The first volume of Alexandre Dumas' two-part interpretation of the
story of Robin Hood, popularized for Nineteenth Century audiences by Sir
Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, set in England in 1162-66.
In this book, Dumas tells the story of Robin Hood's youth: how he is
delivered by an unknown man to be raised by poor but honest foresters,
his great skill as an archer, how he comes into conflict with the Baron
[sic] of Nottingham, how he meets Friar Tuck, the Maid Marian, Little
John, Will Scarlett, and others, how he is declared an outlaw by the
King, and decamps, with his followers, into Sherwood Forest to wage war
against the Baron.
This is not one of Dumas' better books. Dumas normally intensively
researched his historical novels, typically using contemporary memoirs
to form an opinion of the character of the historical figures, which
then informed his writing. He would also often visit the scenes of his
novels, so that his descriptions of geography, landscape, and even
particular buildings were precise and vivid. In this case, both the
characters and the landscape are generic and uninteresting. Since Robin
Hood possesses superhuman skill, and the Baron is a murderous fool,
Dumas' hardest novelistic task is to keep finding reasons for Robin to
spare the Baron's life.
