Neville, Wildwood - Life and Exploits of Robin Hood
By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2021-01-13. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2022-03-16.
This is among the earliest children's books to consist of prose renderings of the ballads arranged to form a 'life' of Robin Hood. The author includes an introduction in which he touches on his motivation for writing the book. This should be of wider interest:
The volume of ballads termed "Robin Hood's Garland" has been hiterto nearly the only work from which the public of the present day has derived its acquaintance ith the character now under discussion, and these it is well known from their obsolete phraseology and antiquated style are not adapted to the taste of the reading community, with whom even good poetry, to use a term in general use, is below par.
[p. ii:] What has been long wanted, as a substitute for the Garland, is the matter it contains re-modelled, amplified, and embellished, so as to give life and reality to the characters represented: and that in such a manner as neither to be too extended, and therfore voluminous and expensive; nor too much abridged, and therefore wanting in detail and incident.[1]
Editions
- Neville, Wildwood. The Life and Exploits of Robin Hood! Being an Entirely New Compilation of the Surprising Adventures of the Celebrated Outlaw and his Men; together with a Critical Dissertation on the Causes of his Popularity and the Credibility of his Recorded Actions (Leeds, [1855])
- Neville, Wildwood. The Life and Exploits of Robin Hood! Being an Entirely New Compilation of the Surprising Adventures of the Celebrated Outlaw and his Men; together with a Critical Dissertation on the Causes of his Popularity and the Credibility of his Recorded Actions (London, [1856])
- Neville, Wildwood. The Life and Exploits of Robin Hood! Being an Entirely New Compilation of the Surprising Adventures of the Celebrated Outlaw and his Men; together with a Critical Dissertation on the Causes of his Popularity and the Credibility of his Recorded Actions (Halifax, [1868])
Notes
Image gallery
Click any image to display it in the lightbox, where you can navigate between images by clicking in the right or left side of the current image.
Front cover of first edition / HTN collection.
Back cover of first edition / HTN collection.
Frontispiece of first edition / HTN collection.
Title-page cover of first edition / HTN collection.
