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The talisman walter scott

First Edition, First Impression:

Tales of the Crusaders. By the Author of "Waverley", "Quentin Durward", &c. In Four Volumes. Vol. I (II-IV). Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co. Edinburgh; And Hurst, Robinson and Co., London, 1825.

Composition

Synopsis

This novel focuses on the Third Crusade which had been triggered by the conquest in 1187 of almost the whole of Palestine, including Jerusalem, by Salah-ed-Din Yusef ibn Ayub or Saladin. The plot revolves around the Crusaders' camp in the Holy Land which is being torn apart by tensions between rival leaders. The most influential, Richard the Lionheart, is ill, which accentuates the divisions among the Christian forces. On a mission far from the camp, the poor Scottish crusader Sir Kenneth, or the Knight of the Leopard, comes across a Saracen emir with whom, after inconclusive combat, he strikes up a friendship. The emir is none other than Saladin himself. He manages to gain access to the Christian camp by disguising himself as a physician sent to Richard the Lionheart, whom he quickly cures with the aid of the talisman of the novel's title. Sir Kenneth is entrusted to guard the banner of England during the night but he is lured from his post by Queen Berengaria, Richard's wife, who has an urgent message for him from Edith Plantagenet with whom Sir Kenneth is enamoured. During his absence the English flag is torn down and his faithful hound wounded. Sir Kenneth is dishonoured and only escapes execution thanks to the emir who agrees to take him as his slave. Saladin treats Kenneth kindly before the knight returns to the camp disguised as a mute attendant to King Richard, whom he saves from assassination. Richard sees through Sir Kenneth's disguise but awards him the chance to find the man who wounded his hound and tore down the banner. As the forces march past the re-erected standard the hound leaps upon Richard's rival, Conrade of Montserrat, and brings him down from his horse. A trial by combat is arranged between Conrade and Sir Kenneth which the Scottish knight wins. Afterwards Sir Kenneth is revealed to be Prince David of Scotland. His royal status thus entitles him to pursue his union with Edith Plantagenet.

Reception

Charles Mills (1788-1826), who had written a History of the Crusades, took offence at Scott's assertion in his introduction to The Talisman that an Edith Plantagenet had existed. He defied the novelist to produce evidence to support his statement and accused Scott of deliberately misleading his readers. Indeed The Talisman gave rise to much debate amongst the critics as to the use that can be justifiably made of historical facts in fiction. The Quarterly Review commended The Talisman for surpassing grandeur and effect and praised the construction of the story. The Edinburgh Magazine praised characterization, diction and costume but criticism the overuse of Oriental themes. The Examiner asserted that Richard was by far the best character, but that the novel in general was too melodramatic. Criticism from the London Magazine focused upon Scott's descriptions of clothes and furniture which it felt rendered the novel tedious. Richard and Saladin were praised by most readers. More significantly however, The Talisman is perhaps the first novel is English to portray Muslims in a positive light.

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Last updated: 19-Dec-2011
© Edinburgh University Library

The Talisman

The Talisman is Sir Walter Scott's tale of the Crusades -- a tale of chivalry, of violence, of virtue, romance, and deceit. In Scott's own words: . the warlike character of Richard I, wild and generous, a pattern of chivalry, with all its extravagant virtues, and its no less absurd errors, was opposed to that of Saladin, in which the Christian and English monarch showed all the cruelty and violence of an Eastern sultan, and Saladin, on the other hand, displayed the deep policy and prudence of a European sovereign, whilst each contended which should excel the other in the knightly qualities of bravery and generosity. This singular contrast afforded, as the author conceived, materials for a work of fiction possessing peculiar interest.

Genres ClassicsHistorical FictionFictionAdventureHistoricalLiteratureRomance

388 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1823

About the author

Walter Scott

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

British writer Sir Walter Scott popularized and refined a genre of ballads and historical novels; his works include Waverley (1814) and Ivanhoe (1819).

