Sealed Ivanhoe The Lists of Ashby by Sir Walter Scott read by Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Vinyl 2024 Record Album LP Spoken Word

Ivanhoe The Lists of Ashby is story by Sir Walter Scott read for you on this double vinyl by Douglas Fairbanks Jr. The pounding of horses' hooves and pennants flying, russet and black, from the tops of pitched pavilions... knights in armor, jousting at a giant tournament, their lances flashing in sunlight, while lords and ladies look on from galleries spread with tapestries and cushions and the multitude screams with excitement from the banks of turf and the branches of trees surrounding the broad bright green meadow... trumpets sound... a masked knight kneels before the throne of honor at the feet of a lovely lady...

Sounds like one of those old-fashioned Hollywood movies in technicolor about medieval times, with knights in armor and costumed nobles, where the great castle is engulfed in flames at the climax. And indeed, where would Hollywood have been without the novels of Sir Walter Scott to point the way? Ivanhoe, in fact, furnished the plot for two Hollywood movies—a silent film back in 1913, starring Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. and then, in 1952, a full-scale spectacle starring Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders and Emlyn Williams.

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Ivanhoe The Lists of Ashby by Sir Walter Scott read by Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Vinyl: Factory Sealed
Cover: Factory Sealed, some shrink open at edge, mild shelf wear, edge bumps, some soiling on back cover

Side A: 29:52
Side B: 33:03
Side C: 32:55
Side D: 30:36
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But there is something more to Ivanhoe than romantic spectacle and derring-do-although there is plenty of that and to spare—and there is much more to its author than a mere spinner of swashbuckling tales to inspire screenwriters a century after his death.

Scott was one of the most remarkable literary figures of his age, and one of the busiest writers who ever lived. He wrote enough books to account for several lifetimes in the careers of most authors. He made his mark in three different fields-in the study of balladry, in the composition of poems of action, and finally in the development of the historical novel, which still owes its essential character to his exploratory efforts. Born in Scotland in 1771, during the flower of England's romantic period, he attended the University of Edinburgh and studied for the bar. But on his vacations he came to know and love the Border countryside, and he began collecting folk songs which were published in 1802 in the two-volume Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. These studies led him to try his own hand at narrative poetry, including The Lay of the Last Minstrel, Lochinvar, Marmino, and The Lady of The Lake. When his later narrative poems waned in popularity, he turned to the prose romance, and wrote a series of books known as the “Waverly Novels'' including, among others, Guy Mannering, The Heart of Midlothian and The Bride of Lammermoor. All these took place in Scotland. Then, in 1819, Scott decided to shift the locale of his historical romances to England, and wrote Ivanhoe, the first and most popular of a series that included Kenilworth, Quentin Durward and The Talisman. Ivanhoe, in fact, was one of three novels published in the same year-a year when the author was so ill that he had to dictate his prose from bed. He also wrote a number of plays, studies in biography and on legends and antiquity, contributed articles to the Encyclopedia Britannica and helped found the Quarterly Review. He might have been a wealthy man through his writings, but Scott also built an extravagant baronial mansion, and invested heavily in a publishing house that went into bankruptcy in 1826. He spent the rest of his days working to pay off his debts, ruining his health as he turned out one manuscript after another. He had written his Waverley novels anonymously, but when suspicions were voiced that Scott was their author, many in the British literary establishment refused to believe it: when would this busy writer have had time to produce such long books?

Scott was known in his day as the “Wizard of the North,” and nothing justifies the nickname better than Ivanhoe, long considered the most exciting of his stories. Here in this tale of England in the days just after the Norman Conquest is all the action and pageantry Scott knew so well how to set in motion. Here is a whole age brought to life in vivid description. Here are skillfully portrayed characters, the minor ones out of history, the principles invented to suit the plot. But here, too, is something more-something subtler and more profound that the critics of his day and the Hollywood adapters overlooked: beneath the frenzy of the action, many a penetrating look stolen at the snobberies and injustices and bigotries that plagued the age he was describing, and that continue to plague mankind today.

