Ivanhoe is one of the thirty-two Waverley novels, so named for Scott's anonymously authored first novel, Waverley. Some present-day critics insist that all Scott's novels are romances, a criticism that ignores the diversity of his subjects and treatments. The Waverley novels contain realism and romance, the everyday world and the world of the imagination. Their settings stretch from the medieval period to the eighteenth century. The best novels, according to scholars, are those with Scottish settings that deal with religion and the relationship between Scotland and England. Scott wrote nine Scottish novels between 1814 and 1819, the best being The Heart of Mid-Lothian. Ivanhoe marked a new period in Scott's work, with a different setting, time, and style.

Two film adaptations of Ivanhoe have been produced in the last forty years, a lavish 1952 Hollywood production and a critically successful 1982 made-fortelevision movie. The earlier film maintains Scott's complex attitude...