THE BLACK ARROW
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The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses is an 1888 children's novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. It is both a historical adventure novel and a romance novel. 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 vol. XXIII, no. 672 (Saturday, October 20, 1883)—Stevenson had finished writing it by the end of summer. It was printed under the pseudonym Captain George North. He alludes to the time gap between the serialisation 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.
From the information given in the novel two time references for the two blocks of action that constitute the narrative can be pinpointed: May1460 and January 1461. The important time indicator is the Battle of Wakefield December 30, 1460 which Stevenson describes in the first chapter of Book :
Months had passed away since Richard Shelton made his escape from the hands of his guardian. These months had been eventful for England. The party of Lancaster, which was then in the very article of death, had once more raised its head. The Yorkists defeated and dispersed, their leader butchered on the field, it seemed, – for a very brief season in the winter following upon the events already recorded, as if the House of Lancaster had finally triumphed over its foes.
It is because Richard Crookback (later 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 eight years old at the time of this story. A later footnote emphasises this again: "Richard Crookback would have been really far younger at this date.
THE BLACK ARROW
$11.00