During the recently contested NBA playoffs, one of the television networks advertised their coverage of this seemingly interminable series of games with the catchy phrase: "A Champion Will Rise". It was a brilliant marketing ploy, for both my wife, who is much more of a basketball fan than I, and I used this phrase often to provide prelude to the next game or series. It happened that I was reading Sir Walter Scott's wonderful novel, "Ivanhoe" during all of this. Imagine my surprise to discover that the marketing geniuses of 21st Century television were merely copying the lilting prose of Sir Walter Scott. For it was he who brought this phrase first to the attention of the literary world now nearly two hundred years ago in this highly and rightly esteemed novel.
The novel is set in 12th Century England, a nation still in the process of recovering from the Norman conquest and the dislocation of the Crusades to the Holy Land. The ethnic conflict between Norman and Saxon is a major aspect of the novel, which is not portrayed as clearly in the excellent Hollywood movie that was based on the novel and which starred Robert Taylor as Ivanhoe and a young and stunningly beautiful Elizabeth Taylor as Rebecca of York. The historical setting is important. But far more important is Scott's illustrious portrayal of the very human aspects of nobility and integrity that he imputes to his characters. The asinine atheist Samuel Clemens, who used the pen name, Mark Twain, charges Sir Walter Scott with advancing these ideas of nobility and integrity, wrapped up in the concept of chivalry, into some wicked brew that forever tarnished the Old South, caused the Civil War(I kid you not. You can look it up.), and overturned, in the popular mind, the wonderful "blessings" of the French Revolution. Well, Sammy, the French Revolution was really not all it was cracked up to be. And the slaughter of innocent men, women, and children that was the most fundamental characteristic of the revolutionary time you hold so dear would have been disdained by sober observers of later years and prevented, with extreme vigor, by the chivalrous characters who populated Scott's novel.
To these characters, we now must turn. The title character is Wilfred of Ivanhoe, a Knight of Saxon descent, who follows King Richard, the Lion-heart, to Palestine on his mad and glorious Crusade. By so doing, Wilfred alienates himself from his father, Cedric. King Richard, you see, was of Norman descent, and the aforementioned ethnic rivalry between Saxon and Norman caused Ivanhoe's Saxon father, Cedric to dispossess his son, Ivanhoe, for having had the temerity to engage in what Cedric held to be Richard's Norman foolishness. King Richard is also a major character in the novel. He is portrayed as more an adventurer than a sovereign. And this is perhaps an accurate depiction when we examine carefully the historical record. The jester, Wamba, another lowly Saxon, provides excellent comic relief and, when the situation calls for it, amazing courage and integrity. But perhaps the greatest character of the novel is Rebecca of York, the amazingly beautiful Jewish damsel who is as spiritually appealing as she was physically beautiful, if not more. In fact, the heading of this review is taken from a speech Scott imputes to Rebecca. She is to be tried for witchcraft by the sinister and woefully bigoted Grand Master of the Knights Templar, with the implicit idea that she is to be burned at the stake when the show trial finds her guilty. But Rebecca refuses all attempted bribes to renounce her faith, her character, her selfless actions, and her heritage. She holds rather, finally, that a champion will rise to defend her honor in trial by combat. One does. And his name is Ivanhoe. It is truly delicious.
In all of this Rebecca of York emerges as perhaps the most unforgettable character in literature. I would have previously assigned this title to Victor Hugo's Jean Valjean. But the centricity of Rebecca's honor and integrity gives the great lie to the silly pretensions of Samuel Clemens, mentioned above. Scott's novel is first and foremost, I believe, about these wonderful human characteristics. And his characterization of the Jewish damsel, Rebecca of York, best exemplifies these fine principles. As we were watching the movie based on this novel, my wife looked over at me and said, effectively:
"Modern Americans do not behave or even think like these characters any more. Most would not even understand."
Her statement is true. And more's the pity. In this novel, Scott introduced the literary world to the legend of Robin Hood, the Prince of Thieves, to the glory that was Merry England when she was unified under One Faith but still divided by ethnic, and other, prejudices, and to so much more. We all need to read Scott's wonderful and timeless novel, and to reflect seriously on the characteristics so beautifully portrayed therein. God bless.
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Reviews with images
Ivanhoe
Este libro es una novela histórica, protagonizada en Inglaterra, la época de Ricardo Corazón de León….muy buen libro, es grande, más de lo que esperaba, pero esta bien, su letra es grande y me gusta para no cansar mi vista. Lo recomiendo, está a un buen precio. Lo que no me gusto es que me lo enviaron dos veces, la primera vez, llego arrugado, con la tapa y esquinas dobladas, sin la debida protección, el segundo que me enviaron, estuvo mejor.
Top reviews from other countries
Cliente Kindle
Um incentivo para se estudar história
Reviewed in Brazil on January 18, 2023
Paul Douglas Lovell
A five star read... A great story...
Reviewed in Germany on June 17, 2021