This chapter studies the way in which MacDonald’s twelve Scottish novels relate to some of the dominant genres of Scottish literature in the nineteenth century, such as the national tale and the Kailyard school. It also analyses how MacDonald negotiates the tensions between nationalism and universalism in his works, since his ‘Scotch clannishness [was] a most elastic material & [he thought] of it as only a rudimental form of love to all men’ (letter to J. G. Holland, 27 May 1871). Finally, some attention is devoted to Adela Cathcart. While not usually included in MacDonald’s Scottish novels, Adela Cathcart can actually be read as a variation on the national tale and thus show how MacDonald’s works could exemplify Cairns Craig’s notion of a projective nationalism, whose aim was to make Scotland the spiritual core of the British Empire.