The hero of Ivanhoe is Wilfred, Knight of Ivanhoe, the son of Cedric the Saxon. He has fallen in love with his father's ward Rowena. Cedric, however, has other plans for her. She must marry Athelstane, a descendant of the Royal Saxon line. There is another beauty in the story-a Jewess named Rebecca, the daughter of the wealthy merchant Isaac of York who lends his money more than once to save Britain's rulers from bankruptcy. She is just about the first Jewess since Shakespeare's Jessica in The Merchant of Venice to be drawn sympathetically in a British novel. Rebecca is more beautiful and more charming than the rather one-dimensional Rowena. But Ivanhoe ignores her; he is steadfastly in love with Rowena. Meanwhile, the novel sweeps on from one episode to the next, assembling its huge cast of fair ladies and chivalrous knights in scenes rich with color and suspense. There is a great tournament, where Ivanhoe, masked as the "Disinherited Knight,” wins the day against his enemies in the presence of Prince John, who is trying to keep his brother King Richard a prisoner in Austrian hands so that he can usurp the English throne. There are scenes featuring Robin Hood (under the name of Locksley) and Richard the LionHearted disguised as the Black Sluggard. Finally, there is the scene that has since proved so dear to the hearts of historical movie makers-the burning of the great castle, followed by the joust at the Priory of the Knights Templar and the happy clinch between hero and heroine.

For this reading, brimming with action and performed with exceptional skill and enthusiasm by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. the editor has chosen six chapters dealing specifically with the great tournament where Ivanhoe, as the masked Disinherited Knight, proves himself in a joust with sharp weapons against all comers. The scenes are drawn from chapters seven through ten, and chap-- ters twelve and thirteen, and are among the most exciting in the book. But the careful listener will detect beneath the yells of the commoners, the bloodthirsty atmosphere, the brutality of combat and the general pageantry, the narrow-minded smallness of these mobles who sneer at the Jew Isaac-who must nevertheless he handled with gingerly tact by Prince John if he is to have his purse filled by the money-lender and pursue his political ambitions. And if in Isaac the otherwise perceptive Scott has drawn a stereotype not too far distinguished in lineaments from his literary forebear Shylock, the author has certainly tried to make up for it in depicting the beautiful Rebecca. At any rate, so much happens in these chapters of Ivanhoe that those who would enjoy Scott for sheer action and exuberance of description will be amply rewarded for the time spent listening on these terms alone.
-PAUL KRESH

Paul Kresh is currently hard at work at what will be the 2024 standard biography of Isaac Bashevis Singer. Mr. Kresh is well known as an authority on matters literary and musical.

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. born in New York City in 1909 has been known and loved by movie, theatre and radio audiences since his debut in Stephen Steps Out in 1923. He officially became a "star" in 1932 with Chances. Since then he has acted in and/or produced over 75 films including Stella Dallas, Little Caesar, The Dawn Patrol, Catherine the Great, The Prisoner of Zenda, The Young in Heart, Gunga Din, The Fighting O'Flynn, That Lady in Ermine and State Secret.

Since his stage debut in 1927 in Los Angeles, he has continued to act in the theatre between films, both in the United States and the United Kingdom. He has recently played Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady, recreated the role of "Pogo” Poole in The Pleasure of His Company and toured with The Secretary Bird. As both a producer and an actor he has been involved in television programs in the United States, England, Europe and the Far East. Mr. Fairbanks may also be heard on the Caedmon recordings of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (TC 1394), BLUESKIN THE PIRATE (TC 1438) and THE FLYING DUTCHMAN (TC 1454).

CREDITS:
Cover: Milo Winter Library of Congress # 75-750246
© Caedmon, 1977 Directed by Ward Botsford
Studio Recording: Jonathan Gibbs
Tape Editor: Daniel A. Wolfert Mastering: Howard W. Harris

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