The Black Arrow (1888)

Adventure and romance during the War of the Roses! This is the tale of a young man, Richard Shelton, who, while helping a boy escape captivity, discovers his guardian Sir Daniel had murdered his father in order to seize his property. He then finds out the boy is actually a girl! Sir Daniel wants to sell her marriage but Dick is determined to marry her himself... Add to that battles between Lancasterians and Yorkists ending with Dick being knighted by none other than Richard, Duke of Gloucester.

One minor annoyance is that Stevenson wrote the dialogue in language appropriate to 1460; some word usage is strange to the modern reader {For example, using "an" to mean "if" and "gossip" to mean "friend"}. ( )

Adventure and romance during the War of the Roses! This is the tale of a young man, Richard Shelton, who, while helping a boy escape captivity, discovers his guardian Sir Daniel had murdered his father in order to seize his property. He then finds out the boy is actually a girl! Sir Daniel wants to sell her marriage but Dick is determined to marry her himself... Add to that battles between Lancasterians and Yorkists ending with Dick being knighted by none other than Richard, Duke of Gloucester.

One minor annoyance is that Stevenson wrote the dialogue in language appropriate to 1460; some word usage is strange to the modern reader {For example, using "an" to mean "if" and "gossip" to mean "friend"}. ( )

I read this to tie up a loose end after starting it as a child and never finishing. Although I'm glad that I've now done so it was a bit of a struggle -- much more so than Treasure Island, which at least has the merit of being iconic and a necessary part of the canon. By contrast The Black Arrow turned out to be excessively episodic, melodramatic (although not without some character complexities) and obfuscated throughout with Stephenson's idea of medieval modes of speech. At times I felt like I'd stumbled into a low-grade HBO mega-series in which the plot churns feverishly in order to keep the series going for 26 episodes. ( )

Siendo Stevenson mi escritor favorito, es imposible que me decepcione la lectura de uno de sus libros. Una novela histórica, que se enmarca en la Edad Media, EXCELENTE. ( )

How is it that I never before read this? What a great story set in England's War of the Roses. ( )