Ivanhoe

1819, 1962 Signet Classic edition
Sir Walter Scott
Ivanhoe
Original price and purchase price both $2.95
Frayed paperback with back cover come off
C+

Scott to some degree invented popular historical fiction, and his pioneering shows in both anachronisms and a need to over-explain historical terms.  (He defines a dais no less than four times, including twice on one page!)  The story itself holds up OK, although the title character is a bit forgettable and this story might as well have been called Rebecca, or The Jewess.  The Jewish characters are treated surprisingly fairly (more so than in Merchant of Venice), although I got a little tired of that being their main characterisation.  It does lead to a hilarious phrase (be careful Googling this without the word "Ivanhoe"):  "...ere they will suffer him to depart from their uncircumcised hands."

I have to skip over the 1820s and 1830s, but from that point on there will be at least four books per decade.