Customer Reviews

Rebecca and Rowena (Hesperus Classics)

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Think for a bit about two books, both IVANHOE and REBECCA AND ROWENA. Sir Walter Scott wrote IVANHOE in 1819 and it conquered the world. Three decades later William Makepeace Thackeray's REBECCA AND ROWENA took up IVANHOE where Scott had left off. If it was meant to dampen Victorian England's passion for the Middle Ages, it failed. Your question is: which book do I read first?

Thackeray as a school boy had fallen in love with Rebecca, the Jewish heroine of IVANHOE and had rather disliked goody-goody Rowena. Both young women loved the gallant crusader Sir Wilfrid of Ivanhoe, who in different ways returned their affection. But, inevitably, Christian Rowena won the Christian knight and a broken-hearted Rebecca sailed off to a Muslim kingdom in Spain with her father, Isaac of York.

Thackeray thought readers would want to know what happened to the heroic trio of Ivanhoe, Rowena and Rebecca after 1194 when Ivanhoe married Rowena. He argues:

"Let the young ones be warned that the old folks have a right to be interesting, and that a lady may continue to have a heart although she is somewhat stouter than she was when a schoolgirl, and a man his feelings although he gets his hair from Truefitt's. "(Ch. I)

So Thackeray fast forwards to the year 1199 when Richard the Lion-Heart is about to be slain by an arrow shot by a teenager during an otherwise victorious campaign in France. A very bored Ivanhoe joins King Richard's siege of a rebellious castle. Ivanhoe, too, falls in battle, apparently dead, but kept barely alive in secret by two friendly priests, though in a coma for six years. Returning to England, he finds Rowena married to Athelstane the Saxon and already a young mother. Ivanhoe then visits his lawyer, collects his money and begins years of searching for his lost love, Rebecca.

Meanwhile Athelstane and Rowena take up arms against King John. Athelstane dies. Ivanhoe finds the widowed Rowena in prison with her son. With her dying breath, ever jealous of her Jewish rival, Rowena extorts a promise that Sir Wilfrid will never marry a Jew. In the end Ivanhoe tracks Rebecca down. She announces that she has become a Christian for love of Ivanhoe. They settle down, having adopted the son of Rowena and Athelstane. Their married life is said to be rather hum-drum and they die relatively young.

So which book should you read first? At first blush this is a no-brainer: of course you read the earlier IVANHOE. But there are cons. IVANHOE is very long and intricate. REBECCA AND ROWENA is barely a novella and very straightforward. Modern Americans may therefore be more likely to want to read something short before something long. And REBECCA AND ROWENA does give the highlights of IVANHOE, a kind of Cliff Notes. Five years after the wedding of Ivanhoe and Rowena we see also Robin Hood as the Earl of Huntingdon, Friar Tuck as his chaplain, Gurth the swineherd married and promoted to forester for Mr and Mrs Ivanhoe, and Wamba the Jester with almost no one to laugh at his jokes but elevated as well to Sir Wilfrid's valet.

REBECCA AND ROWENA abounds in humor and social commentary. I recommend that if you read it first, you go on right away to tackle IVANHOE next.

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