Audiobook · read by volunteers
Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
Howard Pyle (1853–1911)
Read by Alex Foster, David Barnes, Lucy Burgoyne (1950-2014), Maureen S. O'Brien, Kevin McAsh, Robin Cotter, Joplin James, Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023), Patricia Oakley, Claire Goget · 22 chapters · 11 h 00
About the book
In Sherwood Forest, an outlaw makes his home beneath the greenwood tree. Robin Hood, who was once a yeoman, is generous to the poor and tireless in mocking the proud, and around him gathers a band of merry men: Little John, Friar Tuck, Will Scarlet, Allan-a-Dale and many more. They shoot, they feast, they wrestle with quarterstaffs, and they make life very difficult for the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Howard Pyle’s version of the legend, first published in 1883, tells the old ballads again in a lively, slightly antique English. It has been a favourite of young readers for more than a century and is full of humour and spirited action. In twenty-two chapters and about eleven hours, this recording will take you to the forest to join the company of the most famous outlaw in English folklore.
Introduction
Howard Pyle (1853–1911) was an American illustrator and writer, and one of the most influential figures in the golden age of American book illustration. He taught many younger artists, including N. C. Wyeth. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, which appeared in 1883, was among his first major successes, and he wrote the text and drew the pictures himself.
Robin Hood is the best-known folk hero of English tradition, an outlaw of the Middle Ages who in the modern legend robs the rich to help the poor and stands against injustice and tyranny. He operates with a group of followers, traditionally said to number about seven score, or one hundred and forty. Pyle did not invent these stories. He gathered them from old ballads and later retellings and shaped them into a connected narrative with a consistent style. The language is deliberately old-fashioned, with a touch of archaic vocabulary, which gives the book its flavour of a distant, romantic England.
The book has been enormously influential, and later films, television series and novels owe a good deal to Pyle’s version. It is a story of friendship, humour and daring, in which the villains are usually outwitted and the heroes usually forgiving.
The recording is divided into 22 sections and lasts about eleven hours. It is read by LibriVox volunteers, who share out the chapters, so the voices change from one adventure to the next. Why listen now? The tales are exciting and often funny, and they suit listeners of any age. If you know Robin Hood only from the screen, it is rewarding to meet him in a version that helped to define him.
Public domain
Howard Pyle died in 1911: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text