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John Stuart Blackie's Altavona: A Late Victorian Reaction To The Highland Clearances, Brooke Mclaughlin Mitchell

Studies in Scottish Literature

Reviews the career of John Stuart Blackie (1809-1895), poet, professor successively of humanity in Aberdeen and of Greek in Edinburgh, and a tireless advocate for the Scottish Highlands and Celtic culture; sketches his growing criticism of Highland landlords and the eviction of crofters from Scottish estates, in relation to more recent perspectives; and discusses his successive literary treatments of the Clearances in his "Highland Sonnets," his long poem "The Highlander's Lament," and, most fully, in his 'novel' or mixed-genre prose work Altavona: Fact and Fiction from My Life in the Highlands (1882), commenting also on Blackie's revisions to the book …