Book info

• Title The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
• Author Howard Pyle
• Year 1883
• Genre Classic

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood was written and illustrated by Howard Pyle and published in 1883. It is the best known version of the story of Robin Hood which had been popular throughout the previous century. Pyle popularized Robin Hood, his adventures, and his band of merry men in a way that influenced most later depictions in writing, drawing, and film. The book consists of a series of episodes pitting the outlaw Robin Hood, Little John, Friar Tuck and the rest of his band against corrupt authorities epitomized by the evil Sheriff of Nottingham.

Thoughts

I’ve wanted to read something about Robin Hood for a while, but it’s hard to know which way to go with a topic so legendary. There’s no definitive source on the green-clad forest-dweller, so you have to hedge your bets and pick the one that looks like it will be most entertaining.

Unfortunately, for the first half of this book, I wasn’t sure that Howard Pyle’s version of the legend was going to deliver. Every story seemed to be about one or other member of the band going for a walk, finding someone else, challenging them to a duel, losing and thus inviting them to be part of Robin Hood’s group. For a while, I thought the band were going to swallow up the whole county!

However, once the band were pretty much complete, then the adventures could begin and things really picked up. Organising weddings, going to shooting matches, living right under the Sheriff’s nose, it was all quite a lot of fun. The prose was written in a lilting, old style, with songs and tales thrown in for good measure. It’s not a long book, (which is good otherwise that first half would never have ended!) but it’s worth reading, and I enjoyed it. I was quite surprised by the lack of Maid Marion, and also by the ending which was more moving than I’d imagined.

Rating: 3 / 5