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William Makepeace Thackeray
REBECCA AND ROWENA (1850) Reviewed by Patrick Killough I. Review for barnesandnoble.com Here is how your review will appear on the title page: PATRICK KILLOUGH (KILLSWAN@EARTHLINK.NET), into Thackeray and Walter Scott, March 22, 2007, REVIEW RATING: * * * * (FOUR STARS) REVIEW TITLE: 'Let us have middle-aged novels, then' William Makepeace Thackeray's 1850 novel REBECCA AND ROWENA is a satirical follow-on to Sir Walter Scott's 1819 IVANHOE. Scott's tale ends around 1194 when Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe weds his childhood sweetheart Rowena. At the same time, to escape English anti-semitism, the Jewess healer Rebecca sails off to asylum in a Muslim emirate in Spain with her father Isaac of York. Rebecca had been strongly attracted to Ivanhoe nor had he remained indifferent to her. But there was no question of a Christian knight marrying an unconverted Jew. Matthew Sweet's FOREWORD locates Thackeray's spoof in a Victorian age gone gaga over all things medieval. The Scottish Earl of Eglinton, influenced by the poems and novels of Sir Walter Scott, had organized a medieval joust on his estate in Ayrshire. Three years later Queen Victoria and Prince Albert hosted a medieval costume ball at Buckingham Palace. She played her Saxon ancestress Queen Philippa of Hainault, while her consort was King Edward III. The Middle Ages craze spread. Stoves were soon sold that looked like 12th century suits of armor (FOREWORD,viii). Thackeray lamented the convention that Romantic novels end with the marriage two young lovers aged between 23 and 30. Did a hero stop being a hero at age 30 or did a girl stop being lovely when she put on some pounds? 'Let us have middle-aged novels, then, as well as your extremely juvenile legends' (Ch I, p. 4). Matthew Sweet, the commentator, also says that REBECCA AND ROWENA is just the book for people who doubted IVANHOE's romantic happy ending. Thackeray's humorous post-logue made not a dent in the Victorian world's love of the medieval. But Thackeray's little book might, it seems to me, have been the inspiration for Mark Twain's attack on Sir Walter Scott in LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI. That American humorist blamed Scott for inflaming the whole world (but most especially the American pre-Civil War South) with passions for lords and ladies, chivalry and lost causes. REBECCA AND ROWENA begins with Wilfred of Ivanhoe married for three or four years to the prim, perfect, saintly Rowena. Rowena remains obsessively jealous of her one-time rival Rebecca. A depressed, world-weary Ivanhoe goes off to fight in France with his old hero, King Richard I, the Lion-Heart. Ivanhoe is left for dead on a battlefield but during six years in a coma is kept alive and slowly restored to health by two priest friends. Meanwhile in England Wilfred is officially declared dead and Rowena marries the great Saxon noble Athelstane. Wilfred returns in disguise to England, finds Rowena a married mother and uses his remaining fortune to seek his old flame Rebecca. Her he eventually finds in Spain and they wed, but only after she becomes Christian for love of Ivanhoe. A dying Rowena had extorted from Wilfred a promise never to marry a Jew. As Thackeray wrote a sequel to IVANHOE, so much later Ephraim Kishon (Ferenc Hoffmann) did the same for ROMEO AND JULIET in Oh, oh, Juliet (1972). Both young lovers had survived their apparent deaths, married and at play's opening had a troubled 14-year old daughter named Lucretia. I first saw this on stage in Bonn in 1989 as ES WAR DIE LERCHE ('It was the Lark.') Unforgettably funny. Thackeray is not quite so funny, maybe because he was himself just too Victorian. Also recommended: Sir Walter Scott, IVANHOE. Mark Twain, LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI. Ephraim Kishon, OH,OH, JULIETTE (ES WAR DIE LERCHE). Ian G. Brown (ed.) ABBOTSFORD AND SIR WALTER SCOTT. -OOO- 3/22/7 =-=-=-=-=- II. Review for amazon.com Rating of book: * * * * (FOUR STARS) Title of this review: "Old Folks Have a Right To Be Interesting" Think for a bit about two books, both IVANHOE and REBECCA AND ROWENA. Sir Walter Scott wrote IVANHOE in 1819 and it conquered the world. Three decades later William Makepeace Thackeray's REBECCA AND ROWENA took up IVANHOE where Scott had left off. If it was meant to dampen Victorian England's passion for the Middle Ages, it failed. Your question is: which book do I read first? Thackeray as a school boy had fallen in love with Rebecca, the Jewish heroine of IVANHOE and had rather disliked goody-goody Rowena. Both young women loved the gallant crusader Sir Wilfrid of Ivanhoe, who in different ways returned their affection. But, inevitably, Christian Rowena won the Christian knight and a broken-hearted Rebecca sailed off to a Muslim kingdom in Spain with her father, Isaac of York. Thackeray thought readers would want to know what happened to the heroic trio of Ivanhoe, Rowena and Rebecca after 1194 when Ivanhoe married Rowena. He argues: Let the
