Acutally, this is a book review and no place to stir up controversy as to which ebook reader you should be currently using. I have been a "Kindler" since the good old days of the all plastic K1, and my K2 reader has seen so much use the plastic case is about to come apart from all the drops and dings. I love Amazon and all things Kindle. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood is no exception.
I began reading this particular tale with the free Amazon download of The Adventures of Robin Hood (Note they took the Merry out) which I believe like all their free ebooks are simply ones made available thanks to project Gutenberg. While I was reading and getting my first impressions of the book, I wondered about other peoples impressions, and began to look at some reviews. I noticed one poor chap's complaint about how this book would never be the same as the original paper book since it lacked all those wonderful illustrations.
Not sure if I believed him, I picked up this copy, which includes the "Merry" and illustrations to boot.
And then I bought an iPad.
I really don't want to make this about the iPad, but I have to. I wanted to read this ebook on the iPad (at least some of it) because it was new, and so I did, using the Kindle app. The problem is that this book contains many many many archaic references which I feel most people don't understand, but just choose to skip over. I can't stand that. I need to know what all these weird words mean, and not just chock it up to obsolete colloquialisms. The problem is that the Kindle app has no dictionary yet, even though it has promised one "soon" since it has been available for the iPad. Even the latest version still has no dictionary, but it did improve it a lot.
So, that left me unsatisfied.
So, I tried iBooks, and I found something startling. On iBooks, they have all those free Gutenberg titles that Amazon has. Only they have chapter indexes, while pretty much all the Amazon titles don't, which is so frustrating. And, this version, the Merry Adventures of Robin Hood comes complete with illustrations. And it is free. It seems like even the formatting is almost perfect (not true for free Gutenberg Kindle books), like they took time and made all the free books really look like paid books. The iBooks dictionary is very complete concerning archaic terms, and is a million times easier to use when looking up a word due to the touchscreen.
Needless to say, I finished this book on iBooks, since I could find no reason to go back to Kindle or even the Kindle app until they improve it.
***Spoilers***
Well, until I read this book I never realized how totally fabricated the Robin Hood movies have been. Maid Marian plays such a minor role (I believe she was mentioned once) and Robin Hood doesn't split an arrow right down the middle, but a lot of the stories are familiar. Robin and his merry band in Lincoln green have a good time drinking beer and eating venison and squatting in the king's forest.
The basic MO was to find a guy who had too much money (an arbitrary case by case decision), and then bring them back to camp, offer them a feast (roasted vension and beer generally, maybe some Malmsey) and then have them pay for it, usually by dividing up all their wealth into three parts; one part for the owner, one part for Robin's band, and one part for some sort of charity. When the band comes across a newcomer with a problem, but not too much money, they usually offer their assistance and in return, the newcomer usually joins the band. Sometimes they go on random trips out of boredom just to see what they come across, and other times, Robin sends his men on missions. Most of their time, however, seems to be spent making merry, practicing archery, swordplay, and quarterstaff...oh, and don't forget feasting and drinking beer.
The Sherrif of Nottingham is charged by the king to arrest Robin, but his band of men, his warrior's prowess and his cleverness allow him to evade capture, although the Sherrif, being none to competant and his men being cowards certainly helped Robin's cause. Robin, basically having the most talented fighting force of his day is a law unto himself, and his law is to offer help to the helpless, and to procure funds from those overburdened with coin and redistribute the wealth.
The book concludes with Robin's service to king Richard, eventually granting him the title of Earl of Huntington, with his best men given special duties, and other granted the titles of the king's rangers. Eventually, under a new king, Robin finally gets to return to Sherwood forest, and feels so homesick he gives up his title and stays. His band is temporarily reunited with his band for a last stand in the forest which is won, but the loss of life causes Robin to fall ill. Robin runs to a nunnery to find healing, only to be betrayed by someone he helped in the past. Before he dies he summons Little John, whose great strength gets him to Robin's side before he dies, and Robin shoots an arrow into the forest and asks to be bured where it lands. A tearful ending.
In general, in this telling of the tale, the bad guys are generally high ranking memebers of the church, and this theme is continued by Robin being killed by a nun. This theme is an interesting one, as Robin and his band seem to promote ideas which would have seemd vulgar to the church at this time (but really not vulgar today).
I would detract one star for some of the language which slows down the reading, and also the general lack of any romantic interests for any of the main characters.
Recommended.Get more detail about The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood.
No comments:
Post a Comment