Sir Walter Alva Scott created and called a series. Scott arranged the plots and characters so that the reader enters into the lives of great and ordinary persons, caught in violent, dramatic changes.

Work of Scott shows the influence of the 18th century Enlightenment. He thought of every basically decent human, regardless of class, religion, politics, or ancestry. A major theme tolerates. They express his theory in the need for social progress that rejects not the traditions of the past.

He first portrayed peasant characters sympathetically and realistically and equally justly portrayed merchants, soldiers, and even kings.

In central themes, cultures conflict and oppose. Normans and Saxons warred. In The Talisman (1825), Christians and Muslims conflict. He deals with clashes between the new English and the old Scottish culture. Other great include Old Mortality (1816), The Heart of Midlothian (1819), and Saint Ronan's Well (1824). His series includes Rob Roy (1817), A Legend of Montrose (1819), and Quentin Durward (1823).

Amiability, generosity, and modesty made Scott popular with his contemporaries. He also famously entertained on a grand scale at Abbotsford, his Scottish estate.

**One of the standout characters** in MLP: Friendship is Magic is the protagonist, Twilight Sparkle, a studious and intelligent unicorn pony who becomes a princess and the leader of her group of friends, known as the Mane Six. Through their various adventures, the Mane Six learn valuable lessons about friendship, teamwork, and acceptance. The art style and animation of MLP: Friendship is Magic have also been praised for their vibrant colors and cute character designs.

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A lone knight heavily armed, covered with armor travels through the hot arid desert to reach the Dead Sea, equally without life on horseback he looks at the empty surface the small space, a peculiar odor that omits from it, the strange color unlike any other lake, the salt contents so thick that a person floats to the top without effort underneath the Bible says, the wicked cities destroyed by God lie hundreds of feet below, at the never seen bottom. Sir Kenneth of Scotland as he calls himself ( disguises are prevalent in the novel) is on a special, secret, (King Richard, wants to continue to fight) hazardous mission, for the Kings and nobles the Third Crusade is coming to an end in 1192. The knight must get out of the tormenting endless Sun, a small spring with a couple of Palm trees nearby for shade, the weary rider sees something moving on the horizon too, quickly coming he ascertains it's a Saracen. The battle, the Christian has a long lance and sword sharp dagger, big shield, with a chain mail, his horse also the Muslim ( the Emir Sherkohf he discovers later) stays away and shoots arrows very accurately. The exhausting skirmish soon becomes a stalemate the truce is declared the tired, brave combatants become unlikely friends with reservations, both drink the precious pure waters from the spring, they eat a meal the Knight sips wine and eats pork which the Emir finds repugnant and both sleep under the Palm trees. ..Sir Kenneth must meet a hermit the Venerable Theodorick, the Saracen can help, he knows this eccentric man and where he lives. A pile of rocks, in the middle of the desolate land, the wild man appears like a savage the Emir is attacked by the tall madman, but the Emir laughs. taken deep into a cave well hidden and difficult to find. Sir Kenneth must speak in private to the monk about a permanent truce between the Crusaders and Sultan Saladin, to end the war while King Richard the Lionhearted is ill. This now normal yet clever human, is friend's to both sides. The knight is left alone in a secret side cave, two unearthly dwarfs come from under the floor from a trap door and soon leave, feminine voices sweetly singing hymns penetrate through the stones, soon a procession of nuns and boys materializes march three times around the tiny room, the beautiful lady Edith drops rosebuds at his feet. Sir Kenneth is smitten, who would not? he must see her again. back at the Crusader's camp in Palestine, the Christian armies are restless King Philip of France wants to go home, Archduke Leopold of Austria, a Marquis, Conrade of Montferrat ( northern Italy), and other royal leaders also, the crumbling quest seems about to collapse too many rivalries and dissensions . The goal of capturing the holy city of Jerusalem not possible now. A skillful mystifying Arabian physician sent by Saladin, El Hakim arrives and saves the life of King Richard with a magical bag ( a talisman). why? The hopeless love of the Scottish knight for Lady Edith, cousin of the ferocious English monarch and he just a lowly knight or is he. When chivalry was at its zenith, kings and nobles knights and their ladies, enemies vanquished the good will win in any contest but reality soon becomes clear, not always. And Saladin was more noble than the Christians. An interesting tale full of adventurous scenes and colorful characters some who actually lived, dominated by the magnificent Richard the Lionheart.