young ones be warned that the old folks have a right to be interesting,
and that a lady may continue to have a heart although she is somewhat
stouter than she was when a schoolgirl, and a man his feelings although
he gets his hair from Truefitt's. (Ch. I)
So Thackeray fast forwards to the year 1199 when Richard the Lion-Heart is about to be slain by an arrow shot by a teenager during an otherwise victorious campaign in France. A very bored Ivanhoe joins King Richard's siege of a rebellious castle. Ivanhoe, too, falls in battle, apparently dead, but kept barely alive in secret by two friendly priests, though in a near coma for six years. Returning to England, he finds Rowena married to Athelstane the Saxon and already a young mother. Ivanhoe then visits his lawyer, collects his money and begins years of searching for his lost love, Rebecca. Meanwhile Athelstane and Rowena take up arms against King John. Athelstane falls. Ivanhoe finds the widowed Rowena in prison with her son. With her dying breath, ever jealous of her Jewish rival, Rowena extorts a promise that Sir Wilfrid will never marry a Jew. In the end Ivanhoe tracks Rebecca down. She announces that she has become a Christian for love of Ivanhoe. They settle down, having adopted the son of Rowena and Athelstane. Their married life is said to be rather hum-drum and they die relatively young. So which book should you read first? At first blush this is a no-brainer: of course you read the earlier IVANHOE. But there are cons. IVANHOE is very long and intricate. REBECCA AND ROWENA is barely a novella and very straightforward. Modern Americans may therefore be more likely to want to read something short before something long. And REBECCA AND ROWENA does give the highlights of IVANHOE, a kind of Cliff Notes. Five years after the wedding of Ivanhoe and Rowena we see also Robin Hood as the Earl of Huntingdon, Friar Tuck as his chaplain, Gurth the swineherd married and promoted to forester for Mr and Mrs Ivanhoe, and Wamba the Jester with almost no one to laugh at his jokes but elevated as well to Sir Wilfrid's valet. REBECCA AND ROWENA abounds in humor and social commentary. I recommend that if you read it first, you go on right away to tackle IVANHOE next. -OOO- ====-=-=-=-=-=-=- III. Review for epinions.com REVIEW'S TITLE: "That icy, faultless, prim, niminy-piminy Rowena!" by aohcapablanca, Mar 23 '07 Sequels or spoofs by writers other than the original authors are rarely if ever as good as the original. Does anyone expect them to be? Ephraim Kishon's OH, OH, JULIET (German, ES WAR DIE LERCHE) is great fun but no ROMEO AND JULIET. And who would mention in the same breath as GONE WITH THE WIND Alice Randall's follow-on THE WIND DONE GONE? In 1829 Sir Walter Scott's IVANHOE conquered the literary world. Teen age John Henry Newman, the future Cardinal and inspirer of "Newman Clubs" on non-Catholic college campuses, hailed it as the greatest work since Shakespeare. Then 31 years later appeared REBECCA AND ROWENA by William Makepeace Thackeray of VANITY FAIR fame. It satirized IVANHOE and was meant to put a crimp in Victorian England's passion for all things Medieval. It was funny, learned, mildly angry and repeated enough of the plot of the original that you could skip reading the Sir Walter Scott version if you cared to. But one thing that REBECCA AND ROWENA did not do was stop either the historical novel or the Romantic Movement in their tracks. Thackeray's follow-on begins in the year 1199. Richard the Lion-Heart is about to die in battle, to be succeeded as King by his younger brother John of Anjou. Sir Wilfrid of Ivanhoe and the Lady Rowena have now been childlessly married for five years. Rebecca the Jewish healer and her rich moneylender father Isaac of York are in Spain at the friendly court of a Muslim emir. Rowena has become a sanctimonious prude. Thackeray says: And must
the disinherited knight, whose blood has been warmed in the company of
the tender and beautiful Rebecca, sit down contented for life by the
side of such a frigid piece of propriety as that icy, faultless, prim,
niminy-piminy Rowena? Forbid it Fate, forbid it poetical justice! (Ch.
