So, I decided

Chatterbox: Blab About Books

Ivanhoe, Walter Scott
So, I decided...

So, I decided to challenge myself and try to read Ivanhoe, by Walter Scott. I got it out of the library, tried to read the introduction, gave up and skipped to the Dedicatory Epistle, realized the story didn't start there, skipped to chapter one, and now, FINALLY, I have read 24 and a half pages of the story and am a page or two past the start of chapter two.

A few questions: what's a scrip?

Why is "showed" spelled "shewed"?

Why do older books always seem to have introductions almost as long as the story itself? (I noticed this first in The Princess Bride, when the story starts on page 35 and half the first chapter is about who is the world's most beautiful woman.)

Why is my w key so sticky today?

After describing him for three pages, is the author ever going to tell me who this strange knight actually is? (I'm pretty sure it's Ivanhoe himself, but he hasn't actually said anything to that effect yet.)

Okay, I'm done with the questions now, and don't worry about the third question, it's rhetorical!

P.S. I'm writing this partly because so far no one has congratulated me on attempting this grand and glorious feat, and I'm attempting this feat because quite a few really good books by Edward Eager have references to Ivanhoe in them (which is strange because the characters aren't any older than me, and I'm having a bit of a hard time reading it) and I want to find out if there's anything I'm missing, any inside jokes I should be laughing at but aren't, that sort of thing. 

submitted by CaptainRead, age undecided, Medieval England
(February 13, 2014 - 4:47 pm)

back to the Blab about Books

I read about 3/4s of it, but eventually I got so bogged down by the footnotes, I just quit. I really ought to go back and just read another version (with fewer footnotes), but I somehow I never got around to it.

I saw the film version of it (the one with Robert Taylor and Liz Taylor (who are not related)) and so I got the main gist of the plot. It's a perfectly passable chivalric romance, but is too bogged down with excessive descriptions. The story and characters themselves are fine. I loved the abridged version I read when I was seven, which, of course, lacked the unnecessaries and just adhered to the good plot.

I did love the name Torquilstone.

submitted by Everinne, age 14, Torquilstone
(February 13, 2014 - 6:28 pm)

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submitted by blink, London Eye
(February 15, 2014 - 5:23 pm)