Library / Literature & Fiction
Ivanhoe: A Romance
by Walter Scott
- Pages
- about 695
- Category
- Literature & Fiction
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 13 h at 250 wpm
From the opening
The Author of the Waverley Novels had hitherto proceeded in an unabated
course of popularity, and might, in his peculiar district of
literature, have been termed L’Enfant Gâté of success. It was plain,
however, that frequent publication must finally wear out the public
favour, unless some mode could be devised to give an appearance of
novelty to subsequent productions. Scottish manners, Scottish dialect,
and Scottish characters of note, being those with which the author was
most intimately, and familiarly acquainted, were the groundwork upon
which he had hitherto relied for giving effect to his narrative. It
was, however, obvious, that this kind of interest must in the end
occasion a degree of sameness and repetition, if exclusively resorted
to, and that the reader was likely at length to adopt the language of
Edwin, in Parnell’s Tale:
“‘Reverse the spell,’ he cries,
‘And let it fairly now suffice.
The gambol has been shown.’”
Nothing can be more dangerous for the fame of a professor of the fine
arts, than to permit (if he can possibly prevent it) the character of a
mannerist to be attached to him, or that he should be supposed capable
of success only in a particular and limited style. The public are, in
general, very ready to adopt the opinion, that he who has pleased them
in one peculiar mode of composition, is, by means of that very talent,
rendered incapable of venturing upon other subjects. The effect of this
disinclination, on the part of the public, towards the artificers of
their pleasures, when they attempt to enlarge their means of amusing,
may be seen in the censures usually passed by vulgar criticism upon
actors or artists who venture to change the character of their efforts,
that, in so doing, they may enlarge the scale of their art.
A short sample. Read the whole book
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