by Doctor Science
Back in September, I wondered who is supposed to be the heroine of Ivanhoe, but I hadn’t read yet the book itself. Now, thanks to Project Gutenberg, Mister Doctor Science and I have both read it, and we’re struck by how different it is from what we expected.
Ivanhoe was one of the most popular novels of the nineteenth century, with an enormous influence on the literary landscape and on culture in general. Some of that influence persists to this day: reading Ivanhoe, we could see the roots of epic fantasy literature, of the Society for Creative Anachronism, of Renfaires and Medieval Times.
But what we couldn’t see is the Ivanhoe many other people claim to have read. From 19th-century fans to 21st-century scholars, the majority of readers seem to have latched onto a few elements in Ivanhoe, but not to have absorbed the actual text as a whole. It’s as though all they know is a “Good Parts Version” — and it’s one that edits out a lot of *our* favorite parts.