'Fight on, brave knights! Man dies, but glory lives!'

Banished from England for seeking to marry against his father's wishes, Ivanhoe joins Richard the Lion Heart on a crusade in the Holy Land. On his return, his passionate desire is to be reunited with the beautiful but forbidden lady Rowena, but he soon finds himself playing a more dangerous game as he is drawn into a bitter power struggle between the noble King Richard and his evil and scheming brother John. The first of Scott's novels to address a purely English subject, Ivanhoe is set in a highly romanticized medieval world of tournaments and sieges, chivalry and adventure where dispossessed Saxons are pitted against their Norman overlords, and where the historical and fictional seamlessly merge.

Born in Edinburgh in 1771, Walter Scott was educated there and called to the Scottish Bar in 1792. He was involved with the printing and publishing industries as a secret investor, but also held such prominent public offices as Sheriff of Selkirkshire and a principal clerk to the Court of Session in Edinburgh. His writing career started principally with poetry, including an anonymous translation of Burger's 'Lenore', but he refused the poet laureateship in order to concentrate on fiction. He is now widely credited with establishing the historical novel, with such famous fictional works as Ivanhoe and Waverley. He died in 1832.