The Black Arrow
Encyclopedia
The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses is an 1888 novel
by Robert Louis Stevenson
. It is both an historical adventure novel
and a romance
. It first appeared as a serial
in 1883 with the subtitle "A Tale of Tunstall Forest" beginning in Young Folks; A Boys' and Girls' Paper of Instructive and Entertaining Literature
, vol. XXII, no. 656 (Saturday, June 30, 1883) and ending in the issue for Saturday, October 20, 1883—Stevenson had finished writing it by the end of summer. It was printed under the pseudonymn Captain George North. He alludes to the time gap between the serialization and the publication as one volume in 1888 in his preface "Critic [parodying Dickens's
"Cricket
"] on the Hearth": "The tale was written years ago for a particular audience ...." The Paston Letters
were Stevenson's main literary source for The Black Arrow.
: how he becomes a knight, rescues his lady Joanna Sedley, and obtains justice for the murder of his father, Sir Harry Shelton. Outlaws in Tunstall Forest organized by Ellis Duckworth, whose weapon and calling card is a black arrow, cause Dick to suspect that his guardian Sir Daniel Brackley and his retainers are responsible for his father's murder. Dick's suspicions are enough to turn Sir Daniel against him, so he has no recourse but to escape from Sir Daniel and join the outlaws of the Black Arrow against him. This struggle sweeps him up into the greater conflict surrounding them all.
" (1422–1461, 1470–1471) and during the Wars of the Roses
(1455–1487) the story begins with the Tunstall Moat House alarm bell being rung to begin mustering troops for its absent lord Sir Daniel Brackley, who intends to join the Battle of Risingham. It is then that the "fellowship" known as "The Black Arrow" headquartered in Tunstall Forest begins to strike with its "four black arrows" for the "four black hearts" of Brackley and three of his retainers: Nicholas Appleyard, Bennet Hatch, and Sir Oliver Oates, the parson. The rhyme that is posted in connection with this attack gets the protagonist
Richard Shelton, ward of Sir Daniel, to become curious about the fate of his father Sir Harry Shelton. Having been dispatched to Kettley, where Sir Daniel was quartered, and sent to Tunstall Moat House by return dispatch, he falls in with a fugitive from Sir Daniel, Joanna Sedley, disguised as a boy and going by the alias of John Matcham. She was an heiress kidnapped by Sir Daniel, who wanted to obtain guardianship over her. Coincidentally, Sir Daniel was intending to marry Joanna to Dick himself; and, in her male disguise, Joanna brings up the matter to Dick, affording her the opportunity of feeling him out on the subject. Dick says he is not interested, but he does ask her if his intended bride is good-looking and of pleasant disposition.
While making their way through Tunstall Forest, Joanna tries to persuade Dick to turn against Sir Daniel in sympathy with the Black Arrow outlaws, whose hideout they discover near the ruins of Grimstone manor. The next day they are met in the forest by Sir Daniel himself disguised as a leper and making his way back to the Moat House after his side was defeated at the Battle of Risingham. Dick and Joan then follow Sir Daniel to the Moat House. Here Dick changes sides when he finds out that Sir Daniel is the real murderer of his father and escapes injured from the Moat House. He is rescued by the outlaws of the Black Arrow with whom he throws in his lot for the rest of the story.
The second half of the novel, Books 3-5, tells how Dick rescues his true love Joanna from the clutches of Sir Daniel with the help of both the Black Arrow fellowship and the Yorkist army led by Richard Crookback, the future Richard III of England
.
The second half of the narrative centers around Shoreby, where the Lancastrian forces are well entrenched. Robert Louis Stevenson inserts seafaring adventure in chapters 4-6 of Book 3 as Dick and the outlaws steal a ship and attempt a seaside rescue of Joanna, who is being kept in a house by the sea. They are unsuccessful, and after Joanna is moved to Sir Daniel's main quarters in Shoreby, Dick then visits her in the guise of a Franciscan friar, which was a disguise used during the Wars of the Roses. Stevenson, the popularizer of the tales of the Arabian nights, has Dick tell the tale of Ali Baba
and the Forty Thieves in Book 4, chapter 6 to help him escape from the ruined sea captain Arblaster, whose ship Dick and the outlaws had stolen.
In the course of shadowing Sir Daniel in his goings to and from the house by the sea, Dick and the outlaws, who have made their Shoreby headquarters the "Goat and Bagpipes" alehouse, encounter another group of spies interested in Joanna. After a skirmish in the dark in which the outlaws prevail, Dick finds that he has conquered Joanna's lawful guardian Lord Foxham. Foxham, a Yorkist, promises to give Joanna to Dick in marriage depending on the outcome of a contemplated seaside rescue. There is irony in Foxham scolding Dick, who is nobly born, for consorting with outlaws when the outlaws are recruited in Dick and Foxham's plans to rescue Joanna. Seriously wounded in the failed seaside rescue, Foxham writes letters of recommendation for Dick to Richard Crookback since he must retire temporarily from action.
Richard Crookback, Duke of Gloucester, makes his appearance in Book 5, with whom Dick keeps Lord Foxham's rendezvous. Dick's accurate knowledge of the Lancastrian forces in Shoreby aid Crookback in winning the battle. Dick is also successful as one of Crookback's commanders. A delighted Crookback knights Dick on the field of battle and, following their Yorkist victory, gives him fifty horsemen to pursue Sir Daniel, who has escaped Shoreby with Joanna. Dick succeeds in rescuing Joanna, but loses his men in the process. He, Joanna, and Alicia Risingham travel to Holywood where he and Joanna are finally married. In this way he keeps his initial pledge to Joanna to see her safe to Holywood.
