Review: Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

Title: Ivanhoe

Author: Sir Walter Scott

Publication Year:1819 

IVANHOE (1819) was the first of Scott's novels to adopt a purely English subject and was also his first attempt to combine history and romance, which later influenced Victorian medievalism. Set at the time of the Norman Conquest, Ivanhoe returns from the Crusades to claim his inheritance and the love of Rowena and becomes involved in the struggle between Richard Coeur de Lion and his Norman brother John. The gripping narrative is structured by a series of conflicts: Saxon versus Norman, Christian versus Jew, men versus women, played out against Scott's unflinching moral realism. --Summary from Goodreads

Ivanhoe, like many classics I’ve read, is a combination of things I liked, things I didn’t like, and things I wish the author could have done differently. Instead of trying to work my thoughts out coherently into some kind of review, I decided just to make lists.

Good Things About Ivanhoe

• It set in medieval times with knights and castles and ideas of chivalry. There are well known characters such as Prince John, Richard the Lionheart, Robin Hood and his merry men.
• It is obvious that Scott did his research. The world is full of rich details and is definitely worth a read if you ever plan on writing about this era.
• The story provides a good account of the class differences between the Normans and the Saxons as well as the persecution of Jewish people in England at the time. Also uses the history of the English language to illustrate the class differences between Saxon and Normans. The Normans brought over the idea of chivalry and knightly games, and yet Wilfred Ivanhoe, a Saxon, embodies the knightly ideal better than every Norman in the novel. It’s just great!
• The female characters, Rowena and Rebbeca, are awesome. Rowen is a Saxon lady who is somehow related to Alfred the Great, which made her Saxon royalty. She is the ward of Sir Cedric who has treated her like a princess her entire life and, as a result, she is used to being in a position of power. The only time Cedric opposed her was when she fell in love with his son, but that didn’t matter much because she had already made up her mind and there was no way he was going to change it. Rowena is a lady who knows what she wants and won’t back down. Rebecca is a Jewish lady whose family is being persecuted for their faith. She is intelligent and calm and wise. She is always willing to help someone in need and will take action to see that the right thing is accomplished. Both ladies take action when the head of their household is being unjust and see that everything is dealt with honorably.
• Urfried is old and mean and bitter, has a dark past, and a taste for revenge. She’s barely in it, but she is one of the most interesting characters in the book.
• Beautiful relationship between a fool and his master. Seriously, it brought a tear to my eye.

Issues I Had With Ivanhoe

• I could literally name off 10+ characters that had more page time than Ivanhoe. He’s one of the only characters that the reader never gets a look inside his mind. He’s the perfect embodiment of chivalry, nothing more.
• It lacks focus because there are ton of characters that the story follows. I think its purpose was to focus on the time, not any specific character(s)… which I find annoying.
• While it was painting a sympathetic picture of the Jewish characters and addressed the persecution they faced, Isaac still managed to be built out of stereotypes. That being said, I think it made his character similar to Cedric in many ways. Both of them followed the letter, not the spirit, of the law of their culture while their children embody everything that they are supposed to be.
• It’s so LONG! And there’s so much dry description! And you keep waiting for Ivanhoe to do something, but he only has two moments of glory which are jousting scenes. (If you haven’t noticed, the lack of the “main character” really bothers me)

It’s an interesting books and I’m glad I read it, but if you’re just looking for a random classic to read this probably shouldn’t be the one you pick up. If you are interested in the time period or topics, are studying 19th century literature, or just have a ton of patience: go for it!

                   -Christina

The Dead Secret by Wilkie Collins

Title: The Dead Secret
Author: Wilkie Collins
Publication Date: 1856
Rating: 3

The Dead Secret, as with Collins's later works, centres around a socially and morally questionable event, from which all incidents derive, and towards which all characters inevitably move. The secret, identified with the Cornish mansion Porthgenna, has all but ruined the life of the young servant girl Sarah Leeson; 15 years later it comes back to confuse and haunt Rosamond, the heir of Porthgenna. Collins's talent for eccentric characters is given full scope in the misanthropic hermit, Andrew Treverton, his bullying servant Schrowl, and the actress whose powerful will lies behind the secret. The Dead Secret is a relentless quest to uncover a forgotten crime; the heir's detective work must finally lead to a disastrous revelation.-Summary from Goodreads

This is the fourth Wilkie Collins book that I have read and I still think he has the easiest writing style of any Victorian author out there. It is a classic and thus will take you longer to read than your average YA book, but it’s not like some classics where you just HOPE that you understand half of it. Collins’ style is simple and enjoyable.

That being said, I would not recommend The Dead Secret to someone who is new to Collins because it is not his best work. I guess my main issue with it was lack of focus. I couldn’t tell who the main character was in this story. The story follows the plot to whichever character sees its advance. The main character seemed to be Sara Leeson at the beginning, but then it changed POV and I thought it would be Rosamund, but she took a long time to fill in to her role as a main character before it switched again. And there were some chapters which were told from the POV of Dr. Chenney, Uncle Joseph, Arthur Treverton, Treverton’s servant, etc. The way it was set up didn’t make it easy to connect with the characters. In Collins’ defense he was writing this story and publishing it weekly in a magazine. I can’t imagine how difficult that must have been to publish while writing.

The characters themselves were not always likeable, but they were realistic. Uncle Joseph, the old German, was the most likeable of the bunch. He is so friendly with everyone that even the servants were offended by his familiarity. Sarah is a hard character to like, she’s so nervous and frazzled that reading from her POV made me feel like I was starting to lose my mind, but once she got a chance to tell her side of the story to a sympathetic listener, I was finally able to (almost) like her. Rosamund is hard for me, I like how she doesn’t care about social standing and treats everyone the same, but I didn’t always like her temper. She’s overall a good character, but never consistently likable.

This is the one of the few Gothic novels that I’ve read and it was fun picking out the clichés. There was a rundown mansion which held a dreadful secret, a woman who was driven mad by the secret, tales of a ghost, and all set on the moors of Cornwall. I enjoyed the Gothic feel and sometimes it even felt creepy to me, but mostly it felt like overkill. I had an idea about the secret from the beginning and, while I got the details wrong, I had the right idea and everyone’s reactions seemed a bit over dramatic. I know it was a different time, but come on! There is one scene where Sarah tells Rosemund (very mysteriously) not to go into the Myrtle Room and Rosamund screams. Everyone seems to overreact! But I guess that might be part of the fun of the story. I now understand why Jane Austen wrote Northanger Abbey.

In the end, The Dead Secret is a good representation of a Gothic novel and has a great resolution to the story. If you’ve read a ton of Wilkie Collins books then this one might be the next on your list, otherwise I would recommend The Moonstone, The Woman in White, or Armadale (in that order) before this book.

       -Christina