IVANHOE - Group read thread

Converses2013 Category Challenge

Afegeix-te a LibraryThing per participar.

IVANHOE - Group read thread

Aquest tema està marcat com "inactiu": L'últim missatge és de fa més de 90 dies. Podeu revifar-lo enviant una resposta.

1cyderry
set. 1, 2013, 5:36 pm

Here is where we can discuss our reading of IVANHOE

2electrice
set. 2, 2013, 2:11 am

Thanks Chèli !

I'm starting reading Ivanhoe tonight or tomorrow, must finished the one that I am currently reading ...

3cyderry
set. 2, 2013, 9:35 am

I probably won't be starting for a few days - I have an ARC of Strike from the Deep a thriller about Somalian pirates that I just started that has grabbed my attention.

4sjmccreary
set. 2, 2013, 9:55 am

#3 how'd you get that? do you know the author? ;-) Seriously, though, I hope I'll be able to find it once it comes out in print, so I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions to it.

As for Ivanhoe, I've got it here ready to go, but I find that I still have a stack of August books I haven't read yet, so it may be much later in the month before I start.

5cyderry
set. 2, 2013, 12:24 pm

4> I do know the author and he personally sent it to me back in July. I didn't want to rush through it so I held off until I could really dedicate reading time to this new book.

6geneg
set. 2, 2013, 1:25 pm

I'm about 2/3 of the way through Rob Roy and won't be ready for Ivanhoe for another week or so. I want to read something by Edith Wharton before jumping back into Scott.

7thornton37814
set. 3, 2013, 7:05 pm

I've started Ivanhoe, but I'll have to admit that it's not exactly the most compelling read. I did enjoy a couple of mentions of genealogy/family history in the opening chapters (prior to chapter 1).

8LittleTaiko
set. 3, 2013, 10:32 pm

About ready to start Ivanhoe - trying to finish at least one other book first.

9aliciamay
set. 5, 2013, 1:09 pm

I am well on my way with reading this. I am finding it a little difficult to read without any historical context and minimal knowledge of the era. The rivalry between the Normans and the Saxons, the anti-semitism, and the crusades being to sole motivation for so many actions just makes the story a little hard for me to comprehend. Luckily the tale of Robin Hood is loosely tied in so I can think back on the Disney movie for some frame of reference : )

10Helenliz
set. 11, 2013, 1:29 pm

I'm quite enjoying this. I had it in my head that the tournament was the climax to the book - no idea where I got that from, but it's in the first quarter. So I'm rather unsure where we're going to go from here! The palmer and the disinherited knight's disguises seem to me to be one of those literary disguises that would never work in real life (think Clark Kent's glasses) although I may well be completely wrong there.

So far Prince John puts me in mind of a petulant 6 year old.

11MarthaJeanne
set. 11, 2013, 6:42 pm

I started tonight. So far (not very) so good.

12cyderry
set. 16, 2013, 8:13 pm

I finished, not great bu then I have a problem with old books. :-(

13MarthaJeanne
Editat: set. 17, 2013, 5:03 am

I have read 11 chapters, and am enjoying it much more than I expected.

14thornton37814
set. 20, 2013, 8:57 am

I've got to get back to it. It is really not working very well for me, but I was plugging along until I got distracted by the lectures I did last weekend and by Louise Penny's new book. Now I can get back to it.

15Helenliz
set. 20, 2013, 9:03 am

I've finished parts 1 & 2.
the baddies are beginning to get their comeuppance (I hardly think that's a spoiler!)
I've got a idea who the Black Knight is too.

16cyderry
Editat: set. 20, 2013, 1:56 pm

Helen - you are probably right.

17LittleTaiko
set. 20, 2013, 10:11 pm

Now you're making me want to get back to reading it. Why does work have to get in the way of the good stuff?

18MarthaJeanne
Editat: set. 21, 2013, 6:07 am

My copy doesn't have 'parts'. How are the chapers divided into parts?

I've read 19 chapters now. No clue about the black knight. But I'm quite sure you are further than I am.

Oh! unless he is ... Hmm

19jasmine552
set. 21, 2013, 6:19 am

sorri,hw do i get copies of books to read

20MarthaJeanne
Editat: set. 21, 2013, 6:56 am

My copy is from Gutenberg. you can also borrow a copy from your local library or buy one.
Look on the book page for the get this book link - upper right hand corner.

21Helenliz
set. 21, 2013, 6:57 am

I think it was originally published in 3 volumes, as my copy (penguin classic) has the volumes identified and the chapters numbered individually. Volume 1, 14 chapters; Volume 2, 16 chapters; Volume 3, 14 chapters.

22thornton37814
set. 22, 2013, 1:06 pm

I got my free on Kindle. It's probably the Gutenberg version as many of those freebies are.

23Helenliz
set. 23, 2013, 4:14 am

I've finished this. I can see that there's a lot that you could choose to pick holes in, and some of the attitudes are uncomfortable to a modern mind (but that doesn't mean they didn't exist or should be airbrushed out). Some of the characters are fascinatingly drawn.
The end? A bit predictable, and a bit of an anticlimax, if I'm honest.

