Ivanhoe: A Romance cover

Ivanhoe: A Romance

Rating 4.0
Word count
1.1M words
Chapters
111

Tags

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter ScottAuthor: Scott, Walter, 1771-1832,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jun 25, 2008

Editor's review

Ivanhoe is the representative work of Scott's historical novels, set in late twelfth-century England and built around the conflict between Saxons and Normans, unfolding a narrative of adventure and love. This electronic text provided by Project Gutenberg is in the public domain, in English, and preserves the original's long-form narration and historical atmosphere. Its value lies in letting readers directly experience the early form of the historical novel as a genre: a real historical framework interwoven with the fates of fictional characters, with scenes such as knightly tournaments and castle sieges and defenses staged with a strong visual sense. Reading it offers both the pleasure of story and an observation of how the author handles ethnic conflict and identity. It is suitable as companion reading for courses in the history of English literature, or for readers interested in medieval subjects doing extensive reading of the English original. Note that the original is long, its narrative pace is rather slow, and it carries nineteenth-century historical views and rhetorical habits.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Students of English literature who need to read historical novels in the original
  • English-language readers interested in medieval England
  • Researchers who want to understand Scott and the origins of the historical novel genre
  • Readers with some stamina for English reading who enjoy long-form narrative

Not a good fit for

  • Beginners with weak English reading skills who need a Chinese translation as support
  • Readers who prefer fast-paced plots and lack patience for lengthy exposition
  • Readers expecting rigorous historical scholarship rather than literary fiction

Reading tips

  1. Read the introduction or learn about late twelfth-century England first, then enter the main text.
  2. Proceed chapter by chapter and make a character relationship chart to clarify the Saxon and Norman camps.
  3. For descriptive passages, skim first to grasp the main thread, then read the scene descriptions closely on a second pass.
  4. Use a Chinese translation alongside for difficult sentences to reduce the reading friction caused by archaic expressions.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
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  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
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  22. 22
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  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
  76. 76
  77. 77
  78. 78
  79. 79
  80. 80
  81. 81
  82. 82
  83. 83
  84. 84
  85. 85
  86. 86
  87. 87
  88. 88
  89. 89
  90. 90
  91. 91
  92. 92
  93. 93
  94. 94
  95. 95
  96. 96
  97. 97
  98. 98
  99. 99
  100. 100
  101. 101
  102. 102
  103. 103
  104. 104
  105. 105
  106. 106
  107. 107
  108. 108
  109. 109
  110. 110
  111. 111

FAQ

Is this edition of Ivanhoe in Chinese or English?
This electronic text is in English, published by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain edition. It is suitable for readers with some English reading ability to read the original directly; Chinese readers can also read it alongside a Chinese translation to reduce language difficulty.
Can I understand it without a background in medieval history?
You can follow the main story, but your understanding of ethnic conflict and the political landscape will be reduced. It is advisable to spend a little time first learning about the Saxon-Norman conflict in England after the Norman Conquest and the historical background of Richard the Lionheart's reign; the main text will then read more smoothly.
Is this book suitable for classroom teaching?
It is suitable as companion reading for courses on the history of English literature or on the historical novel, especially for discussing the origins of the genre and questions of historical representation. But the original is long, so classroom use should select excerpted chapters and pair them with background materials and discussion questions, so that students do not lose interest because of the reading load.
What should I pay attention to when reading the electronic edition?
Public-domain electronic texts may vary in formatting or lack annotations. When reading, focus on plot and character relationships; for place names and ethnic names, look them up as needed. If using it for research citations, verify page numbers against an authoritative edition rather than relying directly on the electronic text's paragraph numbering.

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About the author

Walter Scott (Scott, Walter, 1771-1832) was a British writer known for his historical novels and narrative poetry. The library holds 94 of his works, including the representative Ivanhoe and Waverley Or ‘Tis Sixty Years Since — Complete, as well as The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Volume 2. His historical novels often draw on the history of Scotland and England, weaving real historical events into the fates of fictional characters, with unhurried plotting and vivid characterization; they exercised a profound influence on the development of the European historical novel. Ivanhoe, set in medieval England, is among his most widely read works. Publicly available information on his nationality, dates of birth and death, and other biographical details is limited, so no speculation is offered here.

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