1 book 82.1k followers

The Talisman wins my respect for its sympathetic portrayal of a Muslim--rare for 1825--and it wins my affection not only for its memorable characterizations of Lionheart and Saladin, but also for its vivid descriptions of Crusader and Saracen dress and pageantry. The style is verbose, the dialogue is infuriating in its deliberate stiltedness (as if anyone ever talked in this pseudo-Medieval fashion!), and its plot--a far cry from the carefully structured "Ivanhoe"--is thin and melodramatic (with one device that strongly resembles a TV episode of "Lassie"). Nevertheless, its thoughtful themes and basic humanity redeem it in the end.

Both in Ivanhoe and here, Scott focuses on the real outsiders of society (the Muslim, the Jew) and compares and contrasts them with the "inside outsider" (the Scot, the Saxon knight, the patriotic outlaw), showing how both groups serve to enrich and broaden a hierarchical, exclusionary culture.

Even more interesting is the fact that these outsiders often succeed in their objectives by adopting an even lowlier disguise: the Saracen prince transforms himself first into a simple Muslim warrior and secondly into a Moorish physician in order to understand better his Crusader foes, the penitent knight turned hermit counterfeits madness in order to conceal his political machinations to win the Holy Land, and the Scottish prince--first disguised as a humble knight and then dishonored--returns to the tent of his English king in the guise of a mute Ethiopian slave, later emerging triumphant as His Majesty's anonymous champion. In a larger sense, though, all these outsiders are anonymous champions--"invisible men" (the echo of Ralph Ellison is deliberate) exploiting their marginal status to achieve admirable goals.

طلسم کتابی ایست از والتر اسکات ، نویسنده اسکاتلندی که بیشتر او را به عنوان پدر رمان تاریخی می شناسند. این رمان بر اساس وقایع واقعی جنگ‌های صلیبی نوشته شده‌، اما وجود عناصری تخیلی و داستانی ، از وجه تاریخی کتاب کاسته و طلسم را البته همانگونه که نام کتاب نشان می دهد باید بیشتر تخیلی دانست تا تاریخی .

در کتاب اسکات شخصیت های تاریخی مانند ریچارد شیردل - همان برادر پرنس جان در کارتون رابین هود است ( نام پرنس جان گرچه در کتاب بسیار کم آمده و هر دو بار هم به بی کفایتی او در جمع آوری مالیات اشاره شده اما او را می توان به سبب کارتون بسیار مشهور رابین هود ( محصول سال 1973 به کارگردانی ولفگانگ رایترمن ) بسیار شناخته شده تر از دیگران دانست ) ، فیلیپ دوم ، پادشاه فرانسه ، لئوپولد پنجم ، پادشاه اتریش و البته صلاح الدین ایوبی ، فرمانده مشهور مسلمانان در جنگ های صلیبی حضور دارند ، اسکات از یک واقعه تاریخی یعنی اختلافات میان کشورهای مسیحی و بی خردی ریچارد شیردل استفاده کرده و داستان خود را بیان کرده است ، طرح داستانی او بسیار ساده و سست بوده و پایان کتاب را هم به راحتی می توان حدس زد .

