Heart of Midlothian, The, a novel by Sir Walter Scott, published anonymously in 1818. It is one of the twelve social novels, as opposed to the greater number of Scott's novels, which are historical. The Heart of Midlothian is one of the second series of Tales of My Landlord. The novel takes its name from the Tolbooth, the old jail of Edinburgh, which was at one time called the "Heart of Midlothian." The introduction explains how the school-master, Mr. Peter Pattieson, writes the story after a conversation with certain guests at the Wallace Inn about the old Tolbooth. After Mr. Pattieson's death, the story, with others, is published by Jedediah Cleishbotham. The book has fewer characters, a smaller variety of incidents, and less description of scenery than any other of Scott's novels. It is nevertheless ranked by some readers as the best story on the list. The scene is laid in the time of the Porteous Riot in Edinburgh during the reign of George II. The most striking figure of the tale is Jeanie Deans, a peasant girl. Her good sense, her simple nobleness of mind, her heroic devotion to her erring sister, have made her one of the best known and most universally admired heroines of fiction. She is one of Scott's greatest creations. This tale will not be told in vain, if it shall be found to illustrate the great truth that guilt, though it may attain temporal splendor, can never confer real happiness; that the evil consequences of our crimes long survive their commission, and, like the ghosts of the murdered, forever haunt the steps of the malefactor; and that the paths of virtue, though seldom those of worldly greatness, are always those of pleasantness and peace.--From Heart of Midlothian.