of Nigel," is in several
respects entirely mistaken. His description of a euphuist in "The
Monastery" bears no resemblance whatever to the followers of John Lyly.
In "The Talisman" and in "Ivanhoe," of which the scenes are laid in the
time of Richard Coeur de Lion, the reader recognises little realism
of language. But as Scott's historical novels deal with periods
extending from that of the crusades down to the Pretender's attempt in
1745, an intimate knowledge of the innumerable social changes and
peculiarities is not to be expected.