Re: Ivanhoe - as it's set during Richard I.'s lifetime, it's more than a century before the Jews were officially expelled from England (happened under Edward II, though Edward I already started the process). I am not sure, though, whether I would call this description: with the hero and the woman realizing they can't be together because of their religious differences
no subject
with the hero and the woman realizing they can't be together because of their religious differences
accurate, considering Ivanhoe is engaged to Rowena the whole time and considers Rebecca a non-option even if he weren't precisely because of her being Jewish. Also, Rebecca's father Isaac, as opposed to the film versions where he's a dignified nice man, is the repulsive miser of antisemetic stereotype in the novel. In short, no brownies for Scott, because the cliché of the beautiful Jewess in love with a Christian and her repulsive father predates him by centuries.