Howard Pyle

Otto of the Silver Hand (Esprios Classics) Howard Pyle

Otto of the Silver Hand is a children's novel about the Middle Ages written and illustrated by Howard Pyle. The novel was one of the first written for young readers that went beyond the chivalric ideals of the time period, and showed how cruel the time period could really be. The novel is set in 13th-century Germany, partly during the Great Interregnum and partly during the reign of Rudolph of Habsburg. The book centers upon the life of Otto, the son of German warlord Baron Conrad. Otto's mother, Baroness Matilda, has died in premature labour, brought on by the sight of the Baron's battle wounds, prompting Conrad to take his newborn son to be raised in a nearby monastery.