In the early morning of his wedding day Dick takes a walk on the outskirts of Holywood. He encounters a fugitive Sir Daniel trying to enter Holywood seaport to escape to France or Burgundy. Because it is his wedding day, Dick does not want to soil his hands with Sir Daniel's blood, so he simply bars his way by challenging him either to hand to hand combat or alerting a Yorkist perimeter patrol. Prudently, Sir Daniel opts to go away. Just after he leaves Dick he is shot by Ellis Duckworth with the last black arrow. Duckworth found in prayer by Dick tells him, "But be at rest; the Black Arrow flieth nevermore - the fellowship is broken."
Sir Richard and Lady Shelton live in Tunstall Moat House untroubled by the rest of the Wars of the Roses. They provide for both Captain Arblaster and the outlaw Lawless by pensioning them and settling them in Tunstall hamlet. Lawless does a volte face by returning to the Franciscan
order as a friar by the name of Brother Honestus.
, December 30, 1460, which Stevenson describes in the first chapter of Book 3: It is because Richard Crookback, Richard III of England
, is presented as an adult active in the Wars of the Roses in January, 1461 that Stevenson provides the footnote: "At the date of this story, Richard Crookback could not have been created Duke of Gloucester; but for clearness, with the reader's leave, he shall so be called." Richard was born in 1452, so he would have been merely 8 years old at the time of this story. A later footnote emphasizes this again: "Richard Crookback would have been really far younger at this date [i.e. January, 1461]." Stevenson follows William Shakespeare
in retrojecting Richard of Gloucester into an earlier period of the Wars of the Roses
and portraying him as a dour hunchback
—Stevenson: "the formidable hunchback." (See Henry VI, part 2
; Henry VI, part 3
; and Richard III (play)
.) This characterization closely follows the Tudor myth
, a tradition that overly vilified Richard of Gloucester
and cast the entire English Fifteenth century as a bloody, barbaric chaos in contrast to the Tudor
era of law and order.
Curiously, the 1948 film The Black Arrow portrays Richard Gloucester in a more favorable light than in the novel, somewhat anticipating the work of Paul Murray Kendall to rehabilitate him (Kendall, Richard III, 1956). When Gloucester is told he is "more than kind," he replies jokingly that such rumors would ruin his [bad] "reputation": the revision of the Tudor myth
?
Stevenson liked his characterization of Richard Crookback, and expressed his desire to write about him again. Stevenson alludes both to his novel The Black Arrow and Richard Crookback with the phrase "the Sable Missile" in a letter he wrote Sidney Colvin
in the month the final installment of The Black Arrow appeared in Young Folks (October, 1883):
The Battle of Shoreby, a fictitious battle that is the main event of Book 5, is modeled after the First Battle of St Albans
in the Wars of the Roses
. This battle in history as in the novel is a victory for the House of York. The presence of an abbey church in Shoreby is reminiscient of the abbey church of Tewkesbury
to which the Lancastrians fled for sanctuary
after the battle
on May 4, 1471.
In the "prologue" Stevenson intimates that the Tunstall of The Black Arrow is a real place: "Tunstall hamlet at that period, in the reign of old King Henry VI., wore much the same appearance as it wears today." In south-east Suffolk
, England, 18 miles NE of Ipswich
, less than 10 miles from the North Sea
a "Tunstall" is located with an accompanying forest. Stevenson and his family had visited Suffolk in 1873. The similarity of place-names near this Tunstall, Suffolk
to place-names in the novel also suggest that this is Stevenson's Tunstall: Kettley is Kettleburgh in actuality, Risingham is Framlingham
, and Foxham is Farnham, Suffolk
. The identities of Shoreby-on-the-Till and Holywood are probably Orford
and Leiston
respectively. Orford is on the North Sea and is joined to Framlingham by a road going to the northwest (the "highroad from Risingham to Shoreby"), and Leiston is also on the North Sea with a medieval abbey
like Holywood of the novel. The River Till, which figures largely in Book 1 of the novel, would then be the River Deben in actuality. The River Deben flows near Kettleburgh.
The name of the main character Richard Shelton and his inheritance, Tunstall, were the name and title of an actual historical personage, Sir Richard Tunstall. He, as a Lancastrian
and ardent supporter of King Henry VI of England
, held Harlech Castle
against the Yorkists from 1465-1468 during the first part of Edward IV's
reign. In contrast, Richard Shelton, who becomes the knight
of Tunstall at the end of The Black Arrow, is a staunch Yorkist.
Two other anachronisms in the novel are Sir Oliver and others speaking of "Simnel" and "the Walsinghams" as suspected organizers of the Black Arrow fellowship. Lambert Simnel
is the focus of rebellion in Henry VII's
reign (1485–1509), and "the Walsinghams," Stevenson's renaming of the Woodvilles, would have played a part only after May, 1464, when Edward IV
married Elizabeth Woodville
.
