Sir Walter Scott, author of Ivanhoe and many other romantic historical novels which made him rich and famous, has suffered a severe decline in popularity and critical esteem because of his sentimentality and artificial dialogue, among other things. Here is a sample of the dialogue from Ivanhoe, which is characteristic of the way all his men and women speak.
"Truly," said Wamba, without stirring from the spot, "I have consulted my legs upon this matter, and they are altogether of opinion, that to carry my gay garments through these sloughs, would be an act of unfriendship to my sovereign person and royal wardrobe; wherefore, Gurth, I advise thee to call off Fangs, and leave the herd to their destiny, which, whether they meet with bands of travelling soldiers, or of outlaws, or of wandering pilgrims, can be little else than to be converted into Normans before morning, to thy no small ease and comfort."
Mrs. Dubose's taste for Ivanhoe, or for any other novel by Sir Walter Scott, characterizes her as an old-fashioned, Southern-belle type of woman who dotes on romantic heroes and beautiful, gracious heroines behaving with decorum in a world of unreality, a sort of fairy-land past that never really existed. We can also imagine how the treacly prose and dialogue must have been torture for poor Jem to have to read and how it contributed to his punishment. He probably didn't understand one-tenth of what he was reading to this faded Southern belle. She is a relic of the Old South, not unlike William Faulkner's Emily Grierson in "A Rose for Emily" or Azalea Adair in O. Henry's "A Municipal Report."
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