Maid Marian

by Thomas Love Peacock

Peacock's retelling of the legend of Robin Hood is as fresh today as it was when he penned it, nearly two hundred years ago. Here are all the heroes and villains we know and love, recast by a keen Victorian wit: Robin Hood and Maid Marian; Friar Tuck, Little John, and Richard the Lionhearted; Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham. The heroes are heroic (and just a little self-serving, though generous) the villains are villainous (and greedy!); and the tale is told as keenly as it can be. Those who haven't read Peacock are in for a treat.(Jacketless library hardcover)

Genres: Classics, Historical Fiction, Fiction, British Literature, Ebooks, Adventure

Paperback

First published January 1, 1821

About the author

Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866) was an English novelist and poet. For most of his life, Peacock worked for the East India Co. He was a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley, who greatly inspired his writing. His best verse is interspersed in his novels, which are dominated by the conversations of their characters and satirize the intellectual currents of the day. His best-known work, Nightmare Abbey (1818), satirizes romantic melancholy and includes characters based on Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Lord Byron.

Reviews

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peacock’s novel is a (mostly) witty satire of Regency mores and despite being written in 1818/22 it has a modern sensibility. This sensibility stems from the objects of satire (gender relations, legality of governments etc), mutatis mutandis, still being relevant today.

Use of the past to contrast the present is nothing new and Peacock uses the mythical outlaw’s realm to good effect. Not that the outlaws realm is some kind of utopia – the revelation that Tuck has a secret mistress in direct contravention of the laws of their forest society – illustrates this point.

I would have given this 5 stars just because of its use of Marian as the wonderfully transgressive hero. However there were a couple of flaws that dragged it back – the plot is somewhat disjointed and the last chapter is very rushed. In all, an entertaining read.

[Emily Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

"May I never again have roof but the blue sky, nor canopy but the green leaves, nor barrier but the forest-bounds; with the foresters to my train, Little John to my page, Friar Tuck to my ghostly adviser, and Robin Hood to my liege lord. I am no longer lady Matilda Fitzwater, of Arlingford Castle, but plain Maid Marian, of Sherwood Forest."

This novella is intentionally and delightfully anachronistic. As fitting expected for this little Victorian novella, it's a romantic foray into the glittering imagined past of chivalric gallantry and courtly romance. It has an entertaining sense of humor about it, which I really enjoyed!

It's interesting to see how Marian plays a dual role in this book and inhabits two distinct versions of herself. She is an excellent archer and swordswoman and is featured in an action scene more than any other character. (Well, the novella is about her, so that shouldn't be too surprising.) On other hand, there is one portion of the novel where she is forbidden to leave her father's castle and spends a few chapters as her father's "captive". But it's worth noting that she was essentially grounded after embarrassing the sheriff and a knight while in the company of Robin and friends, leaving the sheriff "grievously bruised".

All in all, this is a wonderful little book, and I'm so pleased that it is among the first Robin Hood novels to be published.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in my hardcover omnibus "The Pleasures of Peacock" (104 pgs)

Peacock's version of Robin Hood contains some amusingly snarky comments along with the familiar story.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this version!! I especially loved Peacock's notes pointing out anachronisms, because that's something I do. I understand his compulsion to make things as accurate as possible. I loved his Maid Marian, she had some guts, and would not take "No" for an answer (as in, No, Marian, you mustn't run away to the woods to be with Robin Hood). She was so courageous and an excellent fighter! And as she is the title character of this book, I don't feel bad rambling about her.

The plots were typical to what you would see in a Robin Hood legend. There wasn't a lot of the Sheriff involved, it was mostly the merry men playing host to loads of rich people traveling through the forest, and then hanging out with King Richard. Like you do.

[Lizzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1818-22, this is a lesser-known but pivotal short novel in the Robin Hood lore, the one that cemented a connection between Marian and Robin Hood (previously, the two were not connected other than loosely in May Games and a few ballads in the 15th & 16th centuries, and there was a 16th century play written by Anthony Munday, from which it seems Peacock took some details). So as a Robin Hood nerd it was an important one for me to read!