The Black Arrow consists of 79,926 words, so it can be classified a novel
rather than a novella
, novelette
, short story
, or flash fiction
.
dialogue. In a May, 1883 letter to H.E. Henley Stevenson wrote:
His wife Fanny was anonymously acknowledged in the "fly-leaf" as the "critic on the hearth"—this offers an explanation for this critic and the author having "joint lives" and being on the "hearth," emblematic of home. For the planned fourteen-volume Edinburgh
edition of his works, Stevenson indicated that he did not want to write an introduction to The Black Arrow—his wife Fanny, however, did so for the 1905 Biographical Edition of his works. The Black Arrow is in good company as Stevenson also did not like his The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Praise for The Black Arrow is rare among literary critics over its 125 year history. The novelist John Galsworthy
wrote that it was "a livelier picture of medieval times than I remember elsewhere in fiction." The reason for this stems from Stevenson's own dislike of The Black Arrow coupled with a misunderstanding of his attitude toward what he called "tushery."
issued the latest annotated edition of The Black Arrow with the introduction and notes by Professor John A. Sutherland, Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London and visiting professor of literature at the California Institute of Technology. Professor Sutherland makes mention of this Wikipedia article in this edition.
film short starring Charles Ogle
, a 1948 film starring Louis Hayward
, a 1985 film
starring Oliver Reed
and Benedict Taylor
, a Soviet film Chyornaya strela 1985, a 1951 two-part British TV serial starring Denis Quilley
, a 1968 seven-part Italian
TV production entitled La freccia nera, and a British TV series running from 1972-1975 starring successively Robin Langford
and Simon Cuff as Richard Shelton during its run. The Robert Louis Stevenson website maintains a complete list of derivative works.
comic book
version of The Black Arrow as "No. 31."
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
. It is both an historical adventure novel
Adventure novel
The adventure novel is a genre of novels that has adventure, an exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger, as its main theme.-History:...
and a romance
Romance (genre)
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...
. It first appeared as a serial
Serial (literature)
In literature, a serial is a publishing format by which a single large work, most often a work of narrative fiction, is presented in contiguous installments—also known as numbers, parts, or fascicles—either issued as separate publications or appearing in sequential issues of a single periodical...
in 1883 with the subtitle "A Tale of Tunstall Forest" beginning in Young Folks; A Boys' and Girls' Paper of Instructive and Entertaining Literature
Young Folks (magazine)
Young Folks was a weekly children's literary magazine published in the United Kingdom between 1871 and 1897. It is most notable for having first published a number of novels by Robert Louis Stevenson in serial form, including Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and The Black Arrow.Young Folks went under a...
, vol. XXII, no. 656 (Saturday, June 30, 1883) and ending in the issue for Saturday, October 20, 1883—Stevenson had finished writing it by the end of summer. It was printed under the pseudonymn Captain George North. He alludes to the time gap between the serialization and the publication as one volume in 1888 in his preface "Critic [parodying Dickens's
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
"Cricket
The Cricket on the Hearth
The Cricket on the Hearth. A Fairy Tale of Home is a novella by Charles Dickens, published by Bradbury and Evans, and released 20 December 1845 with illustrations by Daniel Maclise, John Leech, Richard Doyle, Clarkson Stanfield and Edwin Henry Landseer. Dickens began writing the book around...
"] on the Hearth": "The tale was written years ago for a particular audience ...." The Paston Letters
Paston Letters
The Paston Letters are a collection of letters and papers from England, consisting of the correspondence of members of the gentry Paston family, and others connected with them, between the years 1422 and 1509, and also including some state papers and other important documents.- History of the...
were Stevenson's main literary source for The Black Arrow.
Plot Introduction
The Black Arrow tells the story of Richard (Dick) Shelton during the Wars of the RosesWars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the houses of Lancaster and York...
: how he becomes a knight, rescues his lady Joanna Sedley, and obtains justice for the murder of his father, Sir Harry Shelton. Outlaws in Tunstall Forest organized by Ellis Duckworth, whose weapon and calling card is a black arrow, cause Dick to suspect that his guardian Sir Daniel Brackley and his retainers are responsible for his father's murder. Dick's suspicions are enough to turn Sir Daniel against him, so he has no recourse but to escape from Sir Daniel and join the outlaws of the Black Arrow against him. This struggle sweeps him up into the greater conflict surrounding them all.
Plot Summary
In the reign of "old King Henry VIHenry VI of England
Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...
" (1422–1461, 1470–1471) and during the Wars of the Roses
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the houses of Lancaster and York...
(1455–1487) the story begins with the Tunstall Moat House alarm bell being rung to begin mustering troops for its absent lord Sir Daniel Brackley, who intends to join the Battle of Risingham. It is then that the "fellowship" known as "The Black Arrow" headquartered in Tunstall Forest begins to strike with its "four black arrows" for the "four black hearts" of Brackley and three of his retainers: Nicholas Appleyard, Bennet Hatch, and Sir Oliver Oates, the parson. The rhyme that is posted in connection with this attack gets the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
Richard Shelton, ward of Sir Daniel, to become curious about the fate of his father Sir Harry Shelton. Having been dispatched to Kettley, where Sir Daniel was quartered, and sent to Tunstall Moat House by return dispatch, he falls in with a fugitive from Sir Daniel, Joanna Sedley, disguised as a boy and going by the alias of John Matcham. She was an heiress kidnapped by Sir Daniel, who wanted to obtain guardianship over her. Coincidentally, Sir Daniel was intending to marry Joanna to Dick himself; and, in her male disguise, Joanna brings up the matter to Dick, affording her the opportunity of feeling him out on the subject. Dick says he is not interested, but he does ask her if his intended bride is good-looking and of pleasant disposition.
While making their way through Tunstall Forest, Joanna tries to persuade Dick to turn against Sir Daniel in sympathy with the Black Arrow outlaws, whose hideout they discover near the ruins of Grimstone manor. The next day they are met in the forest by Sir Daniel himself disguised as a leper and making his way back to the Moat House after his side was defeated at the Battle of Risingham. Dick and Joan then follow Sir Daniel to the Moat House. Here Dick changes sides when he finds out that Sir Daniel is the real murderer of his father and escapes injured from the Moat House. He is rescued by the outlaws of the Black Arrow with whom he throws in his lot for the rest of the story.
