Book excerpt: Offers Galt's most successful novel, a microcosm of fifty years of Scottish historyProvides a comprehensive Introduction by the volume editor which tells the story of this novel's production and reception; describes the literary and intellectual traditions on which it drew; and explains its relation to the social and political turmoil of the years in which it was written and publishedIncludes extensive Explanatory Notes which identify Galt's biblical allusions, references to historical events, and social and cultural practices of the period in which the novel is setThe appendices identify Galt's real-life sources for some of his incidents, and explain the history and institutions of the Church of Scotland as relevant to the storyMaps assist the reader to understand the geography on which the novel is acted out: south-west Scotland and its relation to the British IslesJohn Galt's Annals of the Parish is the first novel of the Industrial Revolution. Narrated by the minister of a rural Scottish parish, it chronicles with humour and pathos the fifty years 1760-1810 from the perspective of ordinary people swept up in social and economic transformation.