Audiobook · read by volunteers
Ivanhoe
Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)
Read by Kristin LeMoine, Laurie Anne Walden, Christian Al-Kadi, Lucy Burgoyne (1950-2014), Philippa, Mark F. Smith, TriciaG, Elliott Miller · 44 chapters · 19 h 24
About the book
England in the late twelfth century is a divided land. Its Saxon families resent their Norman masters, and the king, Richard the Lionheart, is away at the Crusades while his brother plots at home. Into this world rides Wilfred of Ivanhoe, a young knight disinherited by his proud father for following the Norman king. He fights at a great tournament, is tended by a Jewish healer whose people are despised by those around her, and wins the heart of more than one lady, with Saxon thanes, outlaws in the greenwood and a castle under siege along the way. Walter Scott's romance is the very model of the historical adventure, full of banners, disguises and daring rescues. Eight volunteers share its forty-four chapters, nearly twenty hours of chivalry and suspense. Pageantry, peril and romance in full colour.
Introduction
Sir Walter Scott, who lived from 1771 to 1832, was a Scottish poet and novelist who more or less invented the historical novel as a popular form. His Waverley novels, set in Scotland's past, had made him the most famous writer in Britain by the time he turned to England with Ivanhoe, which appeared in 1819. It was an immediate success, and it shaped the way the Middle Ages were imagined for generations.
The story takes place in the reign of Richard I, when the English throne was in the hands of his scheming brother and the country was split between Saxon and Norman. Scott fills it with memorable scenes: a tournament in which a mysterious knight appears, a siege, a trial, a feast. The cast includes Cedric the Saxon, the lovely Rowena, the courageous Rebecca and a band of outlaws led by a figure who will be familiar to anyone who knows the legend of Robin Hood. The book is also remembered for its treatment of prejudice, and in particular for its sympathetic portrait of Rebecca and her father, which was unusual for the time.
Scott's style is leisurely by modern standards, with long descriptions, learned digressions and an elaborate vocabulary, but the plot is gripping, and the characters leap off the page. The novel has been adapted for film, television and the stage, and it is the source of much of our popular image of the medieval knight.
This recording has forty-four chapters and lasts about nineteen and a half hours. Eight LibriVox volunteers share the reading. It is a grand companion for a winter, and a fine route into the world of historical adventure.
Public domain
Sir Walter Scott died in 1832: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text