Ivanhoe

I agree with other members that Ivanhoe is not the most rivetting read, however, it was the first true "Historical" novel, and established the genre as we know it today.
Can I just clarify one thing, the basic mistake made by modern readers is to refer to the hero as "Ivanhoe", his title and name was "Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe" which could be shortened to "Sir Wilfred", but NEVER to "Sir Ivanhoe"!
In the 1952 film, everyone, including his father, refers to him as "Ivanhoe" this is typical Holywood history, it would be equivelant to the father of Bill Smith calling him "Smith"!

I just finished reading Ivanhoe for the first time. Sir Walter Scott created a fun, engaging book which I looked forward to picking up and being time warped back to the age of chivalry. I recently read a non-fiction book titled; Jack Kennedy, the making of a statesman". In that book it reported that one of Kennedy's favorite books was Ivanhoe. I have read the same thing about Winston Churchill and Tony Blair. In this book the characters seemed real and I cared about what happened to them.

Due to our current age of hopefully more tolerance, I was a put off by the anti-semitic sentiment. This booked lived up to my high expectations. I feel I'm a better person because of reading it.

Great books are so much fun!

You have a point there, but it was not uncommon to call somebody back then, the place where they were bron. Take for instance the character, Maurice de Bracy, they kept refering to him by "de bracy" in the novel throughout. Again, you may be right that hollywood did confuse Ivanhoe for his first name.

Yes of course, you would refer to someone to whom you were not related, by(what today we would call) his surname, but I am refering to Ivanhoe's family and friends, even his lover calls him "Ivanhoe"!
Of course the novel itself is seriously flawed in a number of ways as far as historic accuracy is concerned, so I suppose I am being overly pedantic over forms of address!
Certainly the 1952 film is one of the few films of the period to give some idea of the true brutality of medieval combat in the "Trial by Combat" at the end.

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Originally Posted by [email protected]

I agree with other members that Ivanhoe is not the most rivetting read,

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Oh yes it is!

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however, it was the first true "Historical" novel, and established the genre as we know it today.
Can I just clarify one thing, the basic mistake made by modern readers is to refer to the hero as "Ivanhoe", his title and name was "Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe" which could be shortened to "Sir Wilfred", but NEVER to "Sir Ivanhoe"!
In the 1952 film, everyone, including his father, refers to him as "Ivanhoe" this is typical Holywood history, it would be equivelant to the father of Bill Smith calling him "Smith"!

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A bit like people referring to the monster as 'Frankenstein'!

"A bit like people referring to the monster as 'Frankenstein'!"

Exactly!