کتاب خوبی بود. فقط ترجمه دلچسب و روان نبود و مملو از کلمات نامانوس و عربی بود و گاها مجبور بودم به فرهنگ لغت مراجعه کنم. چند نمونه برای استحضار کسانی که قصد خواندن دارند می آورم:
مضایقه از تطویل بقا و تسکین درد کبر پرعصیانی است ص 271.
آنان دیوانگان را ملهم عالم بالا می پندارند ص 173.
ما در این وادی میغ آلود بشری طی طریق می کنیم ص 382.
او آماده استماع احتجاج های شاه نبود ص 379.
نظامات مقرره جامعه 208
تحذیر را تجاهل کرد 221
احاله خواهم کرد 234
نسق مستور داشتند 228
معاضدت 370
رامشگر 209
مطمح 304
ترضیه خاطر 306
و.
نمی دانم آیا ترجمه دیگری از این کتاب شده یا نه؟ اگر نشده این کتاب اکیدا به یک ترجمه امروزی و روان و زیبا نیاز دارد.

The Talisman (Tales of the Crusaders #2), (1825), Sir Walter Scott
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: سوم ماه سپتامبر سال 1971 میلادی
عنوان: طلسم ؛ نویسنده: والتر اسکات؛ مترجم: حسین دره باغی؛ تهران، بنگاه ترجمه و نشر کتاب، 1340؛ در 345 ص؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان انگلیسی قرن 19 م
در سپاه صلیبیون مستقر در سرزمین مقدس، به رهبری ریچارد شیردل، نفاق درگرفته است. رهبران دیگر عبارتند از: فیلیپ، پادشاه فرانسه؛ لئوپولد، دوک اتریش؛ مارکی دو مونتسرات، و استاد اعظم شهسواران پرستشگاه. شهسوار بیچاره اما جسوری از اسکاتلند، معروف به سرکنت یا شهسوار یوزپلنگ، احترامی راستین و البته متقابل نسبت به امیری عرب احساس می‌کند. آن دو بی‌هیچ نتیجه‌ ای با یکدیگر جنگ تن به تن کرده‌ اند. این برخورد نتایجی بسیار مطلوب برای سر کنت در پی دارد، زیرا دیری نمی‌گذرد که دچار مشکل بزرگی می‌شود. یک شب که مسئول حفاظت از بیرق انگلستان است، از ادیت دو پلانتاژنه که دوستش می‌دارد پیغامی دریافت می‌کند و از مأموریت خود غافل می‌شود. مسئول این توطئه ملکه برانژر، همسر ریچارد است. دشمنان با استفاده از غیبت کوتاه سر کنت، بیرقی را که مسئول حفظ آن بود، پاره پاره می‌کنند. کنت به یاری پزشکی عرب که کسی جز امیر نیست، از مرگی که ریچارد بدان محکومش کرده بود، نجات می‌یابد. امیر به او لباس می‌دهد. پزشک دروغین به نفع کنت مداخله می‌کند، و موفق می‌شود که او را به نام «برده» با خود ببرد. صلاح‌الدین ـ پزشک ـ با او رفتاری انسانی در پیش می‌گیرد، و سر کنت را در لباس برده‌ ای مغربی به نزد ریچارد بازمی‌فرستند. سر کنت شاه را از توطئه قتل نجات می‌دهد، و خود را به او می‌شناساند؛ شاه از گناه او درمی‌گذرد، و دستش را بازمی‌گذارد، تا کسی را که به بیرق ملی بی‌ حرمتی کرده است، بیابد. این شخص کنراد دو مونتسرات است. بی‌درنگ نبردی تن به تن ترتیب می‌دهند، و طی آن، کنت مونتسرات را شکست می‌دهد و زخمی می‌کند. در این حال، معلوم می‌شود که سر کنت، در حقیقت دیوید، پرنس اسکاتلند است. بدین‌سان مشکل دون‌ پایگی ولادت، که مانعی بر پیوند او با ادیت دو پلانتاژنه بود، برطرف می‌شود. طلسمی که عنوان رمان بدان اشاره دارد، تعویذی است که صلاح‌ الدین به کمک آن ریچارد را معالجه می‌کند. یادآوری این نکته جالب است که خانواده لاکهارت (که والتر اسکات از آنان بود) تعویذی در اختیار داشت، به نام: لی-پنی که سیمون لاکهارت، از جنگی صلیبی با خود آورده بود. این رمان، که سرشار از توصیفهای زنده و بدیع از فلسطین است، جزو بهترین آثار والتر اسکات به شمار می‌رود. ا. شربیانی

