Ivanhoe A Romance

Twelfth-century England is in turmoil. The Third Crusade failed; King Richard is imprisoned in Austria; Prince John—the king's evil brother—controls the throne; and country's ruling class, the French-descended Normans, are taking advantage of Saxon landowners and nobles. Before the knight Wilfred of Ivanhoe left for the crusades, Cedric, his Saxon father, shunned him for supporting King Richard. Now that Ivanhoe has returned, he attempts to save his love, Lady Rowena, and right the many wrongs—with the aid of a mysterious Black Knight as well as Robin Hood and his merry men. Filled with jousting, sword fighting, and damsels in distress, this historical romance by Scottish author Sir Walter Scott also examines topics such as prejudice and reconciliation. This is an unabridged edition of the classic novel, which was first published in England in 1820.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1875.

Ivanhoe is a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, first published in late 1819 in three volumes and subtitled A Romance. At the time it was written it represented a shift by Scott away from fairly realistic novels set in Scotland in the comparatively recent past, to a somewhat fanciful depiction of medieval England.It has proved to be one of the best known and most influential of Scott's novels.Ivanhoe is set in 12th-century England with colourful descriptions of a tournament, outlaws, a witch trial and divisions between Jews and Christians.It has been credited for increasing interest in romance and medievalism; John Henry Newman claimed Scott "had first turned men's minds in the direction of the Middle Ages", while Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin made similar assertions of Scott's overwhelming influence over the revival, based primarily on the publication of this novel.It has also had an important influence on popular perceptions of Richard the Lionheart, King John and Robin Hood.