Genre

Ivanhoe

by Walter Scott

Ivanhoe: Genre 1 key example

Genre
Explanation and Analysis:

Ivanhoe is a long novel which contains elements of many genres, but it’s usually categorized as a combination of historical fiction, medieval Romance tale, and adventure novel. As historical fiction, Scott embeds Ivanhoe’s narrative within the fraught period of 12th-century England shortly after the Norman Conquest. Scott’s writing is almost obsessively detailed with historical tidbits and framing, giving the reader a strong sense of place and time. He also infuses the novel with a huge amount of the era’s political and social intrigue, such as the tension between the returning King Richard I and his brother Prince John, the cultural clash between Saxons and Normans, and the intricacies of feudal society where freedoms were very limited for all but the luckiest and wealthiest of men. The author’s detailed depiction of the period's architecture, clothing, and social customs are part of Scott’s attempt to recreate the era accurately for his readers, grounding the novel’s fictional events in the real historical context of Richard I’s interrupted reign.