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
.
The second half of the narrative centers around Shoreby, where the Lancastrian forces are well entrenched. Robert Louis Stevenson inserts seafaring adventure in chapters 4-6 of Book 3 as Dick and the outlaws steal a ship and attempt a seaside rescue of Joanna, who is being kept in a house by the sea. They are unsuccessful, and after Joanna is moved to Sir Daniel's main quarters in Shoreby, Dick then visits her in the guise of a Franciscan friar, which was a disguise used during the Wars of the Roses. Stevenson, the popularizer of the tales of the Arabian nights, has Dick tell the tale of Ali Baba
Ali Baba
Ali Baba is a fictional character from medieval Arabic literature. He is described in the adventure tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves...
and the Forty Thieves in Book 4, chapter 6 to help him escape from the ruined sea captain Arblaster, whose ship Dick and the outlaws had stolen.
In the course of shadowing Sir Daniel in his goings to and from the house by the sea, Dick and the outlaws, who have made their Shoreby headquarters the "Goat and Bagpipes" alehouse, encounter another group of spies interested in Joanna. After a skirmish in the dark in which the outlaws prevail, Dick finds that he has conquered Joanna's lawful guardian Lord Foxham. Foxham, a Yorkist, promises to give Joanna to Dick in marriage depending on the outcome of a contemplated seaside rescue. There is irony in Foxham scolding Dick, who is nobly born, for consorting with outlaws when the outlaws are recruited in Dick and Foxham's plans to rescue Joanna. Seriously wounded in the failed seaside rescue, Foxham writes letters of recommendation for Dick to Richard Crookback since he must retire temporarily from action.
Richard Crookback, Duke of Gloucester, makes his appearance in Book 5, with whom Dick keeps Lord Foxham's rendezvous. Dick's accurate knowledge of the Lancastrian forces in Shoreby aid Crookback in winning the battle. Dick is also successful as one of Crookback's commanders. A delighted Crookback knights Dick on the field of battle and, following their Yorkist victory, gives him fifty horsemen to pursue Sir Daniel, who has escaped Shoreby with Joanna. Dick succeeds in rescuing Joanna, but loses his men in the process. He, Joanna, and Alicia Risingham travel to Holywood where he and Joanna are finally married. In this way he keeps his initial pledge to Joanna to see her safe to Holywood.
In the early morning of his wedding day Dick takes a walk on the outskirts of Holywood. He encounters a fugitive Sir Daniel trying to enter Holywood seaport to escape to France or Burgundy. Because it is his wedding day, Dick does not want to soil his hands with Sir Daniel's blood, so he simply bars his way by challenging him either to hand to hand combat or alerting a Yorkist perimeter patrol. Prudently, Sir Daniel opts to go away. Just after he leaves Dick he is shot by Ellis Duckworth with the last black arrow. Duckworth found in prayer by Dick tells him, "But be at rest; the Black Arrow flieth nevermore - the fellowship is broken."
Sir Richard and Lady Shelton live in Tunstall Moat House untroubled by the rest of the Wars of the Roses. They provide for both Captain Arblaster and the outlaw Lawless by pensioning them and settling them in Tunstall hamlet. Lawless does a volte face by returning to the Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
order as a friar by the name of Brother Honestus.
Characters
- Richard (Dick) Shelton – (the protagonistProtagonistA protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
) son of the late Sir Harry Shelton, heir of Tunstall. He is "not yet eighteen" in May, 1460, the time period of the first part of the narrative. He is described as "sun-browned and grey-eyed." He is looked upon as the leader of the Black Arrow outlaws in Shoreby as they attempt to rescue Joanna Sedley from Sir Daniel. He is knighted by Richard Crookback in the course of the Battle of Shoreby. - Clipsby – a saucy Tunstall peasant. He is the first character in the novel to alert Dick to the dishonesty of his guardian Daniel Brackley: "Y'are a lad; but when ye come to a man's inches, ye will find ye have an empty pocket."
- Bennet Hatch – a middle aged retainer of Sir Daniel Brackley, and bailiff of the Tunstall hundred. He is described as "a brown-faced, grizzled fellow, heavy of hand and grim of mien."
- Nicholas Appleyard – a septuagenarian veteran of the Battle of AgincourtBattle of AgincourtThe Battle of Agincourt was a major English victory against a numerically superior French army in the Hundred Years' War. The battle occurred on Friday, 25 October 1415 , near modern-day Azincourt, in northern France...
(1415): "his face was like a walnut-shell, both for colour and wrinkles; but his old grey eye was still clear enough, and his sight unabated." - Sir Oliver Oates – the local Tunstall parson and Sir Daniel's clerk. A "tall, portly, ruddy, black-eyed man of near fifty." He is portrayed in the novel as a cowardly sycophant of Sir Daniel Brackley. His knowledge of the law facilitates Sir Daniel's political and financial gain.