22 books 2,222 followers

I really enjoyed The Talisman. The Scottish Knight and the Moslem of many, many disguises. The story has everything with romance, chivalry, treason, intrigue and a brave dog. Richard the Lion heart comes across as a volatile, quick tempered and not to bright King. In contrast, Soltan is the exact opposite.

The backdrop of the Dead Sea and desert is evocative with hermits and the rag tail crusaders with their heads of state insecurities over Richards leadership and fame. Once again Scott has used class as a divide in romance with apparently Edith the cousin of Richard above the lowly Sir Kenneth.

All in all an enjoyable read.

2 books 3,042 followers

Not exactly what I was excepting but I rather enjoyed this one. It read a little like reading a novel of a Shakespeare history play to me.

En realidad 4'5.
Genial. Me ha parecido que esta novela está muy bien ambientada (el estudio histórico previo es perfecto). A mi me ha encantado, y eso que las Cruzadas no son mi época preferida precisamente.
En la mayoría de la novela hay varios elementos de sorpresa, que no espera el lector. Sin embargo en las últimas 100 páginas, ya el lector sabe lo que va a pasar, pero aún así es un muy bien libro.
Además del aspecto histórico, me ha gustado muchísimo el mensaje de amistad y de tolerancia.
Con ganas de repetir con Scott.

Sir Walter Scott writes wonderfully enjoyable historical fiction. He first ventured into this realm in 1814 with the novel, Waverley which was published anonymously as Scott's first venture into prose fiction and possibly the first-ever historical novel. His subsequent novels came to be called Waverley novels, including this story. The Talisman is the middle in the trilogy about one of England's most popular kings ~~ King Richard I (the Lion-Hearted), which begins with The Betrothed and concludes with Ivanhoe.

There are many times Scott (through his characters) gets a bit carried away in song and verse, but if you can overlook (or skim through!) these, it's a fine adventure story about the Third Crusade. Some might say the history is a bit fanciful, some might even say it's more fantasy than history. Well, never mind, standards were different then. Indeed, Scott rather set the standard as it were. It is true he was a staunch Protestant and thought most of the problems with the period had to do with Roman Catholicism, and could be cured by the Reformation, but we're all entitled to our opinions, especially when it's your book.

All that said, if you haven't read it, it's worth the reading from the perspective of Scott's perspective, even if it weren't a rollicking good tale, which it is!

Started: 3 Dec 2005

The Talisman opens with a Red Cross Knight toiling across the desert plain in Syria (modern Israel). He meets a Saracen and engages in thrilling combat that results in a friendly truce. The warriors then set off together to the camp of King Richard. Scott paints a vivid portrait of Richard’s camp and the political machinations of the various leaders participating in the Crusade. Our knight is caught between the rival factions and must regain his honor with the help of his unlikely Saracen ally.

Like Ivanhoe, the book requires perseverance for the first half, but then all the strands come together and the story amply rewards the initial effort. The conclusion was so exciting, I listened to it on Librivox and then went back and read it again on my Kindle.

As with 'Ivanhoe','The Talisman' is a humorous, exciting, romantic adventure that deals with the Crusades, the Church, ambitious Europeans lords of Christendom, and Richard the Lionheart. This book, however, takes place in the Holy Land during the Third Crusade and contrary to expectations contains little Christian/Mohammadan hostilities, but rather is driven entirely on the conflict of in-fighting and conspiring within the Christian camp.
There are so many intriguing facets to the novel. The portrayal of muslims, especially their sultan, Saladin, is more realistic and less stereotyped as is typical of Eurocentric and Chistian culture in general. There is also the interesting motif that no one in the novel, save King Richard, is who they say they are or pretend to be.
This book is a worthy companion to 'Ivanhoe' if not for the literary aspect, then certainly in a historic, scholarly capacity, as it shows Scott's interpretation of the figure of Richard I. 'Ivanhoe' and 'The Talisman' when put together give a very interesting view of the man; his faults, his hubris, his honor, and his courage and nobility.

