Résumé
Résumé de Marianne
Go deeper: the whole of Marianne
About 2 h 30 min to read.À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
You will love this book if you enjoy Robin Hood tales, witty narrators, songs and feasts, brave heroines, and comedy that pokes fun at church and crown.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
What happens when soldiers burst into a wedding just as the abbot is warming up his voice? The organist strikes a grand chord on empty keys, the choir freezes mid-trill, and the bridegroom, an earl, fights his way out of his own wedding.
In Maid Marian, Thomas Love Peacock takes the old Robin Hood ballads and gives them a heroine at the center: Matilda Fitzwater, who shoots the longbow, fences, sings, and thinks for herself. You get songs, feasts, and brawls, plus sly jokes about kings and bishops, and the ideas under the fun about who has the right to rule, to hunt, and to take.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A wedding broken at the altarFree
- 2Matilda sings her way past her father
- 3The Gamwell feast and a rescue at the gallows
- 4Prince John lays siege to Arlingford Castle
- 5The court of the greenwood and its laws
- 6Disguises, pranks, and a ghostly ferry
- 7Might and right, and a woman who chooses
- 8How Peacock tells the tale
Point clé 1 sur 8
A wedding broken at the altar
The story opens at Rubygill Abbey, near Sherwood Forest. The abbot and his plump friars stand ready to marry Matilda Fitzwater to Robert Fitz-Ooth, Earl of Locksley and Huntingdon. Before the vows can be spoken, Sir Ralph Montfaucon and the king's soldiers march in and forbid the marriage in the name of King Henry.
The scene is played for laughter. The organist strikes empty keys, and the friars tumble over each other in the doorway when the arrows fly. Only one tall friar, Brother Michael, stands calmly with arms akimbo, a picture of neutrality.
The earl asks Matilda whether she loved the earldom or the man. She answers that she loved Robert Fitz-Ooth and his love. He entrusts her to her father, cuts his way out, and escapes into the woods.
At the feast, Sir Ralph lists the charges. The earl hunted the king's deer, ignored the king's summons, and refused to repay money owed to the abbot of Doncaster. Brother Michael meanwhile praises Matilda to the whole table, saying she performs manly exercises with feminine grace. The earl is now an outlaw, and the love story becomes a story of flight.
A love worth having does not end because the ceremony is stopped.
That’s 1 of 8 key points.
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Go deeper: the whole of Marianne
About 2 h 30 min to read.Paperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
Questions about Marianne
What is Maid Marian about?
It retells the Robin Hood legend with Matilda Fitzwater as its heroine. After soldiers break up her wedding, she joins the outlawed earl in Sherwood Forest, where she becomes Maid Marian and helps him and his band resist a prince.
Who is Friar Tuck in Maid Marian?
He begins as Brother Michael of Rubygill Abbey, Matilda's confessor. He loves canary wine, songs, and a good fight with his staff. After leaving his abbey he becomes Friar Tuck, chaplain and spiritual peer of the greenwood court.
Is Maid Marian a true story and when was it written?
No, it is a comic romance based on the old Robin Hood ballads and set in the time of Richard the Lionheart. Thomas Love Peacock wrote it in the early nineteenth century, and he added jokes about his own age.
Why does Matilda become Maid Marian?
The friar baptizes her with the new name when she joins Robin in the forest. It marks a new life, free of her father's castle. She says every maiden gives up her name at the altar anyway.
Is Maid Marian easy to read?
Yes, it is approachable. The story moves in short chapters of lively dialogue, with brawls, feasts, and songs throughout, and a narrator who stops to joke with you. The scenes are clear and easy to follow by ear.
Cite this edition
Peacock, Thomas Love. Maid Marian. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/maid-marian.
Peacock, T. L. (2026). Maid Marian. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/maid-marian (Original work published 1822)
Peacock, Thomas Love. Maid Marian. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/maid-marian.
@book{peacock2026maid,
author = {Peacock, Thomas Love},
title = {Maid Marian},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/maid-marian},
note = {First published 1822}
}
