Ivanhoe - Walter Scott

Set in 12th-century England, with colourful descriptions of a tournament, outlaws, a witch trial, and divisions between Jews and Christians, Ivanhoe is credited for increased interest in chivalric romance and medievalism. John Henry Newman claimed that Scott "had first turned men's minds in the direction of the Middle Ages", while Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin likewise asserted Scott's great influence upon the revival of interest in the mediaeval period, primarily based upon the publication of the novel Ivanhoe. Moreover, Ivanhoe much influenced popular perceptions of Richard the Lionheart, King John, and Robin Hood.