24cyderry
set. 23, 2013, 11:08 am

Yes, Helen, I agree. Writing has changed over the years and what we accept nowadays as normal, would have been shocking a century ago. I feel hat Scot did portray the women as they would probably have been back then.

25PawsforThought
set. 23, 2013, 1:01 pm

I've only just started and haven't really had time to get more thana few pages in. I'll most likely carry on reading in in October. Looking forward to reading what you all think of it (so far I like it, but I might be biased since I LOVE the movie).

26thornton37814
set. 25, 2013, 10:07 pm

I'm not certain that I'll finish it this month, but I'm trying. I do have the weekend.

27MarthaJeanne
Editat: set. 26, 2013, 5:30 am

15>I have now also finished the first two parts. My guess of who you meant seems to fit so far.

Still really enjoying it. I also will not finish this month. E-books take a back seat to the paper ones.

28Helenliz
set. 26, 2013, 6:06 am

27> I suspect the disguises here are the "wear spectacles and hide in plain sight" literary type. Where the reader can see through them, but the participants seem to be blind to the flimsiest of disguises. A case of the other participants see what they're expecting to see, not what's in front of them, perhaps.
As an external observer, the real state of affairs is maybe easier to see.

29aliciamay
set. 26, 2013, 4:39 pm

28> That makes more sense. I felt pretty sure I knew who the Black Knight was, but since no one in the story did I was second guessing myself.

30MarthaJeanne
set. 27, 2013, 4:38 am

If he is who I think he is, one character keeps thinking that only that person could do what the black knight is doing.

31Helenliz
set. 27, 2013, 6:48 am

I love the way this conversation is trying to skirt round mentioning names. >:-)

32thornton37814
set. 28, 2013, 8:22 am

I finally finished last night. I'm glad it's over. I, too, had guessed the identity.

33MarthaJeanne
Editat: set. 29, 2013, 6:33 am

I was right. (Not finished yet, though.)

We can't have spoilers in here, can we?

34cyderry
set. 30, 2013, 12:57 pm

as long as you mark you are putting in a spoiler, they're fine.

35giftbasketsz
oct. 1, 2013, 4:20 am

S'ha suprimit aquest usuari en ser considerat brossa.

36HarryMacDonald
oct. 1, 2013, 8:48 am

The revelation of various identities doesn't seem like such a big deal to me, one way or the other. It was certainly a convention of the fiction of that time, and I doubt that Sir Walter really thought he was fooling many people. Meanwhile, I find it interesting that nobody has commented on the intensity of Bois-Guilbert's obsession. It is, in fact, one of my favourite aspects of the book, along with the virtuoso/operatic construction of the siege-scenes, and what we might call the bullshit-contest btw the knight and the Clerk of Copmanhurst.

37MarthaJeanne
Editat: oct. 4, 2013, 1:07 pm

I've finished now, and have now downloaded Kenilworth to read. (We have enjoyed visiting Kenilworth castle both this summer and last.)

What do you find worth mentioning about his obsession? That a man decides that he wants to own a woman and does not see that she is a person of her own? That he acts in such a way as to make himself horrible to her, and expects her to swoon at his feet in awe ( and even affection)? We see the same thing in the news again and again. Perhaps most noteworthy is that Scott understands her side of it. Rebecca is in many ways the best character in the book. Whereas most of them are fairly 2-dimensional, she seems very real.

38Helenliz
oct. 4, 2013, 1:54 pm

The thing I found interesting about it was the way he seems to acknowledge that this obsession is not rational, yet he seem unable to let the logical argument persuade himself that for his own good he should walk away. I thought that the end was, in a sense, a bit of a cop-out. It was a bit too neat to have him expire rather than have to face the shame that winning the joust and exposing his obsession or losing/throwing the joust would equally have had on his subsequent career.

Rebecca was a most principled character, and had real depth. Rowena was, frankly, a bit wet. The woman I wanted to know more about was Ulrica - now that sounded like an interesting story.

39HarryMacDonald
oct. 4, 2013, 4:26 pm

In rebus 37 & 38. Thank you, Helenliz: couldn't have said it better myself. For those of you who find interest in this sort of thing -- presumably not MarthaJeanne -- another powerful evocation of this mentality and behaviour is the characterization of Bradley Headstone in Dickens' Our mutual friend. Of-course, Barone Scarpia in Tosca breathes much the same air. I think it is gratuitously dismissive to say that Bois-Guilbert is the kind of person one sees in the news every day.
Going back to operatic comparisons for a moment, some might find it interesting that one of the first, if not the absolute first, operatic treatment of Scott's tale was Otto Nicolai's DER TEMPELRITTER, and one doesn't need a lot of subtlety (or German) to grasp that the librettist saw B-G as the central figure.
As to what (or whom) one sees in the news, of-course, I suppose that much of that depends on where you get your news. Since I rarely watch TV or read any papers other than the morning VRAYHAYT and WOMEN'S WEAR DAILY, I am probably missing plenty.
Good discussion topic! Thanks to MarthaJeanne and Helenliz. -- GCG

40thornton37814
oct. 4, 2013, 9:55 pm

It does seem that we all preferred Rebecca to Rowena.