Book Review: Walter Scott

Posted by Paula Stiles Jul 2, 2006

In week one of Outlaws Month here on the Medieval History site at Suite101, let's look at the author of three beloved 19th century classics of Merrie Olde England, Sir Walter Scott.

Sir Walter Scott (1777-1832)'s 1819 novel Ivanhoe (the subject of today's film review) and 1825 novel The Talisman are both set during the Crusades. Ivanhoe is the story of a Saxon knight, Wilfred of Ivanhoe, who returns to England after serving with King Richard Lion-Heart in the Third Crusade in 1192. Torn between his boring fiancée Rowena and the beautiful Jewish physician Rebecca who saves his life, Ivanhoe is forced to fight a duel to the death to save Rebecca from being burned at the stake as a witch.

In The Talisman, Kenneth, a Scottish Knight of the Leopard (how I wish I was kidding) goes on crusade (the Third Crusade, of course), makes friends with Saladin, woos a relative of Richard Lion-Heart and saves the King himself. Of the two books, Ivanhoe is the more famous and more beloved. Both were part of a series called "Waverley", after the first book that made Scott famous. There is also a third book, The Betrothed, about conflicts on the Welsh border in 1187, but that one is greatly eclipsed by the other two novels.

Scott never made any bones about the lack of historical accuracy in any of his books, especially Ivanhoe. However, he wrote in such an appealing and romanticized style that he has left an indelible image of the Middle Ages on generations of readers. This can be problematical when you look at the blatant anti-Semitism in Ivanhoe. Apologists for Scott have insisted that only the bad guys are anti-Semites but in one scene, a minor good guy, Wamba the Fool, literally knocks Rebecca's father down a set of stairs with a leg of pork, to the great amusement of the surrounding crowd.

Others may point to the sympathetic portrait of Rebecca as an indication of Scott's message of tolerance, yet ignore the fact that Ivanhoe is highly attracted to her-until he finds out she's Jewish. Rebecca is drawn as a paragon specifically to be the exception that proves Scott's rule that even she is not quite good enough to marry a Christian. Not a very nice attitude and possibly not even medieval. While anti-Semitism certainly existed during the Middle Ages, it varied from place to place and time to time and was not quite as complacent in its nature as Scott's 19th-century British prejudice. Scott is a case where one should look as hard at the time of the author as at the time of his story.