In a bid to resurrect Walter Scott’s historical novel Ivanhoe, retired Scottish medical professor David Purdie unsheathed his scalpel to cut out the early 19th century verbiage and deliver a new edition for 21st century readers.
Ivanhoe is a romantic tale of fair maidens, bold knights-at-arms, merry friars, skulduggery, enmity between Saxons and Norman barons, and even a cameo appearance by Robin Hood during the reign of England’s Richard I in 1194.
The first historical novel by Scott (1771-1832) set outside Scotland was hugely popular when it was published at the start of 1820. Its first printing of 10,000 copies sold out in less than two weeks and it set the scene for the rise of the historical novel in Europe.
Scott was widely read through Europe and North America.
Purdie, chairman of the Sir Walter Scott Club in Edinburgh, said the idea for his abridged Ivanhoe “came from repeated observations in the press that Scott was ‘difficult’, above all, verbose...and out of touch with the attention span of a modern audience.”
The punctuation style of 1820 just jarred, he said.