Two Knights And How They Fared In A Great Adventure

There was once a time when children’s stories assumed their readers were perfectly capable of appreciating courage, honour, moral dilemmas and the occasional dragon without requiring a talking sidekick or an explosion every third page. Two Knights and How They Fared in a Great Adventure belongs proudly to that older tradition: a tale of chivalry, questing and steadfastness, written with the quiet confidence that a good story needs little more than imagination and a willingness to venture beyond the castle gates.

Edward Rockliff’s charming 1925 adventure follows two knights whose journey is filled with trials, unexpected encounters and lessons that reveal themselves naturally rather than arriving in the form of a helpful life coach. Like the finest fairy tales and medieval romances, the story is as much about character as it is about action. Courage matters, certainly, but so do kindness, loyalty and the ability to keep going when the road becomes considerably less welcoming than the map had implied.

This copy is in Fair condition, with slight splaying to the boards, a feature that somehow feels rather appropriate. A book about medieval adventures ought to show at least a little evidence that it has undertaken a few of its own over the last century. The covers now stand with the relaxed confidence of an elderly knight whose armour no longer fits quite as snugly as it did in 1925, but who remains perfectly capable of recounting a splendid tale.

There is a pleasing irony in reading stories about chivalric perfection through the eyes of the twentieth century—or indeed the twenty-first. Real medieval life was frequently muddy, uncomfortable and alarmingly short, whereas literary knights spent much of their time rescuing strangers, defeating improbable adversaries and speaking in complete sentences without once complaining about damp socks. We know which version we’d rather read about. Fiction has always understood that reality occasionally benefits from a little editing.

Published by Sheed and Ward, a publisher renowned for thoughtful and enduring works, this volume carries with it the atmosphere of a period when children’s books were expected to last. Not merely physically—although many have—but intellectually as well. The language has a richness that invites reading aloud, while the adventure itself possesses an old-fashioned sincerity that modern storytelling sometimes mistakes for simplicity. In truth, there is nothing simple about creating a tale that continues to charm readers a hundred years after it first appeared.

Collectors of vintage children’s books, admirers of Arthurian legends and lovers of early twentieth-century illustration and book design will find much to enjoy here. Even if you have no intention of embarking upon a quest yourself, there is something deeply comforting about opening a book that still believes bravery, friendship and decency are worthy subjects for adventure. It is a refreshing change from heroes who spend half the novel explaining how conflicted they are.

Proudly offered by Crappy Old Books, where we have enormous affection for elderly volumes that have earned every crease, every softened corner and every hint of splaying. After all, a knight with a few dents in his armour is usually far more interesting than one who has never left the castle, and the same may safely be said of books.

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