Walter Scott, página 6 de 23

Clásico de la literatura juvenil, en la colección Nuevo Auriga. Texto abreviado, para facilitar la lectura de los más jóvenes.

El protagonista de la novela es Wilfredo de Ivanhoe, un joven y valeroso caballero de la corte de Ricardo Corazón de León. La novela narra los amores de Ivanhoe con lady Rowena, una dama sajona, así como la diferenciación entre sajones y sus dominadores normandos. Ivanhoe pertenece a una de las familias nobles sajonas en un momento en que la nobleza de Inglaterra era abrumadoramente normanda. Las simpatías de Scott están claramente del lado de los sajones, en especial de su líder, Cedric, y de todo su entorno.

Editor: Jan ten Brink

Anne of Geierstein is a gothic romance and adventure novel by Walter Scott. For this tale, Scott abandons his typical Scottish setting as the story follows two knights on a secret mission in Switzerland in the 1470s. This is one of Scotts most critically acclaimed novels as it opens on a dramatic cliff edge scene and the suspense continues to escalate throughout. One of the knights, Arthur, meets the titular Anne and falls in love with her but quickly learns that she may have mystical powers. Danger is ever-present throughout their journey as the heroes encounter spectral beings, are kidnapped by secret organisations, and battle in a brutal war. Anne of Geierstein is celebrated widely for Scotts romantic depictions of the Swiss landscape from forests to mountains and crumbling castles. This thrilling novel is the definition of a page-turner, and its gothic aspects make it the perfect read for fans of Walter Scott or Frankenstein.

It would be difficult to assign any good reason why the author of Ivanhoe, after using, in that work, all the art he possessed to remove the personages, action, and manners of the tale, to a distance from his own country, should choose for the scene of his next attempt the celebrated ruins of Melrose, in the immediate neighbourhood of his own residence. But the reason, or caprice, which dictated his change of system, has entirely escaped his recollection, nor is it worth while to attempt recalling what must be a matter of very little consequence.The general plan of the story was, to conjoin two characters in that bustling and contentious age, who, thrown into situations which gave them different views on the subject of the Reformation, should, with the same sincerity and purity of intention, dedicate themselves, the one to the support of the sinking fabric of the Catholic Church, the other to the establishment of the Reformed doctrines. It was supposed that some interesting subjects for narrative might be derived from opposing two such enthusiasts to each other in the path of life, and contrasting the real worth of both with their passions and prejudices. The localities of Melrose suited well the scenery of the proposed story; the ruins themselves form a splendid theatre for any tragic incident which might be brought forward; joined to the vicinity of the fine river, with all its tributary streams, flowing through a country which has been the scene of so much fierce fighting, and is rich with so many recollections of former times, and lying almost under the immediate eye of the author, by whom they were to be used in composition.

Grade 9 Up-By E.M. Forster. Narrated by Flo Gibson. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.