Reading Order
Ivanhoe Reading Order
Ivanhoe (1819) by Walter Scott is his most popular and most widely read novel — a medieval romance set in the England of Richard I (the Lionheart) and King John, in which Wilfred of Ivanhoe, a disinherited Saxon knight just returned from the Crusades, must rescue his father Cedric, the Lady Rowena, and the beautiful Jewish woman Rebecca (who loves him and whom he may love more than Rowena) from the Norman villains Brian de Bois-Guilbert and Prince John, while Richard I moves in disguise through his own kingdom. Ivanhoe is not Scott at his most historically sophisticated — the medievalism is romantic rather than archaeological, and the characters lack the psychological complexity of Jeanie Deans or Meg Merrilies — but it is Scott at his most entertaining, with the tournament at Ashby, the siege of Torquilstone, and the trial by combat among the most purely exciting sequences in nineteenth-century fiction. The character of Rebecca is one of the great figures of the novel — she is more vivid, more intelligent, and more heroically tragic than Rowena, and her fate (she cannot be with Ivanhoe because she is Jewish) was controversial enough that Thackeray wrote Rebecca and Rowena (1850) as a sequel that gave her a better ending. The novel's portrait of medieval England is enormously influential: it shaped the Victorian understanding of the Middle Ages, the Arthurian revival, and the entire tradition of the medieval romance in Victorian and Edwardian literature.
Where to start
Ivanhoe (1819) — the Oxford World's Classics edition edited by Ian Duncan (1996; 2010) is the best scholarly edition with the fullest notes on the historical and literary sources. The Penguin Classics edition edited by A.N. Wilson (1986; 2000) is the most readable. Read without worrying too much about historical accuracy — the medievalism is romantic, and the pleasure of the novel is in its narrative energy and in Rebecca.
Complete Ivanhoe Book List
- 1Buy
Ivanhoe (Oxford World's Classics)
Walter Scott (ed. Ian Duncan)·2010·The authoritative modern edition — Duncan's introduction traces the novel's relationship to medieval romance, to the Crusades, and to early nineteenth-century debates about Jewish emancipation; essential for understanding what Scott is doing with Rebecca. - 2Buy
Ivanhoe (Penguin Classics)
Walter Scott (ed. A.N. Wilson)·2000·The most readable edition for general readers — Wilson's introduction is engaging and opinionated; best for first readers who want to enjoy the tournament and the siege without excessive scholarly apparatus. - 3Buy
The Heart of Midlothian
Walter Scott·1818·The companion Scott novel that shows what he could do at his most psychologically complex — reading The Heart of Midlothian alongside Ivanhoe shows Scott's full range from medieval romance to Scottish social realism. - 4Buy
Rebecca and Rowena
William Makepeace Thackeray·1850·Thackeray's satirical sequel — dissatisfied that Rebecca ended up alone while the less interesting Rowena got Ivanhoe, Thackeray wrote this comic sequel that gives Rebecca a better ending; essential reading for any fan of the original. - 5Buy
The Name of the Rose
Umberto Eco·1980·The twentieth-century heir to Ivanhoe's medievalism — Eco's monastic mystery is the most sophisticated modern engagement with the medieval world that Ivanhoe romanticized; reading both shows how the literary imagination of the Middle Ages has changed across 150 years.
Ivanhoe — Frequently Asked Questions
What is Ivanhoe by Walter Scott about?
Ivanhoe (1819) by Walter Scott is set in the England of Richard I and King John. Wilfred of Ivanhoe, a disinherited Saxon knight returning from the Crusades, is in love with his ward Rowena — but his father Cedric, who dreams of Saxon restoration, has other plans. Ivanhoe's adventures involve the tournament at Ashby (where he fights incognito), the capture of Cedric, Rowena, and the Jewish moneylender Isaac and his daughter Rebecca by Norman outlaws, the siege of their castle, and the trial by combat in which Brian de Bois-Guilbert (who has fallen in love with Rebecca) must fight to condemn her for witchcraft.
Why is Rebecca more interesting than Rowena in Ivanhoe?
Rebecca is more interesting than Rowena in Ivanhoe (1819) because Scott gave her everything he gave Rowena and more. Where Rowena is passive, conventional, and defined by her relationship to Ivanhoe, Rebecca is intelligent, courageous, medically skilled, spiritually serious, and fully conscious of her own position — including the impossibility of her love for Ivanhoe. Her refusal to convert when she leaves England at the novel's end is one of the great acts of quiet heroism in nineteenth-century fiction. Thackeray's Rebecca and Rowena (1850) is the most famous expression of readers' dissatisfaction with Rebecca's fate, but the verdict that Rebecca is the novel's real heroine has been universal since first publication.
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