23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Unfortunately lacking illustrations, October 16, 2009
It pains me that people are reading this without the illustrations. (Referring to Kindle edition).
Howard Pyle was the first person in the modern era to collect all the Robin Hood ballads that had come down from the midieval era and put them into a modern format, structured as stories and so forth. Essentially every version of Robin Hood in the past century has drawn on Howard Pyle's Robin Hood as its major source, and reading this book is the best way to understand why the minor characters in (for example) Kevin Costner's "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves" are named things like "Will Scarlet" or "Much the Miller's Son."
I was given this book to read as a child, and it was and still is one of my all-time favorites (although I always avoided reading the final chapter, which is sad enough that Pyle even warns his readers about it). The elevated, pseudo-elizabethan style even helped me later on -- when I got to Shakespeare in school, the language was easy for me, because I'd been reading Howard Pyle since I was eight.
The problem with this ebook version is that it doesn't contain the illustrations, though. And that's simply unforgivable. Howard Pyle is today better known as an illustrator than as a writer. He was the art teacher who taught people like Arthur Rackham and N.C. Wyeth. His illustrations are immensely rich and detailed, and as full of period accuracy and background research as his writing was. It's an unforgivable shame to miss them.
Versions of this book can be found online free with illustrations. Don't bother with this version, as it doesn't have them. Reading this book without the illustrations is like taking an oscar-winning film and just listening to the sound with the screen blacked out. You can do it, but why?
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Victoria - The Adventure of Robin Hood, January 21, 2005
A Kid's Review
This review is from: The Adventures of Robin Hood (Illustrated Classics) (Paperback)
The book The Adventure of Robin Hood is a great read. This Traditional Literature was written by Howard Pyle. This book is full of action packed adventure. In this book is about an outlaw named Robin Hood that lives in Sherwood Forest. Robin Hood and his merry band of men are very helpful by stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. The sheriff of Nottingham doesn't appreciate Robin Hood's good will. Will they achieve? I think this is a great book because they meet new people, the definitions of Robin is very descriptive. I also think this is a great book is because at one of my family reunion's I saw it at the kid table. I could not put it down. I think this book is great book for people who like action and adventure. This book is for kids and adults of all ages.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Simple but good, June 7, 2011
A simple but heartfelt tale of brotherhood and merry adventures with the people, good and ill, of England under King Henry's rule. Those fond of pastoral descriptions will enjoy the writer's imagery and many of his analogies, and the ending is bittersweet. It's disappointing that this Kindle version contains none of the wonderful illustrations you hear tell of, but Pyle's Robin Hood is worth reading at least once, regardless of format.
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