The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Black Arrow is not in the league of other Stevenson classics like Treasure Island or Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, but it is an enjoyable and exciting tale set in mediaeval England, and it kinda makes you want to be a kid again.

I had four blak arrows under my belt, 

Four for the greefs that I have felt, 

Four for the nomber of ill menne 

That have opressid me now and then.

Thus runs the opening stanza from a poem of warning written by one John Amend-all of the Greenwood.  

It is May 1460, and the conflict between the Houses of York and Lancaster that we now call the War of the Roses has been raging for five years.  Young Richard Shelton finds himself caught up first in the feud between John Amend-all and his oppressors, and later in the broader war.  Richard is a callow teenager beginning to make his way in the world, not sure who he should trust and who he should doubt.  He finds both loyalty and treachery in the most unexpected places.  Richard has to grow up - and grow up fast - if he is to survive and flourish in an uncertain and dangerous world.  Will Richard's pragmatism and natural charm be enough for him to overcome the obstacles that lie between him, his patrimony and his true love?

Robert Louis Stevenson stated that The Black Arrow was the only one of his novels that he could not bring himself to read.  It was first published in serial form in 1883 in a monthly publication for boys and girls called Young Folks.  Stevenson was under pressure to have two chapters ready for publication every month, and had to write to a formula.  

These circumstances no doubt contributed to the uneven quality of the structure of the novel, which is probably what Stevenson disliked about it; however, the high quality of the style of writing cannot be doubted.  Stevenson has given us a fast-paced tale of intrigue and derring-do.  The hero is likeable, his colleagues steadfast and entertaining, and his enemies subtle and underhanded. What more could you want from an adventure story?