- Sir Daniel Brackley – (the antagonistAntagonistAn antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
) a self-serving, unscrupulous knight, notoriously known for changing allegiances from LancasterDuchy of LancasterThe Duchy of Lancaster is one of the two royal duchies in England, the other being the Duchy of Cornwall. It is held in trust for the Sovereign, and is used to provide income for the use of the British monarch...
to YorkYorkYork is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
or vice versa "continually" as it suited him to obtain "some increase of fortune." He also garnered income by taking rents from lands that came into his hands. He enriched himself by obtaining wardships of rich heirs in their minority such as Dick Shelton and procuring rich marriages for them. His vacillating character resembles that of the historic Earl Thomas StanleyThomas Stanley, 1st Earl of DerbyThomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby, KG was titular King of Mann, an English nobleman and stepfather to King Henry VII of England...
and his brother Sir William StanleyWilliam Stanley (Battle of Bosworth)Sir William Stanley was an English soldier and the younger brother of Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby. Stanley fought with his troops in several battles of the Wars of the Roses.-Private life:...
in the Wars of the Roses. The ending of the respective surnames is the same: "-ley." Sir Daniel was different from the Stanleys in that he was not a simple opportunist but a devious, avaricious villain. He is described by the author as having a bald head and a "thin, dark visage." He is also described in positive terms as "a very merry knight, none merrier in England" and as a good military leader. - The Walsinghams – Stevenson's renaming of the Woodvilles of the Wars of the RosesWars of the RosesThe Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the houses of Lancaster and York...
. They do not play a part in the narrative of The Black Arrow, but it is intimated that in the recent past they had exercised lordship and received rents in Tunstall and Kettley. They are described as "poor as thieves." The Woodville family during the Wars of the Roses was poor in being composed largely of commoners, ennobled by marriage under Edward IV of EnglandEdward IV of EnglandEdward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. He was the first Yorkist King of England...
. - Joanna Sedley – (the heroine) also known as John Matcham, the ward of Lord Foxham but kidnapped by Sir Daniel. She is sixteen in May, 1460. Her softness and diminutive frame are constantly alluded to in Book 1 as unbecoming to her masculine attire, but later this is set in contrast to her appearance and bearing as a noble young lady: "she, who had seemed so little and so awkward in the attire of Matcham, was now tall like a young willow, and swam across the floor as though she scorned the drudgery of walking."
- Will Lawless – a "Friar TuckFriar TuckFriar Tuck is a companion to Robin Hood in the legends about that character. He is a common character in modern Robin Hood stories, which depict him as a jovial friar and one of Robin's Merry Men. The figure of Tuck was common in the May Games festivals of England and Scotland during the 15th...
" type of outlaw, member of the Black Arrow Fellowship, who has been many things in life, including a seaman and a FranciscanFranciscanMost Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
friar. He is said to have a big body, and he is fond of drinking. He helps Dick Shelton visit his beloved Joanna by disguising him as a friar. The final paragraph tells how he ended life as a friar. As a friar he assumes a name that indicates his conversion from thief to honest man, Brother Honestus. - Ellis Duckworth – organiser of the Black Arrow Fellowship to avenge Harry Shelton, Simon Malmesbury, and himself. He was blamed for the death of Harry Shelton, and he was rumored to have been an agent of Richard Neville, Earl of WarwickRichard Neville, 16th Earl of WarwickRichard Neville KG, jure uxoris 16th Earl of Warwick and suo jure 6th Earl of Salisbury and 8th and 5th Baron Montacute , known as Warwick the Kingmaker, was an English nobleman, administrator, and military commander...
. - Kit (Christopher) Greensheve– a Black Arrow outlaw who like Lawless is closely associated with Dick Shelton.
- John Capper – a Black Arrow outlaw closely associated with Dick Shelton.
- Goody Hatch – wife of Bennet Hatch, who is put in charge of Joanna Sedley when she comes to the Moat House with Dick Shelton.
- Lord Foxham– a local Yorkist magnate, guardian of Joanna Sedley, who joins with Dick Shelton and the outlaws in their failed attempt to rescue her.
- Sir John Hamley– kinsman of Lord Foxham and his intended bridegroom for his ward Joanna Sedley. At the end of the novel he becomes betrothed to Alicia Risingham.
- Hawksley – Lord Foxham's retainer. He cares for his master on The Good Hope after the failed attempt to rescue Joanna Sedley from the house by the sea.
- Earl Risingham – a local Lancastrian magnate, uncle of Alicia Risingham, killed in the Battle of Shoreby.
- Alicia Risingham – niece of Earl Risingham and friend, confidant, and companion of Joanna Sedley. She coquettishly poses herself for romantic consideration by Dick Shelton, who graciously declines in favor of his true love Joanna. She is so short of stature that she jokingly refers to herself as a "dwarf."
- Lord Shoreby – a local Lancastrian magnate, killed by Black Arrow outlaws in Shoreby Abbey Church to prevent his marriage to Joanna Sedley.
- Captain Arblaster – the owner of the ship The Good Hope, stolen by Shelton and the Black Arrow Fellowship. Dick's favor with Richard Crookback allows him to plead successfully for his life after the Battle of Shoreby, but this in turn causes Dick to fall out of favor with Crookback. Arblaster ends life as a pensioner in Tunstall Hamlet.
- Tom – Captain Arblaster's first mate, who is killed in the Battle of Shoreby. It is Tom who is first suspicious of Dick and Lawless as they are making their way to the "Goat and Bagpipes," and it is he that succeeds in catching Dick. Arblaster and Pirret do not heed his warning against Dick tricking them through his Ali Baba tale.
- Master Pirret – friend of Captain Arblaster, whose greed and credulity allow Dick to escape from him, Arblaster, and Tom.
- Richard Crookback – Richard Plantagenet, Duke of GloucesterDuke of GloucesterDuke of Gloucester is a British royal title , often conferred on one of the sons of the reigning monarch. The first four creations were in the Peerage of England, the next in the Peerage of Great Britain, and the last in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; this current creation carries with it the...
