ABSTRACT
In his Introduction to the Tales of the Crusaders the Author depicts himself as chair of ‘a joint-stock company, united for the purpose of writing and publishing the class of works called the Waverley Novels’ (18a: 3.5–7). He presents an ingenious plan by Mr Dousterswivel for producing the more conventional parts of the novels by machine:
Gentlemen, it is to be premised, that this mechanical operation can only apply to those parts of the narration which are at present composed out of common-places, such as the love-speeches of the hero, the description of the heroine’s person, the moral observations of all sorts, and the distribution of happiness at the conclusion of the piece. Mr Dousterswivel has sent me some drawings, which go far to show, that, by placing the words and phrases technically employed on these subjects, in a sort of frame-work, like that of the Sage of Laputa, and changing them by such a mechanical process as that by which weavers of damask alter their patterns, many new and happy combinations cannot fail to occur, while the author, tired of pumping his own brains, may have an agreeable relaxation in the use of his fingers. (5.32–43)
