SOURCE: Introduction to Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott, Collins and W. W. Norton and Company, 1953, pp. 27-31.

In the essay that follows, Grierson claims that Ivanhoe is a central example of the historical novel and that Scott created that genre.

In Ivanhoe Scott made his first venture outside the history of his own country; and in the Introduction of 1839 he gives the reason for the step. It was a bold step, because the nine novels (including The Black Dwarf) issued between Waverley in 1814 and The Legend of Montrose in 1819 had established their reputation as 'the Scotch novels' in the absence of any certain knowledge of the real name of 'The Author of Waverley'. 'We have seen', writes Keats in a letter to his brother and his sister-in-law in 1818, 'three literary Kings in our time—Scott—Byron—and then the Scotch novels.' Still, to escape from Scots dialogue...