, future Richard III of EnglandRichard III of EnglandRichard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
(a real historical person) - Sir William CatesbyWilliam CatesbyWilliam Catesby, esq. was one of Richard III of England's principal councillors. He also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Speaker of the House of Commons during Richard's reign....
– Richard Crookback's retainer (a real historical person).
Chronology and Geography
From the information given in the novel two time references for the two blocks of action that constitute the narrative can be pinpointed: May, 1460 and January, 1461. The important time indicator is the Battle of WakefieldBattle of Wakefield
The Battle of Wakefield took place at Sandal Magna near Wakefield, in West Yorkshire in Northern England, on 30 December 1460. It was a major battle of the Wars of the Roses...
, December 30, 1460, which Stevenson describes in the first chapter of Book 3: It is because Richard Crookback, Richard III of England
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
, is presented as an adult active in the Wars of the Roses in January, 1461 that Stevenson provides the footnote: "At the date of this story, Richard Crookback could not have been created Duke of Gloucester; but for clearness, with the reader's leave, he shall so be called." Richard was born in 1452, so he would have been merely 8 years old at the time of this story. A later footnote emphasizes this again: "Richard Crookback would have been really far younger at this date [i.e. January, 1461]." Stevenson follows William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
in retrojecting Richard of Gloucester into an earlier period of the Wars of the Roses
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the houses of Lancaster and York...
and portraying him as a dour hunchback
Kyphosis
Kyphosis , also called roundback or Kelso's hunchback, is a condition of over-curvature of the thoracic vertebrae...
—Stevenson: "the formidable hunchback." (See Henry VI, part 2
Henry VI, part 2
Henry VI, Part 2 or The Second Part of Henry the Sixt is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1591, and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England...
; Henry VI, part 3
Henry VI, part 3
Henry VI, Part 3 or The Third Part of Henry the Sixt is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1591, and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England...
; and Richard III (play)
Richard III (play)
Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
.) This characterization closely follows the Tudor myth
Tudor myth
The "Tudor myth" is the tradition in English history, historiography and literature that presents the period of the 15th century, including the Wars of the Roses, in England as a dark age of anarchy and bloodshed. It is even claimed it was a punishment by God...
, a tradition that overly vilified Richard of Gloucester
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
and cast the entire English Fifteenth century as a bloody, barbaric chaos in contrast to the Tudor
Tudor period
The Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...
era of law and order.
Curiously, the 1948 film The Black Arrow portrays Richard Gloucester in a more favorable light than in the novel, somewhat anticipating the work of Paul Murray Kendall to rehabilitate him (Kendall, Richard III, 1956). When Gloucester is told he is "more than kind," he replies jokingly that such rumors would ruin his [bad] "reputation": the revision of the Tudor myth
Tudor myth
The "Tudor myth" is the tradition in English history, historiography and literature that presents the period of the 15th century, including the Wars of the Roses, in England as a dark age of anarchy and bloodshed. It is even claimed it was a punishment by God...
?
Stevenson liked his characterization of Richard Crookback, and expressed his desire to write about him again. Stevenson alludes both to his novel The Black Arrow and Richard Crookback with the phrase "the Sable Missile" in a letter he wrote Sidney Colvin
Sidney Colvin
Sidney Colvin was an English curator and literary and art critic, part of the illustrious Anglo-Indian Colvin family. He is primarily remembered for his friendship with Robert Louis Stevenson.-Biography:...
in the month the final installment of The Black Arrow appeared in Young Folks (October, 1883):
The Battle of Shoreby, a fictitious battle that is the main event of Book 5, is modeled after the First Battle of St Albans
First Battle of St Albans
The First Battle of St Albans, fought on 22 May 1455 at St Albans, 22 miles north of London, traditionally marks the beginning of the Wars of the Roses. Richard, Duke of York and his ally, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, defeated the Lancastrians under Edmund, Duke of Somerset, who was killed...
in the Wars of the Roses
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the houses of Lancaster and York...
. This battle in history as in the novel is a victory for the House of York. The presence of an abbey church in Shoreby is reminiscient of the abbey church of Tewkesbury
Tewkesbury
Tewkesbury is a town in Gloucestershire, England. It stands at the confluence of the River Severn and the River Avon, and also minor tributaries the Swilgate and Carrant Brook...
to which the Lancastrians fled for sanctuary
Sanctuary
A sanctuary is any place of safety. They may be categorized into human and non-human .- Religious sanctuary :A religious sanctuary can be a sacred place , or a consecrated area of a church or temple around its tabernacle or altar.- Sanctuary as a sacred place :#Sanctuary as a sacred place:#:In...
after the battle
Battle of Tewkesbury
The Battle of Tewkesbury, which took place on 4 May 1471, was one of the decisive battles of the Wars of the Roses. The forces loyal to the House of Lancaster were completely defeated by those of the rival House of York under their monarch, King Edward IV...
on May 4, 1471.
In the "prologue" Stevenson intimates that the Tunstall of The Black Arrow is a real place: "Tunstall hamlet at that period, in the reign of old King Henry VI., wore much the same appearance as it wears today." In south-east Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, England, 18 miles NE of Ipswich
Ipswich
Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...
