Chapter By Chapter features me reading one chapter of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.

Remember, the book is in public domain. Download or read the ebook online legally and for free at Project Gutenberg, Google Books or the Internet Archive among other sites, or check out the audiobook from LibriVox. You can also use a print copy. In either case my copy may not match up with yours chapter-wise. Follow along with the very-long subtitle. For this chapter:

The Actual Part Second

In which ShadowWing Tronix fixes a mistake made by the New York Public School in 1948…I mean…In which shall be told how Robin Hood turned butcher, and how he revenged himself on The Sheriff Of Nottingham. Also of the famous adventures that befell Little John at the Nottingham Archery Match, and how he entered the Sheriff’s service.

For those of you just joining us, the section I thought was part second was actually part third, and the misnumbering follows along. The copy of Howard Pyle’s book I’ve been using is a two volume pocket-sized printing of The Merry Adventures Of Robin Hood and they left a whole three chapters out of it. Had I not been double checking the public domain postings above I would have totally missed that. So now we shall go back in time to make sure the entire book is properly reviewed. Why were these three chapters left out of this printing? Was there not enough space and they felt the stories here weren’t worth worrying about? Is there something objectionable in them that they opted to leave out on purpose? Did someone goof?

It’s not like Robin here is the virtuous soul Hollywood has made him out to be. We first met him killing a drunk man in self-defense and feeling bad about it. The Sheriff may be a jerk (frankly only four people in this book aren’t among the cast) but he has good reason to snag Robin Hood since the man was his nephew, even if Robin should plead self-defense. Yes, most of the religious figures we’ve seen here act more like the Pharisees than Jesus Christ but only one person in this book was karma-driven to be robbed because of his own actions. Robin was even willing to attack a guy and declare him evil just because he had nice clothes and a relaxed attitude despite his men’s objections…and he both knocked Robin on his butt (which seems to be the usual qualification to join the band) and turned out to be his own nephew. Robin is the hero mostly by default. So why did he become a butcher and what does it have to do with the Sheriff? We’ve already seen him become a beggar because he was bored. Well, let’s travel back in time a bit after Will Stutley’s rescue and before Robin recruited head first and find out.

I: Robin Hood Turns Butcher

Note that I am using the Internet Archive version linked to in the intro for this repair job.

Continue reading →