I had quite a bit of fun with it, oddity though it is. It's satirical (about society) and amusing and Marian is basically a feisty proto-feminist, challenging her father for her freedom, and as skilled with sword and bow & arrow as the other foresters. As far as drawing on the original Robin Hood ballads is concerned, it takes a few liberties (the addition of Marian of course being one of them, the time period of Richard the Lionheart being another - again, it seems it was Anthony Munday who was influential for that), but I feel like the heart of the ballads remain and there were various nods to the classic tales they tell.

[Peekablue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This version of Robin Hood goes along pretty well with most of the traditional Robin Hood stories. One difference is that Robin, the Earl of Locksley and Huntington, actually squandered away his fortune and poached the King's deer for love of the hunt rather than out of necessity. His lands were then confiscated by King Henry and he was named outlaw for resisting arrest.
For those who like strong women characters, this Maid Marian (who's real name is Matilda) can use a sword, quarter-staff, and shoot a bow as well as Robin. She also loves to hunt and likes being out in Nature.
The only complaint I have is that some of the characters, Friar Tuck for instance, tend to be rather long winded. Other than that I enjoyed the book and recommend it to anyone interested in Robin Hood.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Sir Walter Scott lite. The characters are somewhat one dimensional, cartoony, and brushed in broad strokes, but still engaging and engrossing. And for all the stereotypes trotted out, straight from a Hollywood back lot, Marian is refreshingly modern and independent - the sort of women that woman readers crave to see in a genre overpopulated with damsels-in-distress and heroes-to-the-rescue.

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this one for class. I'd never heard of it before. It's pretty easy and quick to read, and reasonably fun. Marian's a bag of trouble, really! At least as far as her father's concerned. I think this course is going to be based on the portrayal of Marian, given the books on the list for it. Interesting.

There isn't much to it, to be honest. I hope I can comment on it better once I've reread it and gone to some lectures.

[Shala Howell · Rating 3 out of 5]

so far it's kind of like reading a musical

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

How many Robin Hood books does anyone need to read in a lifetime? After having recently finished Thomas Love Peacock’s Maid Marian, I suspect the answer is two, or maybe three. I’d read Howard Pyle’s The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood in high school, and then nothing until this month. Maid Marian is much shorter than The Merry Adventures, and, unlike Pyle, Peacock devotes significant attention to Maid Marion, whom he presents as a medieval dreamgirl, fully able to hang with the rest of the Merry Men in wielding the bow or blade, while beguiling every fellow in the county with her dark eyes, abundant curls, and quick wit.

The writing is pretty good, with plenty of clever, droll jokes. I had to slow down just a little from my usual reading pace to avoid missing them. Peacock shows us how Robin and the boys went from their previous states to lives of outlawry in Sherwood Forest, then proceeds with a narrative loosely focused on the pursuit of Maid Marian by Sir Ralph Montfaucon, an oddly polite, friendly villain who was smitten with her at first sight. The Sheriff of Nottingham takes only a limited role, compelled by Montfaucon to devote his forces to an ineffectual search for Robin.

If you have an urge to read a Robin Hood book, Maid Marian may fit the bill. It doesn’t have some of the amusing anecdotes I recall from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, but it makes up for that with greater economy and less repetitive writing. You could certainly do much worse.

[Escape to Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun short read but not really in Maid Marian's perspective like I thought it would be. I'd say it was more told by Friar Tuck (Brother Micheal) than anybody and around the normal story of Robin Hood. All the same it could use some updating obviously being from the 1800s. Is it about time for a Maid Marian retelling... Maybe.

[Joshua Leach · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful chivalrous romance that marks an interesting change of pace from Peacock's usual beat of drawing rooms, country estates, and learned dialogues. But full nonetheless of the early Peacock's usual Shelley-influenced social commentary and political jibes at figures like Southey (the then–poet laureate, who sold his radical convictions for a "pot of sack"). Loved it!

[S. Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly standard 19th Century adaptation of the 13th Century folklore legend of Robin Hood.

[Caleb Foster · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun read although fairly bare-bones and underdeveloped.

[Bettie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Opening: Now come ye for peace here, or come ye for war? --SCOTT.


"The abbot, in his alb arrayed," stood at the altar in the abbey-chapel of Rubygill, with all his plump, sleek, rosy friars, in goodly lines disposed, to solemnise the nuptials of the beautiful Matilda Fitzwater, daughter of the Baron of Arlingford, with the noble Robert Fitz-Ooth, Earl of Locksley and Huntingdon.

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