, less than 10 miles from the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
a "Tunstall" is located with an accompanying forest. Stevenson and his family had visited Suffolk in 1873. The similarity of place-names near this Tunstall, Suffolk
Tunstall, Suffolk
On an Ordnance Survey map of Suffolk, England, there are two settlements named Tunstall next to each other, north east of Woodbridge. However, these are not two separate villages but one, despite the gap between the main village and the hamlet known as Tunstall Common...
to place-names in the novel also suggest that this is Stevenson's Tunstall: Kettley is Kettleburgh in actuality, Risingham is Framlingham
Framlingham
Framlingham is a market town and civil parish in the Suffolk Coastal District of Suffolk, England. Commonly referred to as "Fram" by the locals, it is of Anglo-Saxon origin and is mentioned in the Domesday Book. It has a population of 3,114 at the 2001 census...
, and Foxham is Farnham, Suffolk
Farnham, Suffolk
Farnham is a village and civil parish about 4 km South-South West of Saxmundham in Suffolk, England on the A12. Its history goes back to at least 1707 C.E....
. The identities of Shoreby-on-the-Till and Holywood are probably Orford
Orford, Suffolk
Orford is a small town in Suffolk, England, within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB.Like many Suffolk coastal towns it was of some importance as a port and fishing village in the Middle Ages. It still has a fine mediaeval castle, built to dominate the River Ore.The main geographical feature of the...
and Leiston
Leiston
Leiston is a town in eastern Suffolk, England. It is situated near Saxmundham and Aldeburgh, about from the North Sea coast and is northeast of Ipswich and northeast from London...
respectively. Orford is on the North Sea and is joined to Framlingham by a road going to the northwest (the "highroad from Risingham to Shoreby"), and Leiston is also on the North Sea with a medieval abbey
Abbey
An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...
like Holywood of the novel. The River Till, which figures largely in Book 1 of the novel, would then be the River Deben in actuality. The River Deben flows near Kettleburgh.
The name of the main character Richard Shelton and his inheritance, Tunstall, were the name and title of an actual historical personage, Sir Richard Tunstall. He, as a Lancastrian
House of Lancaster
The House of Lancaster was a branch of the royal House of Plantagenet. It was one of the opposing factions involved in the Wars of the Roses, an intermittent civil war which affected England and Wales during the 15th century...
and ardent supporter of King Henry VI of England
Henry VI of England
Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...
, held Harlech Castle
Harlech Castle
Harlech Castle, located in Harlech, Gwynedd, Wales, is a concentric castle, constructed atop a cliff close to the Irish Sea. Architecturally, it is particularly notable for its massive gatehouse....
against the Yorkists from 1465-1468 during the first part of Edward IV's
Edward IV of England
Edward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. He was the first Yorkist King of England...
reign. In contrast, Richard Shelton, who becomes the knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
of Tunstall at the end of The Black Arrow, is a staunch Yorkist.
Two other anachronisms in the novel are Sir Oliver and others speaking of "Simnel" and "the Walsinghams" as suspected organizers of the Black Arrow fellowship. Lambert Simnel
Lambert Simnel
Lambert Simnel was a pretender to the throne of England. His claim to be the Earl of Warwick in 1487 threatened the newly established reign of King Henry VII .-Early life:...
is the focus of rebellion in Henry VII's
Henry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
reign (1485–1509), and "the Walsinghams," Stevenson's renaming of the Woodvilles, would have played a part only after May, 1464, when Edward IV
Edward IV of England
Edward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. He was the first Yorkist King of England...
married Elizabeth Woodville
Elizabeth Woodville
Elizabeth Woodville was Queen consort of England as the spouse of King Edward IV from 1464 until his death in 1483. Elizabeth was a key figure in the series of dynastic civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses. Her first husband, Sir John Grey of Groby was killed at the Second Battle of St Albans...
.
The Black Arrow consists of 79,926 words, so it can be classified a novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
rather than a novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
, novelette
Novelette
A novelette is a piece of short prose fiction. The distinction between a novelette and other literary forms is usually based upon word count, with a novelette being longer than a short story, but shorter than a novella...
, short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
, or flash fiction
Flash fiction
Flash fiction is a style of fictional literature or fiction of extreme brevity. There is no widely accepted definition of the length of the category...
.
Criticism
Stevenson himself was the first critic of his Black Arrow, referring to it as "tushery" with reference to his use of archaic EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
dialogue. In a May, 1883 letter to H.E. Henley Stevenson wrote:
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
edition of his works, Stevenson indicated that he did not want to write an introduction to The Black Arrow—his wife Fanny, however, did so for the 1905 Biographical Edition of his works. The Black Arrow is in good company as Stevenson also did not like his The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Praise for The Black Arrow is rare among literary critics over its 125 year history. The novelist John Galsworthy
John Galsworthy
John Galsworthy OM was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter...
wrote that it was "a livelier picture of medieval times than I remember elsewhere in fiction." The reason for this stems from Stevenson's own dislike of The Black Arrow coupled with a misunderstanding of his attitude toward what he called "tushery."
Latest Annotated Edition
On December 18, 2007 Penguin BooksPenguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
issued the latest annotated edition of The Black Arrow with the introduction and notes by Professor John A. Sutherland, Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London and visiting professor of literature at the California Institute of Technology. Professor Sutherland makes mention of this Wikipedia article in this edition.
Film, TV or Theatrical Adaptations
The Black Arrow has been adapted for film and television several times, including a 19111911 in film
The year 1911 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*March 23: D.W Griffith shows the first major close-up shot on film with the successful release of The Lonedale Operator proving his ever growing mastery of how to utilise film....
film short starring Charles Ogle
Charles Stanton Ogle
Charles Stanton Ogle was an American silent film actor.-Biography:Born in Steubenville, Ohio, Ogle first performed in live theatre, making his first appearance on Broadway in 1905. He embarked on a career in film with Edison Studios in The Bronx, New York in 1908, appearing in The Boston Tea Party...
