The Imperialist Games Ethic in Late-Victorian and Edwardian Robin Hood Novels

Abstract

This article examines a number of Robin Hood novels written for children in the late-Victorian and Edwardian periods. The article finds that the ideology of the public school ethos, or “games ethic,” is diffused throughout the novels: the “New” Imperialism of the public schools of the late 1800s became increasingly militaristic and imperialist, and this imperialist ideology is reflected in the late-Victorian and Edwardian Robin Hood texts.