Britain - Historical Biography - Rulers & Royal Families, Literary Criticism - General & Miscellaneous, 1066-1485 (Medieval Period) - British History, English Fiction & Prose Literature - 19th Century - Literary Criticism, Britain - Historical Biography -
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Overview
Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, published in 1819 as one of the earliest historical novels in the English language, remains a classic tale of romance and high adventure, of knights, kings, brigands, and ladies acting under the impulse of love and the sway of war in medieval times. But Ivanhoe's staying power relies less on its capacity to entertain (though it does) and to convey historical fact (sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't) than on its masterful portrayal of an inescapable force in the modern world: change. Scott's spirited retelling of the struggle for power between the Saxons and the Normans in twelfth-century England can be read as the unceasing struggle between old and young, past and present, as one generation is compelled to yield to the next. Scott uses his gift for characterization to center his narrative on the relation of the individual - the young Ivanhoe - to the shifting dynamic of history. Paul deGategno argues that this focus renders slavish attention to historical detail - the lack of which has been one of Ivanhoe's few but persistent sources of criticism - less significant as Scott pursues a greater, more universal truth. Scott himself (1771-1832) lived during the Scottish Enlightenment - a period in which his native Scotland was deeply stirred by change, in which advances in agriculture, industry, and commerce made possible economic and social growth for the lower and middle classes. Scott was skeptical of the emerging cult of progress - of the idea that it was an unequivocal good - and anxious about his country's future, particularly about what he perceived to be the dangers posed by a disruptive democratic spirit to a monarchist society. In Ivanhoe, deGategno writes, Scott acknowledges the need for change and the ultimate failure of the old regime - embodied by the chivalric Saxons - but "charts a difficult passage" from this "romantic, heroic era" to the next, one characterized by "tenuous optimism and inconclusive progress" - embodiedEditorials
Booknews
Argues that the perennial popularity of Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel is due to its focus on the relation of an individual to the forces of change, a topic that is as current in any age as it was during Scott's life or the 12th-century setting of the narrative. The considerable historical inaccuracy, therefore, is beside the point. Paper edition (unseen), $12.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Book Details
Published
November 2, 1994
Publisher
New York : Twayne ; c1994.
Pages
136
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780805794380