The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

Step into Sherwood Forest and meet the outlaw who became a legend. Howard Pyle crafted this book in 1883, and it remain the definitive version of Robin Hood - the one every adaptation since has borrowed from. The stories follow our hooded hero from the moment he becomes an outcast after beating the King's foresters in a shooting match, through his recruitment of Little John, Friar Tuck, and the rest of the Merry Men, to their life of daring escapades in the greenwood. Pyle writes with a robustness that feels both ancient and startlingly alive: the dialogue crackles with archaic wit, the action spills across the page in joyful disorder, and beneath the adventure lies something sharper - a celebration of cleverness over cruelty, of the oppressed banding together against their oppressors. This is the book that gave the world Robin Hood as we know him. Whether you're twelve or forty, it will make you want to grab a bow, disappear into the nearest forest, and redistribution some wealth.