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    Otto of the Silver Hand
    Otto of the Silver Hand
    Otto of the Silver Hand
    Ebook9 pages2 minutes

    Otto of the Silver Hand

    By Howard Pyle

    3.5/5

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateJun 1, 1967
    Author

    Howard Pyle

    Howard Pyle (1853-1911) was a celebrated artist, author, and teacher -- and a primary figure in the history of children's literature. Not only did he guide and inspire such artistic talents as N. C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, and Jessie Willcox Smith, but he was also a master storyteller in his own right. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Pepper & Salt, and The Wonder Clock are among the many stories and folktales that he wrote and illustrated.

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    Reviews for Otto of the Silver Hand

    3.5/5

    70 ratings9 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A Medieval story about a young boy caught up in a murderous feud after being raised in a monastery. It all about the pictures really. They are something, the knights and men at arms in particular. The older women seem to mix later 14th &15th cent style elements and the final young maid looks to be wearing an artistic reform tea gown.
    • 4/5
      The Artwork in this book is amazing. The story is interesting and it does have a bit of a sad ending. It does make one think about the cost of violence and peace.
    • 3/5
      This was a book that impressed me as a child --I created a piano piece based on the scene when the hero's father's castle is destroyed which I called "the Fall of Drachenhausen" which involved a lot of crashing chords and one repeated note representing the ringing of the bell. The story itself I found grim, while the hero's hand being cut off while he was a child, and his nobly renouncing vengeance later, though no doubt a good morally lesson, was emotionally unsatisfying.
    • 3/5
      There are no castles like Howard Pyle's castles. The illustrations are great, but the rest of the book is a late childhood tale. The original copyright was in 1888, however.
    • 5/5
      Otto of the Silver Hand has been classified as a milestone in children's literature being one of the first historical novels written for children by an American. As such it has been influential. It's also very well done, striking a balance between readability and invoking the period accurately. As an adult with some background in Medieval history, I found it a lot of fun and as a kid probably would have even more so.
    • 3/5
      In the movie Rosemary's Baby (one of my favorite movies of all time), the character Hutch is described as being an author of "boys' adventure stories." I never knew what that meant, but it's possible that Otto of the Silver Hand might be a boys' adventure story. There's honor and revenge and violence (thankfully without gore). It reminded me of the old movies made under the "Code" back in the day in its fairly simple presentation of good and evil. Even the dude who's finally trying to do right can't have a happy ending because he's done so much bad in the past. Not that I wanted things to be hunky-dory for him, but I would prefer a little more of a reward for having a nuanced emotional life and an evolving sense of morality. Good comes only to the unambiguously and consistently good, which doesn't give much hope to the rest of us. Of course, the good have some pretty nasty things happen to them, too, so there's not a lot of hope for anyone in this book, really. Which now that I think of it, is a little odd for a children's story. I might have to bump my rating up a star just for that.
    • 2/5
      This is a fairly old-fashioned, straight-forward adventure tale for children set in medieval Germany and told through a nineteenth-century romance filter. Otto is a snivelling weakling, monks are ultra-wise holy men, and emotions are high-running and free-flowing. Women are invisible, except when they faithfully wait for their hero to come back and marry them (offscreen, of course), or when they die in childbirth (also offscreen).The parts that do not focus on Otto do serve up some pretty solid adventuring, though, and at a little over one hundred pages this is a very quick read. I guess you could do worse if you want to know what a late nineteenth-century children's book feels like.
    • 2/5
      I didn't really enjoy this as much as I thought I would. Some exciting parts, but Otto is really a wuss.
    • 3/5
      This is a tale set in Medieval Germany. Otto is the son of a robber baron, whose mother dies soon after childbirth. Since the keep of a robber baron is unsuitable for an infant, Otto is sent to a monestary for the first twelve years of his life. Then his father comes to take the boy home and introduce him to the life of a baron and knight. All in all, the story is nice enough, but there's nothing really compelling about it. In fact, Otto himself is rather uninspiring. A pity, too, since you could probably weave a nice tale about a gentle and gracious soul encountering a rough and tumble world. Oh, well. Were I needing some waiting room material, however, this is a book I'd be glad to have on hand. (er, no pun intended...)--J.

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    Otto of the Silver Hand - Howard Pyle

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