A Bit Of A Chore

Now reading Scott's (Walter, Sir) Ivanhoe, and I'm not entirely sure why. Could be because it's on the shelf and has been since 1987 when I got it as one of the Marshall Cavendish Great Novels sequence, a series that came cheap and with a colourful magazine for each title.

Loved the 1950s movie, of course, falling heavily for the young Liz Taylor as Rebecca. But the novel itself is plodding stuff, of a boys' own nature. I'd got the impression from somewhere that Scott was basically sympathetic towards his Jewish characters, but the anti-Semitic vein in the characterisation of Isaac seems close to the surface to me - as if Scott thinks he's doing a bit of a Shylock but lacks the kind of ferocious power that lends Shakespeare's inspired moneylender all the real energy in his Merchant.

I intend to keep going though: I've started so I'll finish, as a quizmaster of my youth used to have it.