Ivanhoe: A Romance.
Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co., 1820. First edition. Half leather. This is the three-volume, first edition, first issue, the set bound in contemporary half brown calf over marbled paper-covered boards. Consonant with first issue, there is significant Volume I mispagination; pages 167-306 are misnumbered as 143-298. Condition of the volumes is very good minus. The bindings remain square and tight, though with the expected toll of both age and wear. What appears to be quite some time ago, the leather spines were skillfully rebacked. The original spines, with their triple gilt-ruled compartments and Scottish thistle design at the head and tail, were preserved and laid down over new calf, their deep wrinkles and variably faded gilt belying the functional integrity of the rebacked spines. The boards all remain firmly attached, but there is superficial cracking along the Volume I front hinge. The paper-covered boards show superficial scuffing and the leather corners gentle bruising. The contents, of course trimmed when they were bound, show only light, occasional spotting and mild age-toning. At the head of each title page a previously inked name is crossed out, and the same initials and surname inked directly below; this seems a lifelong set, rather than one subsequently assembled.
First a solicitor and a poet, Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) came to novels comparatively late. But between 1814 and his death in 1832, he made up for lost time; he published twenty-three works of fiction. Twenty of these twenty-three novels were set in the past, each in a different period, pioneering the modern manifestation of the "historical fiction" genre. Arguably most enduringly popular among Scott's novels is Ivanhoe.
We could say that Ivanhoe is the author’s story of a dispossessed knight who, through the offices of a just king, is able to marry his love. But that rather undersells the story and its influence. In addition to being a compelling tale, Ivanhoe proved deeply influential. English theologian John Henry Newman CO (1801–1890) credited Ivanhoe with having “first turned men's minds in the direction of the Middle Ages". Ivanhoe also influenced popular perceptions of historical figures including King Richard I, his brother, Prince – and later King - John, and Robin Hood. Though it is set in the distant past and its titular character is a chivalric archetype, it has been said that “Ivanhoe… has a political modernity which makes it one of the most remarkable novels of the nineteenth century.”
Even the physical format was influential; Ivanhoe was published in the three-volume “triple-decker” style popularized by Scott’s Scottish publisher, Archibald Constable, and which became a standard for fiction published in Britain through most of the 19th century.
References: Todd & Bowden, Sir Walter Scott: A Bibliographical History 1796-1832; ODNB. Item #008486
Price: $2,500.00