Question

Which lines in this excerpt from Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe indicate that the novel is a work of historical fiction?

Answer 1

The first thing to do is to understand what historical fiction is to then figure out if Ivanhoe, written by Sir Walter Scott in 1820, is indeed a work that belongs to this genre.

Historical fiction, by definition, is a genre that seeks to portray true historical events within a story or literary work that is not necessarily real. For example, many authors seek to create a story and choose a specific timeframe, event or timeline that fits within a certain historical moment. Although the story may not be real, its characters, settings or even events may be invented, some portions of the story, whether in the plot, the characters, or the environment in which the story takes place, may be from real-life historical events or people.

In the case of Ivanhoe, this particular literary work fits into the classification of historical novel and this can be seen because in portions of the text, you find allusions and direct mention of facts, names and events that are historically real. In this particular excerpt, you can see this in lines 4 to 8, where the author talks about the Saxons and their impact on the English way of life at the time mentioned in the story.

Answer 2

At one end of this ghastly apartment was a large fire-grate, over the top of which were stretched some transverse iron bars, half devoured with rust.