Book Review: Ivanhoe

[osprey_archer]

I've finished Ivanhoe! You guys, this book. It’s such a weird book. But in an awesome way. I imagine that originally Sir Walter Scott intended to have more Ivanhoe in the book that bears his name, but about halfway through Rebecca clearly breaks free of his control and takes over the book. This is clearly the best thing that could have happened to Ivanhoe: the moment she threatens to throw herself off the ramparts to escape the clutches of the evil Knight Templar Bois-Guilbert is the moment that the book bursts into life.



Bois-Guilbert is totally enthralled by Rebecca’s threat to commit suicide rather than submit to his vile lusts. He’s like, “Rebecca! I don’t care if you’re a Jewess, clearly you are my soulmate! Get off the ramparts and be my bride and let’s go conquer a kingdom together!”

Rebecca is highly alarmed. Bois-Guilbert is totally hurt that she doesn’t instantaneously trust his declaration of love even though he was just planning to rape her five minutes ago.

Bois-Guilbert is like the original Nice Guy, except alongside all the obnoxious Nice Guy habits he is also a total jerk. It is THE WORST OF ALL WORLDS. He is all, “After kidnapping you, I changed my mind about raping you! And now I’m trying to blackmail you into sleeping with me by promising to save you from the peril that you wouldn’t even be in if it weren’t for me! Why doesn’t that make you love me? HOW CAN YOU BE SO UNGRATEFUL?”

And Rebecca is like, “I would literally rather burn at the stake than be your girlfriend, because you are the worst. The actual worst.”

I found it extremely satisfying when Bois-Guilbert died of apoplexy.



Meanwhile, as Rebecca is being all stalwart, Ivanhoe spends most of his time convalescing and complaining about how hard it is having to lie around while other people decide his fate. Why yes, Ivanhoe, that is hard. But look how stoically Rebecca is doing it!

I actually really enjoyed this book, and not just for Rebecca: it's over the top in just the right way. The good characters live, the bad characters die - or at least, some of them do. Some of them just get exiled. And some of them, like Prince John, just stay in England and presumably sulk about the failure of their plans to depose big brother Richard the Lionheart.

Why was Richard so lenient with his little brother? WHY. (Obviously this is a question for historians as well as Sir Walter Scott. WHY?)

Possibly I should lay my hands on some of Sir Walter Scott's other novels. The man wrote a lot of novels. Does anyone have suggestions which ones to keep my eye out for?

Comments

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

I will make my plug again for the 1982 version. Sam Neill is Bois-Guilbert! And the way they set up his death is - well, as I recall Scott is kind of coy about it, but in the movie it's pretty clearly "Look, Rebecca! I am DYING for YOU! Do I get posthumous boyfriend-points?!"

I'm really glad you enjoyed the book. As I think I mentioned before, I read it because I liked the movie and was curious whether it had the same overtones of "Rebecca is awesome and also kind of in love with Ivanhoe and really, she's far more interesting than whitebread Rowena but alas, they are culturally incompatible," which I thought was rather an enlightened POV for a book written so long ago. (I think the A&E miniseries has a less boringly whitebread Rowena. The 1982 movie makes Rowena, despite her beauty and breeding and innate sweetness, so clearly second-best to Rebecca it's almost a political statement.)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

They must have gussied up his death for the movie, because in the book all Bois-Guilbert does is fall off his horse (while fighting against Rebecca's champion, no less!) and have apoplexy.

But I have no doubt that in the split second before he died, he was thinking "The conflict between my love for you and my duty so tormented me that MY BRAIN EXPLODED, Rebecca! Doesn't that mean you have to love me???"

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes - in the movie there is a glorious sequence where he looks toward Rebecca (camera on his face, camera on her face, camera on him) and then drops his arms to bare his breast, so to speak, for the oncoming sword. I think it is meant to be his redemption, that he understands that she is more worthy than he is and that he must die for her.