Just finished Ivanhoe

ConversesGeeks who love the Classics

Afegeix-te a LibraryThing per participar.

Just finished Ivanhoe

1JohnMB
jul. 10, 2015, 10:12 pm

Really enjoyed it. Fun to see the origin of the robin hood myth and some good old fashioned knights and chivalry. The antisemitism of the time is quite scary though

2JohnMB
jul. 10, 2015, 10:13 pm

Previous message refers to Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

3PawsforThought
jul. 23, 2015, 8:52 pm

I really liked Ivanhoe too. A bit slower than I'd thought it'd be but enjoyable nonetheless, though I had some difficulty figuring out if it was meant to be entirely serious or at least partially satirical - some of the characters were so extreme I couldn't take them seriously.
I was actually struck by how the anti-semitic characters in the novel were so obviously the bad guys, whereas the good guys had a much more humane look on Jewish people.

4varielle
Editat: maig 17, 2021, 10:35 pm

If I was Rebecca I would have taken off with that Templer. Between the 8th and 9th grades I read Ivanhoe five times. I was an impressionable lass.

5Tess_W
juny 22, 2021, 3:32 pm

I have an omnibus of Scott's works (3 volumes). I have always been intimidated, for some reason. However, my goal for 2022 is to read at least 5 works by Scott, one of which will be Ivanhoe.

6-pilgrim-
Editat: jul. 1, 2021, 7:17 am

>4 varielle: I love Ivanhoe! I suspect Sir Brian de Bois Gilbert may be the first anti-hero in British literature; I love the way Scott users him to criticize the conventional anti-Semitism of the period that he is portraying - he is a torturer, an extortionist, maybe a rapist (he contemplates raping Rebecca), yet he is willing to give up his religion, his illicit wealth, and his status for her, because the fact that she is Jewish did not affect how he feels about her. Given her limited options in that period, and the fact that her father probably intended to marry her off to a rich co-religionist for financial advantage, I concur that he may well have been Rebecca's best option.

>5 Tess_W: I set myself to read Scott's novels during my final year at school. I think I managed about a third.

My recommendations world be:
Ivanhoe
The Talisman
The Heart of Midlothian
Rob Roy
Waverley

>1 JohnMB: But this is very far from the first appearance of Robin Hood in English literature. I believe that the earliest ballads still extant date from the 14th century.

7thorold
jul. 4, 2021, 1:36 am

>6 -pilgrim-: One of Thackeray’s Christmas Books was a spoof sequel to Ivanhoe called Rebecca and Rowena, where he gets Ivanhoe hooked up with the “right” girl after all. Great fun.

8Tess_W
jul. 10, 2021, 7:05 am

I just finished Waverley by Sir Walter Scott. I found the story good (Jacobite rising), the introduction and the romance just short of intolerable. It was an average read, for me. I'm willing to give Scott another chance---life it too short for average reads!

9-pilgrim-
jul. 14, 2021, 8:10 pm

>7 thorold: That does sound fun, I must have a look for it.

But the "right" pairing for me is Rebecca riding off into the sunset with Sir Brian de Bois Gilbert and defying convention together.

I do think Sir Wilfred is the more heroic for being willing to die for a woman he "cannot" have a relationship with. I never wished him to pair up with Rebecca.