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Oct. 4th, 2010 01:24 pmI'll be honest, I decided to read Ivanhoe mostly because I have this gotta-catch-em-all sensibility about my literary namesakes. And what I have learned is that there are three things to know, if you want to read Ivanhoe. First of all, it is so, so forsoothly. It is THE FORSOOTHLIEST. Even at the bits where it is intentionally funny - and there are quite a few! - it is nonetheless completely flooded with thees and thous and by my halidoms. Sir Walter Scott is WRITING A MEDIEVAL EPIC, GODDAMMNIT, EVERYONE BETTER RECOGNIZE.
The second thing is that even though Sir Walter Scott is explicitly writing against anti-Semitic prejudice, he nonetheless plays into it in ways that are often very disturbing - and I say this as a person who is generally pretty capable of tuning out anti-Semitism in books written before 1900. Rebecca is totally awesome, but her father Isaac is a walking bad stereotype, and even the good guys (sometimes especially the good guys) are horrible to both of them all the time. There is also some casual racism that is even worse because Scott doesn't even realize he's doing it.
The third thing is that Ivanhoe himself is boring. He is SO BORING. Let me put it this way, the serfs musing about the fine points of Anglo-French language distinctions are infinitely more interesting than anything Ivanhoe does ever. Fortunately, he gets knocked unconscious hilariously early on and pretty much spends the rest of the book that way, allowing much more interesting people to take center stage.
If you can deal with all these things, there is a lot to enjoy in Ivanhoe! (Especially if, like me, you have a vested interest in Rebeccas being awesome.) And you should probably not read the below, because it will spoil everything. If you can't - and not everyone can, and I do not blame you - ( read on for hilariously incompetent villains and THE MOST BADASS REBECCA EVER. )
The second thing is that even though Sir Walter Scott is explicitly writing against anti-Semitic prejudice, he nonetheless plays into it in ways that are often very disturbing - and I say this as a person who is generally pretty capable of tuning out anti-Semitism in books written before 1900. Rebecca is totally awesome, but her father Isaac is a walking bad stereotype, and even the good guys (sometimes especially the good guys) are horrible to both of them all the time. There is also some casual racism that is even worse because Scott doesn't even realize he's doing it.
The third thing is that Ivanhoe himself is boring. He is SO BORING. Let me put it this way, the serfs musing about the fine points of Anglo-French language distinctions are infinitely more interesting than anything Ivanhoe does ever. Fortunately, he gets knocked unconscious hilariously early on and pretty much spends the rest of the book that way, allowing much more interesting people to take center stage.
If you can deal with all these things, there is a lot to enjoy in Ivanhoe! (Especially if, like me, you have a vested interest in Rebeccas being awesome.) And you should probably not read the below, because it will spoil everything. If you can't - and not everyone can, and I do not blame you - ( read on for hilariously incompetent villains and THE MOST BADASS REBECCA EVER. )