Sir Walter Scott was a much-loved author of the 19th century: he wrote great tales of adventure, as appealing now as they were then, but today we read them with a keen awareness of the British sense of entitlement which guides Scott’s characters’ actions.

The Talisman is a tale of the Crusades, set in 1190 and beginning when there was a truce between the Saracens and King Richard the Lionheart. As with many another historical novel, Scott takes liberties with the historical record, and probably with his depictions of Arab culture too, but rather than analyse its deficiencies with a post-colonial eye, I chose to surrender to the adventure instead.

BEWARE: SPOILERS (Nothing but, really)

It begins, as does The Faerie Queen with the image of the lone knight plodding through an eerie landscape, in this case the arid wastes of the desert. He’s weighed down by all the chain mail paraphernalia of the knight and Scott notes that many crusaders died from the effects of the torpid heat. However this knight (and his horse) have adapted easily. Clearly he has exceptional qualities of endurance, and he’s also honorable. After two years on the campaign he’s run out of money to support the usual followers (who we presume would cook his meals, wash his socks and help him repel the enemy) but the reason for his impecunious state is that (a) he wasn’t well off to start with, though clearly better off than a luckless peasant and (b) (unlike other crusaders) he’s chosen not to rob those he’s defeated nor demand ransom for their return. His squire, who by rights should be loyal and therefore not in need of any such sordid inducement as regular payment, is absent because he is ill, not because he’s shot through. Is our hero cast down by his circumstances? Certainly not. He ‘was accustomed to consider his good sword as his safest escort, and devout thoughts as his best companion’.

To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/201.

I have to admit that the overwhelming feeling I am left with after finishing this book is one of amusement. It's a story largely of man's folly in believing that honour is the most important thing to consider - to the point that King Richard very nearly kills our hero just because someone stole a flag that he was supposed to be guarding!!

But once you get over the really old-fashioned points of view, the story is ok. Set at the times of the crusades, it follows Sir Kenneth as he sort of falls from one accidental incident to another, all while keeping his heroic, manly, upstanding bearing - I suppose this is the precursor to the English 'stiff-upper-lip'! Everything turns out ok in the end, with the bad guys well and truly trounced, and the good guys all getting on is the most super way!

Despite what I've just written, I did enjoy it - my copy is really old and has some interesting colour plates illustrating the book, which was an added bonus.

Loved this book! A good solid adventure about the crusades with Richard the Lionheart and the Soldan Suleiman. What makes this special is Scott’s talent in writing rich dialogue that immersed me completely into the novel every time I picked it up. The characters came to life, even the secondary characters, and the plot with all the scheming and changes in loyalties, all shone through the dialogue. Then the elaborate medieval setting with just enough meticulous details each time to set the scene without Scott blabbering on as if he needed to prove his knowledge. perfect! A real master at writing literary adventures. if only modern writers could be this eloquent. Having now read The Talisman and Ivanhoe, I look forward to reading more of his works.

Sir Walter Scott's second Crusades novel, The Talisman (1825), is an absorbing and humorous book set in the holy land during the 3rd Crusade. The Crusaders are not unlike the invading and besieging Greeks in The Iliad: formidable fighters riven by the mutual pride, suspicion, envy, and hatred of their leaders, a connection that Scott highlights by comparing Richard the Lionheart to Achilles and King Philip of France to Odysseus. And the major movement of the plot hinges on an argument over the relative positioning of the Austrian and English flags on a hill.

