Walter Scott, Ivanhoe

Sharon Anne Ragaz (Independent Scholar - North America)
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The name of

Ivanhoe

still carries a whiff of the magic it had for nineteenth century readers for whom it was perhaps the most celebrated of all Walter Scott's novels. In terms of composition, it immediately followed Scott's

Tales of My Landlord, Third Series

(1819). All of Scott's novels were published anonymously, or, rather pseudonymously with authorship being variously assigned to 'the Author of Waverley' and fictional editors. Before

Ivanhoe,

they had also all treated of Scottish history and Scottish locales. For

Ivanhoe

, Scott and his publishers decided on a major change: the novel would be about English history and would be introduced by a new fictional editor, Lawrence Templeton. Moreover, the setting was earlier than any Scott had yet written, being about the time of the Crusades…

1663 words

Citation: Ragaz, Sharon Anne. "Ivanhoe". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 March 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4430, accessed 19 March 2024.]

4430 Ivanhoe 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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