When i was a boy my father, who was born in 19 30, just presumed that ivanhoe would be one of his favorite books. One argument would be that whille really, ivanhoe is so dated. It's all about jousting and nights, nd,. kids want to read about star warsd and they want more livelier writing. And he's very archaic. But the other puzzle about jane austen is that the world that she inhabited, her characters inhabited, is so alien to us and so old fashioned in a negative way.