, a 1948 film starring Louis Hayward
Louis Hayward
Louis Charles Hayward was a British actor born in South Africa.-Biography:Born in Johannesburg, Hayward began his screen work in British films, notably as Simon Templar in Leslie Charteris' The Saint in New York.] In 1939 he played a dual role in The Man in the Iron Mask.During World War II,...
, a 1985 film
Black Arrow (telefilm)
Black Arrow is a Disney television movie filmed in 1984 and released in 1985, based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses. It was a Panatlantic Pictures release directed by John Hough, who had directed a filmatization of another Stevenson novel in 1972,...
starring Oliver Reed
Oliver Reed
Oliver Reed was an English actor known for his burly screen presence. Reed exemplified his real-life macho image in "tough guy" roles...
and Benedict Taylor
Benedict Taylor
Benedict Sean Taylor is a British actor. His adoptive sister is Femi Taylor...
, a Soviet film Chyornaya strela 1985, a 1951 two-part British TV serial starring Denis Quilley
Denis Quilley
Denis Clifford Quilley OBE was an English theatre, television and film actor who was long associated with the Royal National Theatre....
, a 1968 seven-part Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
TV production entitled La freccia nera, and a British TV series running from 1972-1975 starring successively Robin Langford
Robin Langford
Robin Langford is a well known British actor/writer/director. Known for his acting performances at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company in Stratford-upon-Avon to the Moscow Arts Theatre in Russia at the age of 12, to his first film, at the age of 12 as Elizabeth Taylor’s son...
and Simon Cuff as Richard Shelton during its run. The Robert Louis Stevenson website maintains a complete list of derivative works.
Editions
- 1888, USA, Charles Scribner's Sons, hardback first edition
- 1888, UK, Cassell & Co., Ltd., hardback first edition
- 1894, UK, Cassell & Co., Ltd., H.M. Paget, illus.
- 1895, 1897, 1899, 1905, 1910, 1912, 1914, 1917, 1921 USA, Charles Scribner's Sons, hardback
- 1916, 1933, 1942, USA, Charles Scribner's Sons (N.C. Wyeth illustrated edition), hardback
- 1930, UK/USA, Standard Book Company, hardback
- 1931, USA, Ginn and Company, hardback
- 1944, USA, Charles Scribner's Sons (N.C. Wyeth illus. ed. reprint) ISBN 0-684-18877-5, hardback
- 1950, USA, Pocket Books, Inc. (Scholastic Book Services), paperback
- 1954, USA, Nelson Doubleday (Lawrence Beall Smith, illus.), hardback
- 1963, USA, Airmont Publishing Co., Inc., paperback
- 1983, USA, Watermill Press ISBN 0-89375-781-0, paperback
- 1994, USA, Geddes & Grosset (Bloomsbury books) ISBN 185471287X, 9781854712875, paperback
- 1995, UK/USA Penguin Books ISBN 0140621644, 9780140621648, paperback
- 1998, USA, Tom Doherty Associates, LLC. (Tor Classics) ISBN 0-812-56562-2, paperback
- 2001, USA, Tantor Media ISBN 1400100038, ISBN 978-1400100033, audio CD
- 2001, USA, Tantor Media (MP3 Una edition) ISBN 1400150035, ISBN 978-1400150038, pub. date 1 June 2001, MP3 CD
- 2003, USA, IndyPublish.com ISBN 1404361723, ISBN 978-1404361720, pub. date 16 April 2003, paperback
- 2003, UK/USA, Signet Classics (Penguin group) ISBN 9780451529169, pub. date December 2003, paperback
- 2004, USA, Audio Book Contractors, Inc. ISBN 1556857527, ISBN 978-1556857522, pub. date 30 January 2004, audio cassette
- 2004, USA, Neeland Media LLC. (Kindle edition), pub. date 1 April 2004, e-book & paperback
- 2004, USA, 1st World Library ISBN 1419254111, ISBN 978-1419254116, paperback
- 2004, USA, Wildside Press ISBN 0809567334, 9780809567331, paperback
- 2005, USA, Kessinger Publishing ISBN 0-7661-9477-9 , pub. date 30 April 2005, paperback
- 2006, USA, Adamant Media Corp. (Elibron Classic ser.) ISBN 0-543-89660-9, paperback
- 2006, USA, Adamant Media Corp. (Elibron Classic ser.) ISBN 0-543-89659-5, hardback
- 2007, USA, BiblioBazaar (large print edition) ISBN 978-1-4346-4730-6, paperback
- 2007, UK/USA, Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-141-44139-9, pub. date 18 December 2007, paperback
- 2008, USA, NuVision Publications, LLC. ISBN 1-59547-698-9, paperback
Comic Book Version
In October, 1946 The Gilberton Company of New York published their Classics IllustratedClassics Illustrated
Classics Illustrated is a comic book series featuring adaptations of literary classics such as Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Iliad. Created by Albert Kanter, the series began publication in 1941 and finished its first run in 1971, producing 169 issues. Following the series' demise, various companies...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
version of The Black Arrow as "No. 31."
External links
- Project Gutenberg etext of volume one of Robert Louis Stevenson's correspondence in which he speaks of The Black Arrow as "tushery" at Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
- Project Gutenberg etext of volume two of Robert Louis Stevenson's correspondence