Lawrie Todd

In Lawrie Todd (1830; rev. ed. 1832), John Galt paints an optimistic portrait of Scottish emigration to North America. Designed as a fictional autobiography, the novel charts the fortunes of its protagonist from his departure from Scotland—to avoid being tried for treason over his French Revolutionary sympathies—to his rise to prosperity as a shopkeeper in New York City and imaginary towns near Rochester. This edition of the novel provides a contextual introduction, explanatory notes, and maps that connect Todd’s life story with boom times in New York and with Galt’s own efforts at social entrepreneurship in Canada as well as with debates over emigration and political reforms in Britain. It sheds light on Galt’s methods of characterisation, including his use of Scots and 'Yankee' speech habits and adaptation of real-life models, and on his popularity with readers in his own time.