Does anyone know anything about Ivanhoe?

Question

i read the book but i don't understand it!!

Answer 1

Ah, c'mon. You didn't read the whole book and not understand it at all. It just isn't that difficult a book.

I discovered Sir Walter Scott's fiction when I was twelve or thirteen, but I learned to read it like good adolescent fiction. That is, I skipped all those essays Scott drops into the text every now and then, including the very beginning of chapter 1. I skimmed the long descriptive passages, like the descriptions of the clothing in chapter 1. Mostly I read the dialogue and the action scenes. That way I always got the story, and that's what a reader really wants from Scott, for they are rollicking good stories.

I always told my students they had my permission to read Ivanhoe the same way. If I wanted them to understand some of Scott's essays, I would read those in class. Just follow the characters in the story.

Ivanhoe deals with the have's and the have not's in early British society. The have not's, of course, are primarily the Saxons who had been defeated by the Norman French and now stand in second place in the kingdom (Wilfred of Ivanhoe, a disinherited knight and son of a Saxon family; Rowena, a noble Saxon Lady; Cedric the Saxon, Ivanhoe's father; and Athelstane, last of the Saxon royal line). Even among the Saxons there are the have's (these old nobility) and the have not's, their serfs (like Gurth the swineherd and Wamba the jester, who give us the commoner's view of their world from chapter 1 on).

Among the have's in the kingdom are the royal family and noblemen descended from the Norman French conquerors (Prince John – the plotting regent of England; his minions, Maurice De Bracy and Waldemar Fitzurse; and Reginald Front-de-Boeuf, a local baron who was given Ivanhoe's estate by Prince John), the Knights Templar, like the arrogant but strong Brian De Bois-Guilbert , and the well-off, even greedy, churchmen, like Prior Aymer.

Then there are three sets of characters who bridge the gap of have's and have not's in one way or another: (1) Isaac of York, a Jewish money-lender, and his daughter Rebecca, a healer, who are wealthy but the subject of prejudice and discrimination; (2) Locksley, i.e., Robin Hood, and his foresters like the Hermit, i.e., Friar Tuck, who rob from the have's to give to the have not's; and (3) the Black Knight, who turns out to be King Richard the Lionheart--he stands above them all, incognito.

From childhood on, I have never been able to think of King Richard the Lionheart as anyone but one of the great heroes of British history, though I know now that that owes more to Scott's fiction than Richard's actual accomplishments and influence. And, of course, our whole culture has developed its image of Robin Hood and his Merry Men primarily from Scott's depiction of them in this novel.

Now with these groups of characters in mind, you are ready for the adventure. Read away! Not only will you understand the story, but some of the characters (and I'm not gonna tell you which ones) will steal you heart away.

Answer 2

It's really, really good. It's also been filmed several times. I think the best version was the mini-series with Lynette Anthony as Rowena. It was the first book where I really encountered prejudice against the Jews.

Answer 3

It's been quite a while since I last read it, but I remember some things. However, if this is homework, you should be reading it yourself.

Answer 4

Yes. If you read it, you, too, will know something about it - it's an excellent book.