A wonderful tale full of chivalry and mirth- think along the lines of Errol Flynn's Robin Hood. Librivox's audio version is stupendous. Definitely a fabulous way to pass a long journey.

The White Company follows the story of Alleyne Edricson who grew up in a monastery and comes out into the world for the first time at age 20.

I haven't read a book set in the Middle Ages for a long time, so in the beginning I spent more time surfing the net for images of people in the 1300s than actually reading. Once I got into the setting of the story, though, it was smooth sailing from then on.

From the synopsis, I expected the story to be much more action based and full of adventure as it only says that Alleyne joins a private company of soldiers called the White Company. However the book is set at a much more leisurely pace and we follow Alleyne as he discovers the world beyond the monastery walls for the first time. I really enjoyed this pacing of the novel as we really get to see what life was like in the 1300s. Doyle was wonderfully descriptive, giving details of the dress, lifestyle and habits of the people from the peasants to the knights in the feudal castles without it being overbearing.

I liked reading about Alleyne's journey and his thought process as he saw more of the world and experienced new things that contrasted with what he had been taught in the monastery. The only thing was that this aspect was inconsistent and there were some incidences that would have been nice be able to read more of Alleyne's thoughts on.

The White Company is also full of quirky, well formed characters which made the story even more fun to read.

Altogether a very well written and readable novel, with some very good aspects and perspectives touched on. It also is a perfect example of what I deem makes Doyle's characteristic writing - the wonderfully made characters and the brilliant storytelling

According to the blurb on GoodReads, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle considered The White Company his best work and characterized it as "worth a hundred Sherlock Holmes stories." Um. Okay. Who am I to argue with a knighted author? One of his readers, that's who. And I say give me Holmes any day.

So, The White Company is a tale of knights and squires and derring-do set against the backdrop of the Hundred Year's War. There are adventures and wars and jousting and ladies' honor to be defended and brave men to be welcomed home. But, seriously, it reads like a tale for school boys. For the most part, it's decently told and there are even some scenes that are particularly well-done, but overall the feel is not of a decent work of historical fiction, but that of Boys' Own Medieval Stories. The illustrations that accompany the story, while enjoyable, also give the story a juvenile feel. After reading much about how proud Doyle was of his historical fiction, I was expecting something with a little more depth. Perhaps that's my own fault for having false expectations, but that was what I thought.

I will admit to liking the character of Alleyne, the young man raised in a monastery who finds himself thrust out into the world in his twentieth year per his father's instructions. Before he fully renounces the world, he must live in it so he may have complete information on which to base his decision. I find Alleyne's adjustment to his worldly surroundings to be funny and true to nature (although perhaps he overcomes his confusion a little quickly). And I thoroughly enjoyed his interactions with his newfound friends Hordle John and Samkin Aylward. These three men and their allegience to Sir Nigel Loring saved the book for me. Sir Nigel has a bit of Don Quixote about him....but with far more successful results and a bit more reality to his derring-do.

As a tale of honor and loyalty, it is well-written and perhaps if I had come to it without preconceived notions I would have rated it higher. As it is, I give The White Company three out of five stars.

I've had The White Company on my reader for a while and decided now was the time to read it. I originally downloaded it because Sir John Hawkwood, leader of the White Company, is an ancestor, and I thought I might find out more about him. However, Sir John and most of his soldiers are in Italy in this story, so I found myself reading a different tale.
Alleyne Edricson leaves the abbey where he's been raised, sent to participate in the world before he decides to take vows or not. He falls in with Sam Aylward, an archer in the small group of the White Company left in France and ends up joining him. They proceed to the coast, and on the way, he rescues a young woman Maude from his brother, the Socman of Minstead. Maude is the daughter of Sir Nigel Loring, the new leader of the White Company. He plans to take them to France, meet up with the Black Prince, and proceed into Spain to fight in support of Pedro the Cruel of Spain against his half-brother Henry. Many adventures ensue before Alleyne returns to his lady.
This is a book in the grand tradition of Ivanhoe, Lorna Doone, Robin Hood, etc. The language can be somewhat flowery, and sometimes florid, but it's a grand adventure. It's populated with real characters from the Hundred Years War (though not, alas, John Hawkwood). The characters are diverse and there are some very funny moments.
So, while this wasn't the book I thought, it is a good and enjoyable read.

Cross-posted from my more detailed review at Lexlingua.co

Alleyne Edricson has been raised by the monks at Beaulieu, as per the wishes of his deceased father. At the age of twenty, he ventures out into the big bad world to make his own living. He is a sensitive young man, devout, principled, and not very happy to see the sins of his fellow men.

We are talking of the 1360s, when France and England had officially made truce (after the the Hundred Years’ War), but in reality still were at loggerheads. Events conspire in such a way that Alleyne ends up joining a band of mercenaries, known as White Company. He certainly travels a long way from a monk to warrior!

Along the way, Alleyne makes many friends, both among the lords and the brigands, and each adventure exposes him to villainy and high-handedness. But through it all he retains his integrity. It’s wonderful that Doyle respects his sensitivity and his empathy, even at a time when “manliness” had a very different connotation.

There’s also a romance, as Alleyne falls in love with Lady Maud, the daughter of Sir Nigel Loring. Alleyne is squire to Sir Nigel, so obviously there’s a class gap, but Alleyne proves himself valiantly at the Battle of Navarrete and wins the fair lady’s hand. It’s not a major plotline, but the two get some striking scenes in the book.

In many ways, White Company is Conan Doyle’s answer to the Robin Hood legend. There are good friars and corrupt ones, tyrannical aristocrats, and brigands with hearts of gold. We also get to see how the economics of war played out back in the medieval ages. Then, as it is now, “peace” is risky business.

All-in-all, a rollicking good historical adventure. Recommended for fans of Robin Hood, Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, and medieval English history.

My grandfather lent this to me to read so I’m quite attached to it. It’s actually pretty funny once you get used to the old-fashioned language. Cheers Taid!

It was a fairly good read. It did seem a little disjointed, like a bunch of different stories put together in one book. That may be my thought simply because Doyle wrote the Sherlock Holmes series, which are a bunch of short stories. It was hard to stay interested unless I read long chunks at a time, because of the writing style and Ye Olde English, but the stories in and of themselves were interesting and I did chuckle a few times with the humor.

A delightful and strange adventure story in the vein of The Three Musketeers or The Scarlet Pimpernel, but also an early foreshadow of the Mannerpunk genre which grew out of Peake's Gormenghast books.

The well-researched text creates a believable world which is undoubtedly (and delightfully) removed from the modern. Not only does Doyle (of Sherlock Holmes fame) create a fairly accurate portrait of ever-warring Feudal Europe, but at least proposes a psychological type for the soldiers of the time.

Of course, to take such a type from (even contemporary) works is a bit of a silly falsehood, and with characteristic British whimsy, Doyle births a cast which seems realistic not despite but because of its deep-seated eccentricity. Of course, it is precisely this method which will grip Peake (in the wake of Chekhov) in his surrealistic works.

Though once quite popular, this tale has become somewhat less well-known, perhaps because it is easy to take from it a stance of bravado, militarism, and anglocentrism. Perhaps there will come to us a dissolving of such strong self-identifications with such things that people will no longer feel a need to oppose fictional portrayals, and Doyle and Kipling may return with a grain of salt.