Count Robert of Paris: The Works of Sir Walter Scott [Paperback]

Sir Walter Scott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 5, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0766187780 | ISBN-13: 978-0766187788

1905. Sir Walter Scott was a master of diverse talents. He was a man of letters, a dedicated historian and historiographer, a well-read translator of foreign texts, and a talented poet. Deriving most of his material from his native Scotland, its history and its legends, Scott invented and mastered what we know today as the historical novel. Count Robert is set during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus and focuses on the arrival of the first Crusaders. During the oath-taking ceremony on the eve of the Crusade, the haughty Count Robert insults the Emperor by seating himself on the imperial throne. Also offended is Robert's friend Hereward, a Saxon member of the Varangian guard, exiled from England after the Norman Conquest. When the Crusaders leave Byzance for Asia, Robert is drugged and detained as captive. His Amazonian wife, Brenhilda is held separately and persecuted by the enamored Nicephorus Briennus, the emperor's son-in-law. Brenhilda challenges Nicephorus to combat, promising to give herself to him if defeated. In the meantime, Robert is freed by Hereward, and presents himself at the duel in his wife's stead. Nicephorus, though, does not appear as he has been arrested following the discovery of a plot to usurp Alexius. Still keen to avenge Robert's affront to the Emperor, Hereward takes his place. Robert defeats him but spares his life in gratitude for his earlier help. Hereward follows Robert to Palestine as a vassal, after discovering that his lost Saxon love Bertha is Brenhilda's waiting-woman. Through Robert's influence, a portion of Hereward's English property is restored to him. See the many other works by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

Product Details

• Paperback: 524 pages
• Publisher: Kessinger Publishing, LLC (March 5, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0766187780
• ISBN-13: 978-0766187788
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,367,041 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sir Walter Scott's tribute to a real Byzantine Princess, December 15, 2006

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T. Patrick Killough "All about Patrick" (Black Mountain, NC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Count Robert of Paris: The Works of Sir Walter Scott (Paperback)

There was an historical Count Robert of Paris. He is described by the Byzantine Princess and historian Anna Comnena. Count Robert offended her father Emperor Alexius by casually sitting on his throne during a showy ceremony in 1097 in Constantinople of fealty by Crusaders en route to the conquest of Jerusalem. This novel is the ailing Sir Walter Scott's final tribute to a spunky Imperial Greek lady whose writings he drew on heavily for the age of chivalry.

The novel is a sprawling cross-cultural tribute to brave Anglo-Saxons, called Varangians, who make up the bodyguard of the Greek emperors; to French knights and nobles both Norman and pre-Norman caught up in the intricate etiquette of chivalry; and to Eastern Romans surrounded by and grudgingly succumbing to Muslim, Turkish and other enemies.

It is also a novel of political mercy as the wily Alexius first outwits then forgives enemies in his own family and cabinet who plot against him.

And it is a novel about women who push envelopes, especially Princess Anna Comnena, who idolized her father and wrote of his many deeds, both glorious and less glorious. There is her mother, the nattering Empress Irene. There is Brenhilda, the Amazonian warrior wife of Count Robert. There is her wise English Saxon serving maid Bertha, beloved of the Varangian guard hero Hereward.

The backdrop of COUNT ROBERT OF PARIS is clearly the epic ALEXIAD, by Anna Comnena. From it and other contemporary sources we learn of the exotic animals in the Emperor's "museum," including an elephant, a crocodile, an orangutan, a giraffe and many others to dazzle the "barbarian" Western Crusaders. It seems likely that Scott's imagination made the seven foot tall orangutan named Sylvan able to understand if not speak Anglo-Saxon.

If one reads Sir Walter Scott's poems and novels as imaginative introductions to real history, then COUNT ROBERT OF PARIS is a good starting point for a series of Scott novels bearing on the Crusades, of which the best known is IVANHOE. -OOO-