Ivanhoe

The father of the historical novel, Sir Walter Scott invented a literary form that has remained popular for more than one hundred fifty years. Infusing his works with romance, action, and suspense, he brought long-gone eras back to life with splendor and spectacle.Set in England just after the Third Crusade, Ivanhoe is the tale of Wilfrid, a young Saxon knight, and his love for the royal princess Rowena. With his father against their union, Wilfrid embarks on a series of adventures to prove his worth, finding himself in conflict against the Normans and the Templars and allied with such larger-than-life figures as Robin Hood and Richar the Lionheart. A timesless story of courage, chivalry, and courtly love, Ivanhoe is a grand epic, and its place in classic literature is assured.

Sir Walter Scott was born in Edinburgh in 1771. Educated for the law, he obtained the office of sheriff-depute of Selkirkshire in 1799 and in 1806 the office of clerk of session, a post whose duties he fulfilled for some twenty-five years. His lifelong interest in Scottish antiquity and the ballads which recorded Scottish history led him to try his hand at narrative poems of adventure and action. The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), Marmion (1808), and The Lady of the Lake (1810) made his reputation as one of the leading poets of his time. A novel, Waverley, which he had begun in 1805, was published anonymously in 1814. Subsequent novels appeared with the note “by the author of Waverley”; hence his novels often are called collectively “the Waverley novels.” Some of the most famous of these are Old Mortality (1816), Rob Roy (1817), Ivanhoe (1819), Kenilworth (1821), and Quentin Durward (1823). In recognition of his literary work Scott was made a baronet in 1819. During his last years he held various official positions and published biographies, editions of Swift and Dryden, tales, lyric poetry, and various studies of history and antiquity. He died in 1832.
Sharon Kay Penman was born in New York City and grew up in New Jersey. She has a BA in history from the University of Texas and a Juris Doctor degree from Rutgers School of Law. She has not practiced law since the publication of her first novel, The Sunne in Splendour, in 1982. To date, she has written six historical novels and two medieval mysteries. She has lived in England and Wales while researching books, and currently lives in New Jersey.