"Ivanhoe" - Sir Walter Scott

Title: Ivanhoe
Author: Sir Walter Scott
About the Book: Historical, adventuring, classic, Robin Hood, knights!
My rating: 9/10.

To clear matters up: this book is doubly historical. One: it's written in 1819, which is long enough ago to be part of history rather than part of the now. Two: it takes place in the 12th century.

A lot of people back in the day seemed to really love Scott and considered him some sort of god of writing, at least from what I gather. He's been credited with making people think of the Medieval Age in that warm, fuzzy feeling sort of way which we have now. He pretty much invented historical novels as we know them. That's something, y'know? I'm not one to say "critics consider this cool, therefore I must praise it", but I factor their opinion in.

So Ivanhoe. It's got knights running all over the scenery, doing what knights do best. Namely, fighting. And there's politics involved, doing what politics does best: complicate matters in cool ways. And there's a few ladies who do more than just sit pretty, which is always a plus in my book when it comes to Medieval Age damsels.

There's a lot of interesting characters there. The protagonist, Ivanhoe, is a nice, righteous sort of man, the exact type which you think of when you think of a knight. It's the classic sort of protagonist, but it works, since you can actually feel him, his struggles and his quest. His love interest, Lady Rowena, is a noble lady of Saxon origin (12th century, remember? It was right after the Norman conquest, when people weren't the English we know today) who is to be married for political interests to a guy who's about as thrilled about the entire thing as she is. In my book, that adds to the realism of the book: there's no clear sides here, rather many people acting according to their own varied beliefs. Rowena doesn't love the guy, the guy doesn't want to become a Saxon figurehead and Rowena's adoptive sort-of dad (Cedric, Ivanhoe's real dad) is what would be a nationalist, if nationalism existed back then.

Robin Hood also makes an appearance. While I wasn't particularly thrilled by him - I feel his character isn't quite as well-developed as it could've been - I loved Friar Tuck. His double role as clergyman and Robin's helper translates as almost a show of double personality. (wiki now tells me that later Robin Hoods borrowed much from Ivanhoe. I suppose the more complex adaptations that didn't exist at the time cast him in shadow now)

On the high politics level, King Richard and Prince John are nicely antithetical to each other: Richard is indeed courageous and worthy of his "Lion-Hearted" nickname, but also careless about his kingly duties; while Prince John is weak and power-hungry. Indeed, what they have in common seems to be a single trait: they can't rule England worth a damn.

Minor characters are also delightful, whether we're talking about the fool Wamba, whose foolishness remains to be debated, or the Jewish Issac who fits every stereotype of Jews ever, only to have that image of his ethnic group thoroughly deconstructed by his daughter, Rebecca, who is as great a lady as Rowena in her own right - and a very strong character.

The plot is nicely twisting and turning, the question being mostly not about the destination, which might be guessed from the premises, but about the road taken in getting there. The characters live and breathe and interact with each other wonderfully.

9/10 because the style isn't what today's readers are accustomed with, so it might not be easy to understand what Scott's saying at times.

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