The novel opens with the chance meeting of two solitary enemy knights, a Crusader from Scotland, Sir Kenneth of the Couchant Leopard, and a Saracen emir, Ilderim Sheerkohf (the Lion of the Mountains) at an oasis in the desert. After an exciting fight to a draw, the men make a truce, leading to an interesting and comical clash of cultures as the Kurdish Saracen insists on guiding the Scot to his destination, the sacred chapel-retreat of a wild Christian hermit. The two men admire each other’s martial ability and spirit, but scorn each other's customs and ideas about everything from nourishment and marriage to climatology and, of course, religion (each man figuring the other is bound for hell). While they are riding through the part of the wilderness where Jesus fasted for forty days and was tempted by Satan, the Kurd irritates the quiet and respectful Scot by singing sensual Persian songs about, for instance, how one Rudpiki prefers the mole on the bosom of his mistress to all the wealth of Bokhara and Samarcand. It will develop that neither man is quite what he seems at first.

Meanwhile, sick in the Crusader camp in Palestine stews Richard the Lionheart, the only leader with guts and charisma and ability to unify all the crusaders from different countries for their purpose of retrieving Jerusalem from the “infidels,” but therefore also the leader most envied and hated by his fellow leaders. And while the army is immobilized by Richard's illness, the different feuds and enmities of the soldiers fester: the French and English, the English and Scotts, the Italians and Germans, and the Danes and Swedes all hate each other, and there are no worthy leaders to replace Richard, so they’re stuck in a truce in the holy land, having to pay Saladin for water and food just to sustain themselves, while whole bands of soldiers daily give up the cause and return home. And then the duplicitous Conrade of Monserrat and the creepy Grand Master of the Templars are scheming their own agendas. And Richard’s spoiled young queen Berengaria is either playing appalling pranks or giving vent to “ecstasies and passionate hypochondriacal effusions.” And a courtly love affair between people of too wildly different stations leads to unexpected consequences. And a faithful and intelligent hound named Roswal (“a majestic dog”) does his perilous duty. And just where is Saladin, anyway?

The Talisman might not be historically accurate in terms of things like the fate of Conrad, the presence of Sir Kenneth, and the age of Richard’s feisty kinswoman Edith, but it’s a lot of fun. Scott takes great pleasure in his history, as when he depicts a feast hosted by Leopold the Archduke of Austria wherein the ruler is attended by his “proverb-monger,” who shakes clashing coins on the end of his rod to announce an impending pearl of wisdom and then utters it, and by his fool, who shakes the bells in his motley cap and mocks the wisdom of the "sage," who then feels compelled to explicate the fool’s cryptic mockery to the company at large, which then provokes the fool to mock him more, until between their competing coins and bells and ever noisier utterances it’s difficult to decide who is the greater fool and who the greater entertainer.

Despite setting his novel at a crisis point of the 3rd Crusades, Scott is more interested in personality, desire, power, gender, chivalry, and love than in warfare, and writes no large-scale battles and surprisingly few fights between Crusaders and Saracens. His book is refreshingly unbiased towards Moslems or Crusaders and presents them all as interesting and flawed people. The ending is too sudden and contrived, but The Talisman is mostly an entertaining, humorous, and suspenseful book with interesting characters, snappy early 19th century medieval dialogue, and many great lines worthy of rereading and savoring:

“The wise man warms him by the same firebrand with which the madman burneth the tent.”

“Seek a fallen star . . . and thou shalt only light on some foul jelly, which, in shooting through the horizon, has assumed for a moment an appearance of splendour.”

“But in the Crusade, itself an undertaking wholly irrational, the quality of sound reason, of all others least esteemed, and the chivalric valor which both the age and the enterprise demanded was considered as debased if mingled with the least touch of discretion.”

Fans of historical romances, Crusades literature, or Walter Scott should read The Talisman (there's a good free LibraVox recording of it).

The Talisman a Tale of the Crusaders by Sir Walter Scott, First Edition (7 results)

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