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Ivanhoe

Name: Ivanhoe
Author: Joanne Mattern
ISBN: 9780613052542

by Joanne Mattern

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Overview

Set in the twelfth century, during the reign of Richard the Lionheart, Ivanhoe tells of the love of Wilfred of Ivanhoe for the Lady Rowena, his father Cedric's ward. Cedric, who is dedicated to the liberation of the Saxon people from Norman oppression and to the revival of the Saxon royal line, intends Rowena - a descendant of King Alfred - for the oafish Athelstane, and he banishes his son. Ivanhoe joins King Richard on his crusade in the Holy Land, and eventually the two men return secretly to England - Ivanhoe to regain his inheritance and the land of Rowena, Richard to secure his kingdom from his scheming brother John who has ruled in Richard's absence. With a gallery of memorable characters, high and low, Ivanhoe is a powerful and exciting evocation of a medieval world of jousting, baronial rivalry, siege warfare and trial by combat, and makes no attempt to gloss over the violence and brutality that lay behind the chivalric ideals.

In 1166 the Saxon knight Ivanhoe returns from the Crusades to a chaotic England ruled by the enemies of the absent King Richard the Lion-Hearted and finds himself disowned and dishonored, forced to fight for his name and the people he loves.

About the Author, Joanne Mattern

Walter Scott was born in Edinburgh in 1771, and attended university there, following his father's footsteps and becoming a barrister. After publishing numerous works of poetry, he wrote his first novel in 1814. With Ivanhoe (1820), Scott moved from the Scottish settings he was known for, to writing about a variety of locales and time periods. He died, nearly penniless, at Abbotsford, Scotland, in 1832.