The Heroes by Charles Kingsley

Once upon a time I decided to move overseas.  I was constrained by cost to whittle my possession down to as much as would fit into three tea-chests.  Oh! the decisions, and the agonising over the decisions.  What to take, and what to give away?  In the end I allocated half-a-chest to books and personal papers.  There were several books that needed no decision-making: of course I would taking them to my new home.

One of these books was The Heroes by Charles Kingsley.  It was one of the first  fiction books I read with with genuine delight.  (I started my reading life by reading science and history books exclusively, and my 5y.o. self loathed the standard kiddies classics, such as Wind in the Willows and Winnie the Pooh - although I've warmed to these in my adult years).  Then, I found an old and battered book in a second-hand book store my mother and I used to frequent.  The Heroes.  I liked the sound of that.  So I asked Mum to buy it for me; and thus began my love affair with mythology.

Kingsley retells three tales from Greek Mythology: Perseus, The Argonauts, and Theseus.  My favorite tale in this book was (and still is) that of Perseus.  After an inauspicious childhood, Perseus becomes favoured by the Gods, and they bestowed upon him several magical items, including a pair of winged sandals which he immediately strapped on.

And Athené cried, "Now leap from the cliff and be gone" ... and [Perseus] leaped into the empty air.  And behold, instead of falling he floated, and stood, and ran along the sky ...  and the sandals led him on northward ever, like a crane who follows the spring toward the Ister fens.

I remember vividly how I felt when I first read that passage.  How I wished I too could run along the sky.  I still do.  And just as vividly, I recall the account of Cheiron the centaur schooling young Jason and the boys who would become the Argonauts, and Theseus slaying the supernatural bandits who infested the coast road from Troezen to Athens. 

It has been decades since I last read The Heroes; however, on re-reading, I found it as delightful as ever.  Kingsley's diction is very quaint and very Victorian.  He does use some high language, especially in the dialogue, but his choices are very judicious and he avoids strangling his tales with overblown and faux archaisms - unlike, say, Howard Pyle.  And for all the oddness of the subject matter of the stories, Kingsley makes it very easy for the reader to care for each hero.  Yes, it is all done with a deft touch.  Yes, it was all very enjoyable for me.  Yes, it may be for you too.

As a point of interest, my copy of The Heroes has the following printed on the information page:

REGISTERED AT THE G.P.O SYDNEY

FOR TRANSMISSION BY POST AS A BOOK

WHOLLY SET UP AND PRINTED IN AUSTRALIA BY

CONSOLIDATED PRESS LIMITED

166-174 CASTLEREAGH STREET, SYDNEY

1948

If you are interested in mythology, you may like to look at these reviews: The Inner Reaches of Outer Space and Myths of Light.  Both these books are by the renowned mythology theorist Joseph Campbell.