Wednesday, October 22, 2014

The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson


Subtitle: A Tale of Two Roses

My History With This Book
          This was yet another Robert Louis Stevenson book that I tried to read as a child and failed.  I checked this book out of the school library in 4th grade, and struggled through about the first fourth of it.  (For those of you who know this book, I got as far as the part where Sir Daniel shows up disguised as a leper in the middle of the forest.)  And then gave up on it.
            Although originally published as a boy’s adventure story back in 1888, like a lot of Victorian Era children’s stories the prose style is now slightly antiquated, and it’s no longer accessible for most of it’s target audience. 
            Added to the problem of Victorian Era prose is the fact that this story takes place during the War of the Roses, so Robert Louis Stevenson tries to imitate medieval dialect in the speech of his characters.
            Some children, of course, are smarter than others, and I know several people who’ve read through these classics with ease at a very young age.  But that was never me.  I was ambitious in my reading choices.  (I wanted to be able to read the classics).  But I struggled with this book, and eventually gave it up.

Why I Returned to This Book
          As an adult, I now find Robert Louis Stevenson much easier than I did as a child.  And so, as regular readers of this blog know, the past few months I’ve been going back and re-visiting the popular works of Robert Louis Stevenson.  After reading Treasure Island, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Kidnapped and Catriona, I decided it was now time to return to The Black Arrow and finish what I had started back in 4th grade.

The Review
          I don’t blame myself for struggling with this book in 4th grade.  Even though the story was originally written for 12 year olds, the style of it has aged enough that it’s a tough read for today’s 12 year olds.  So I wouldn’t recommend this book to any child except perhaps those of exceptional intelligence.

            It’s definitely readable enough as an adult though. 
           
            This is often one of Robert Louis Stevenson’s overlooked books.  It would be inaccurate to say this book has been forgotten.  It’s still being published and read today, 150 years after it was written, which is saying something.  However, it has nowhere near the contemporary fame of Treasure Island, Kidnapped, or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

            I suspect that this is in part because all of Stevenson’s more famous books have plots which are very simple and memorable.  A boy fights pirates, a boy is kidnapped, a man has a psychotic chemically induced split personality…

            Contrast that with the very complicated and somewhat convoluted plot of The Black Arrow:  Young Dick Shelton finds himself in the middle of the War of the Roses.  He fights for his guardian Sir Daniel, but Sir Daniel is constantly switching sides back and forth between the houses of York and Lancaster. Meanwhile a mysterious black arrow is taking vengeance on a select group of people for mysterious crimes that happened long ago. Meanwhile the young Dick begins to suspect that his father might have been killed by his guardian.  Meanwhile Joanna is capture by Sir Daniel, and escapes disguised as a boy, and her guardian Lord Foxham is trying to get her back.

            It’s a story in which not all the plot threads are fully realized.  (In the beginning much is made of the mysterious death of Dick’s father, and the reasons that Ellis Duckworth has for vengeance, but a full explanation of either of these is never given.)  And sometimes one suspects that the author himself didn’t quite know what to do with all the plot threads he had set in motion.
            The story also does not follow the normal progression of introducing a conflict, following the conflict to a climax, and then the resolution.  Rather, the story shifts gears multiple times, as characters change sides and form different alliances, new conflicts are created, and new resolutions need to be sought.
            This is slightly jarring for those of us used to more traditional story telling.

            But at the same time, for those of us who like a bit of a complicated plot to keep the story from being too predictable, the various twists and turns this story takes can be all part of the fun. 
            Plus, there’s some great classic adventure scenes, daring escapes from castles, and intense fight scenes.

Notes
* Richard of Gloucester, who would later one day become the infamous Richard III, plays a major part in the last fourth of the novel.
            In order to fit the future Richard III into the story, Robert Louis Stevenson has to take some liberties with the chronology, and pretend that Richard III was actually older than he was at this point.  (Although I have to confess, I would never have caught this myself if Robert Louis Stevenson hadn’t felt obliged to confess the anachronism in one of the author’s footnotes: “Richard Crookback would have been really far younger at this date.” (footnote to part V chapter 1).)
            Once you accept this anachronism, however, everything else seems to fit quite nicely.  All the characteristics that Shakespeare gave Richard III are here portrayed in his younger self, foreshadowing his later destiny—at least according to the Tudor myth (W).

* According to Wikipedia (W), Robert Louis Stevenson was self-critical of this book, writing to a friend:

The influenza has busted me a good deal; I have no spring, and am headachy. So, as my good Red Lion Counter begged me for another Butcher's Boy-I turned me to-what thinkest 'ou?-to Tushery, by the mass! Ay, friend, a whole tale of tushery. And every tusher tushes me so free, that may I be tushed if the whole thing is worth a tush. The Black Arrow: A Tale of Tunstall Forest is his name: tush! a poor thing!

            I think tushery refers to the stilted medieval-esque dialogue.  And yes, the dialogue in this novel is perhaps not its strongest point.
            The story and the action, however, are alright, if you don’t mind following a convoluted plot.

* This is one of those stories where a girl disguises herself as a boy, which is a very common trope in story telling.  (Perhaps especially in stories set in the medieval period?)
            In most modern variations on this story, the girl is portrayed as every bit as strong and brave as her male counterparts.
            1888, however, was before modern feminism, and the girl-disguised-as-a-boy character is constantly portrayed as weak and helpless.  So be forewarned.  The reader should either be willing to just forgive this, or if not, than perhaps best to just avoid this book altogether.

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