Rules for a Knight

an interesting read! Surprisingly useful advice included in a very easy to read formatting. I have a penchant for picking up any weirdly shaped books I come across at the library

I really liked this, though one thing that bothered me was how the book was introduced as a translation of some ancestral letters found by Ethan Hawke, yet many of the moral stories included were direct adaptations of Eastern fables and moral tales. I felt that it was the author's responsibility to disclaim that at the beginning, because not until after I read it and did some research did I realize that Hawke was merely inspired by the letters and chose to create a collection of stories for his children gathered from various sources.

Still, it was well written and enjoyable, and no matter what the source these stories all contained wonderful lessons.

Beautiful book about saying what's important. 20 rules to live by including solitude, humility, love and death....each with its own little story attached. Personally learned a lot. Definitely a book to be read over and over!

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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So the story goes, Ethan Hawke is a descendant of a knight who died at the Battle of Slaughter Bridge in 1483. The night before the battle, this knight, Sir Thomas Lemuel Hawke penned a lengthy letter to his young children so that they'd have something to remember him by, and hopefully learn something from him. Ethan Hawke came into possession of this letter, and after a scholar translated it for him, modernized the language so that he could pass these lessons on to his kids. Given the fact that the “Hawke” surname was once “Hawker”, there's an ornithological flavor to all of this.

The letter, or manifesto, consists of short lessons on a variety of virtues or characteristics that Sir Thomas wanted to pass along to his son and daughters (which are awfully feminist for the 15th Century): justice, solitude, generosity, discipline, love, humility, and so on. Virtues and ideals that are shared by many Western and Eastern cultures – something akin to what C. S. Lewis would call the Tao. The lessons combine personal vignettes from Sir Thomas' life and training with fable-like stories (many of which are old and common – like the two dogs/wolves inside each of us fighting for control, you ought to feed the one you want to win).

Hawke's wife, Ryan, provided the illustrations for this book. I wouldn't say they're dazzling, but they're nice – and fit the material well.

This is a nice book, one that serves its purposes well. Short chapters, well (if somewhat heavy-handed) written. It's not a must-read, but it'd be a good use of anyone's time – particularly something for dads to read to young children.