Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
Historical romance was, in fact, for Sir Walter Scott a very free translation indeed of the past into the present. It was not only that his stated formula was “ ancient manners in modern language ”; its application in his books was easy and variable. So we find him discussing apropos of Ivanhoe Strutt’s Queenhoo Hall, a romance which few have read to-day, but which is very well worth reading by all who care to settle the difficult business of getting the greatest common measure between the science and the fantasy of history.