Okay, that was obviously tongue-in-cheek but my struggles with Sir Walter Scott are not. I gave up on Waverly about 1/3 of the way through. I could see a lot of good ideas in there but I couldn't take it anymore. I kept losing momentum. I tried, I did.
But I wanted to give him another chance, I mean, he was so popular in his day. I didn't want to be the 19th century equivalent of that guy that won't read Harry Potter, not out of any issue of conscience, but just because they are too popular. So I knew I wanted to put him into my Back to the Classics Challenge to help motivate me to finish, I just didn't know what category.
Then I saw Classic in a place you'd like to visit. Hmm. I'm deep in the middle ages right now, book-wise. I'm working my way through Ambleside Online Year 7 (yes, as in middle school, but guys, it's still intense! Don't judge me!) and Lucy is working though Year 2 and they both are pretty much the same time period. And of course now the middle ages are popping up all over the place for me. I'm loving it. So in that sense, Middle Ages England or just Europe, is definitely a place I'd like to visit.
Now, having read Ivanhoe, I don't think I'd like to visit any of those places. A little too much with the kidnapping and violence and all that. Just make me a peasant woman in a nice safe little cottage (I'll take along some hand sanitizer and antibiotics on my magic voyage through time and space) and all will be well. It will be fun.
But back to Ivanhoe. Okay, I get why its good and I will be including it in my kid's year 7 experience. It's a classic romance novel (emphasis on CLASSIC and it's definitely of that term). Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe has been cast off by his father and is off fighting with Richard the Lionhart. His love is mouring the loss of that relationship. There are multiple damsels in distress, tournaments, kidnappings and rescues, just the thing for middle school boys (and girls too). There are issues of class and race, religion and allegiences. There is good stuff there. That said, Scott drives me crazy!
I'll try not to knock off too many points because it was kinda confusing at times and I kept forgetting who was who. That's my fault more than his. I also don't have an issue with his treatment of Jews in this book. It wasn't written today and I think the points he was trying to get across still get across but obviously they also reveal his own biases as well. But that's all interesting and important in its own way.
I will complain about the pacing! There are these great parts and I'm finally into the story and then - bam, let's stop the action and go to another scene, with no movement at all, and I'm just left thinking "I don't care what is happening to her right now! What are you doing!?" It's hard to imagine with everything that goes on in this book that I could spend so much time bored and forcing myself to keep going, but I did. I thought it was just me, maybe I wasn't giving it my all, but then I've read some other discussions about it and felt a little bit vindicated.
I'm also confused about some of the reveals. Were they supposed to be big surprises? Because I had them figured out way way early and I never was really sure if we were supposed to know things or not. It was just weird. I tried not to include it here because maybe its a spoiler, I don't know.
The one thing I did really like is how they treated Richard the Lionhart. This is definitely a pet peeve of mine but I'm not a Richard fangirl. I get annoyed with how much people like him sometimes, both in the past and now. I mean, yes, he looked good next to John but John was awful! A toad would look like a good king compared to John! But I felt like this gave a good balanced portrayal. And by good and balanced, I mean that they agree with me ;-) Good soldier, not a great king. Okay, rant over.
To summarize, I love the middles ages! I love that I completed a Scott novel and fulfilled a goal! Didn't so much love Ivanhoe itself.
Ivanhoe was my Classic Set in a Place You'd Like to Visit for the Back to the Classics Challenge.
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