Source: Wikipedia

Today marks the end of week 4 of the Ivanhoe read-along, hosted by Rachelle of The Reading Wench. Check out her kick-off post or mine for more information about the event. Our reading schedule is below, if you'd like to play catch up:

• Mon. 24th Nov. – Sun. 30th Nov.: Chapters 1 – 7
• Mon. 1st Dec. – Sun. 7th Dec.: Chapters 8 – 16
• Mon. 8th Dec. – Sun. 14th Dec.: Chapters 17 – 25
• Mon. 15th Dec. – Sun. 21st Dec.: Chapters 26 – 31
• Mon. 22nd Dec. – Sun. 28th Dec.: Chapters 32 – 38
• Mon. 29th Dec. – Sun. 4th Jan.: Chapters 39 – 44

I was halfway through writing a detailed, spoiler-ific synopsis when I realized that Rachelle did a much better, succinct job of it. Go check out her recap for the big picture of what happened this week.

After her awesomeness last week, I found myself rolling my eyes at Rebecca's near-instantaneous love fest for Wilfred of Ivanhoe. I kept thinking, "C'mon, gal, he might be cute, but he's racist as hell, and you deserve better." I suppose this is what happens when a 21st-century woman reads 19th-century literature about the Middle Ages. Thankfully, Urfried/Ulrica provided the perfect foil. Much like Rachelle, I couldn't get over how awesome she is, despite her very serious flaws. The scene in which she's standing on the burning turret, crying out her battle/revenge hymn, before she goes down in flames will stick with me for a while yet. Also, I am so, so glad that Front-de-Boeuf got his. Good riddance.

A short recap this week, I know, but I continue to drag my feet on this one! I'm finding myself glad to have read it, but the actual reading it part is taking a lot of effort. This week I blame a bit of a reading slump rather than having too many other books to focus on. I also have gotten much lazier about looking up unfamiliar words, so I'm almost assuredly not getting as much out of it as I could. I'm hoping I'll be better about this during the last two sections.

Have you read Ivanhoe? I'd love to talk to you about it!