I)
Ivanhoe is a hen-pecked idler, who longs for the good old Saracen-bashing days of the Third Crusade. Wamba is now both jester and valet to Ivanhoe. Gurth the Swineherd is Ivanhoe's forester. Robin Hood is the fat, law-abiding Earl of Huntingdon with the Franciscan Friar Tuck as his peace-loving chaplain. Only the Earl's wife, the onetime Maid Marian, is any fun and she won't go near Rowena and her long tales of her royal Saxon ancestors. In desperation Ivanhoe rides off to France to join the Lion-Heart in besieging a rebel castle. On the day Richard is felled by an arrow, Sir Wilfrid is stabbed in the back by a jealous courtier and is left on the field for dead by Wamba who returns to England and reports to Rowena. The widow has her wedding annulled in Rome and then weds Athelstane, noblest Saxon of them all. They have a son, Cedric, named for Sir Wilfrid's father. After six years in feverish disorientation Ivanhoe is cured, thanks to two kindly monks whose elixir saved him on the battlefield. Disguised as a pilgrim, Ivanhoe returns to England, sees how things are with Rowena and Athelstane, collects some money from his lawyer and commences a long search for his true love Rebecca. Toward novel's end, after Athelstane has fallen in rebellion against King John, a dying Rowena has entrusted her son to Ivanhoe (after first extracting his promise never to marry a Jewess). Fighting his way across Spain in wars against Muslims, Sir Wilfrid finally becomes so attached to and protective of Jews (in gratitude to Rebecca for curing him after the long ago tournament at Ashby) that he might have been burned at the stake, were he not such a prodigious slaughterer of the best and brightest of Muslim heroes. In the end Sir Wilfrid finds and weds Rebecca. Years before her father Isaac had locked her into a cellar because she had taken up the religion of her only love, Ivanhoe. And no Christian ever knew her catechism better. Thus Sir Wilfrid did not break his promise to Rowena not to marry a Jew. IVANHOE is a long, complex book. REBECCA AND ROWENA is short and uncomplicated. Thackeray's humor is more subtle, admittedly, than a battle axe but not inordinately so. In Scott's novel the incognito Sir Wilfrid of Ivanhoe in disguise at King John's great joust at Ashby carries on his shield the legend DESDICHADO, "The Disinherited." During his later anti-Moorish onslaughts in Spain his Jewish admirers call him "Desdichado Doblado" (the Doubly Disinherited). Deliberately scattered anachronisms by Thackeray are also mildly amusing. Thus, Sir Wilfred follows the Lion-Heart's campaign in France in the pages of St. James's Chronykyll. Once married to alcoholic Athelstane, Rowena sits on his knee while he smokes his cigar. Exaggeration is also used on the road to humor. In Scott's novel Ivanhoe is of slight build but a considerable warrior. King Richard, by contrast, is large and very strong, although no preternaturally powerful Samson. But in REBECCA AND ROWENA, both Richard and Ivanhoe slay hundreds of opponents with their swords or battle axes every day. An angry Richard tosses a thirteen hundred pound axe 300 yards to land on a man's foot. Ha, ha? Thackeray also imitates Scott's style now and then, at times producing something well written beyond mere parody, for example, Ivanhoe's admonitory ballad of King Canute. All in all an amusing, worthwhile read. I think, however, that most readers will still prefer their IVANHOE straight from Walter Scott, undiluted and undistorted. -OOO- Pros: Walter Scott's IVANHOE retold and projected into the future amusingly and briefly. Cons: Thackeray succeeds at times at being too cute and self-consciously brilliant. The Bottom Line: If you know IVANHOE, read REBECCA AND ROWENA. Or if you want a stand alone Cliff Notes synopsis and tongue-in-cheek follow-on to IVANHOE, then chuckle over REBECCA AND ROWENA. Overall Product Rating: * * * * Above Average Recommended: Yes ==-=-=-=-= Black Mountain 03/24/2007 |