Customer Reviews

Le Morte Darthur (Norton Critical Editions)

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The Norton Critical Edition of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur edited by Stephen H. A. Shepherd partly replaces Eugène Vinaver's The Works of Sir Thomas Malory and is in many ways a better effort.

This edition stands somewhere between a scholarly, critical edition and a popular edition. It is based mainly on the Winchester manucript with emendations and additions from Caxton's 14th century printed version. Abbreviations are expanded, major (but not minor) corrections of the text are noted, the obsolete characters thorn and yogh are replaced by modern letters, use of u and v, i and j follow modern usage. and word division, punctuation, and capitalization also edited to follow modern conventions, including use of quotation marks.

But otherwise spelling is not modernized, large capitals in the manuscript are indicated in the printed text by lombardic capitals of approximately the same relative size, paragraphing is mostly followed exactly (with even the // paragraph break marks being rendered by indentation followed by the symbol ¶) and further paragraphing without ¶ where other punctuation or capitalization anomalies indicate sectioning. Vinaver's edition became, eventually, notorious for ignoring the divisions given within the manuscript itself, an especially unfortunate defect since Vinaver's theories about Malory's composition supposedly depended on paying especially close attention to such matters.

In the mansucript, rubricating (that is, red lettering) was employed in scribing almost all personal names as well as on some other names and in marginal notes and is here represented by a black-letter font. One quickly becomes used to this odd convention which actually eases and clarifies reading to the point that one wonders why something like it should not be universally adopted.

And, most pleasantly for a modern book, the notes appear as true footnotes, not endnotes, which means no constant turning of pages.

The text itself is followed by over 200 pages of related source material and reprinted essays, followed by a glossary, a selected guide to proper names, and a bibliography, but, rather oddly, no index.

For any general reader willing to encounter fifteenth century spelling on its own terms and to delight in it, this is probably the best edition to own and use, one which brings the user closer to the Winchester manuscript than any previous edition.

As to the tale itself, Malory himself sometimes seems bored and unitenested in his material, especially in the massive maze of subsidiary episodes that make up his Tristram material. But at his best there is no writer in English who campares with him. Readers having difficulty with the early sections of any edition of Malory's Le Morte Darthur might try jumping to "The Tale of Sir Launcelot and Quene Gwenyvere" (Book XVIII in Caxton's edition) and start at that point, where a mature Malory in control of this story tells it better than anyone before or after.

The other reviews are spot-on. A presentation of Malory that strongly evokes the experience of reading the original manuscript, but at the same time gives plenty of help for the modern reader. Introduction, explanatory notes and glossary are finely judged.

The editor, Stephen Shepherd, expresses some hesitation (p. xii) over the decision to break the text up into modern paragraphs, and not simply to reproduce the manuscript's placement of paragraph symbols in unbroken text. It's not a big issue, but I for one would have found this method attractive, the bold paragraph symbols (as I imagine) breaking up the text adequately and giving an even more distinctive feel to it.

The only thing that slightly detracts from the book for me is the typesetting of the verso pages (the left-hand pages of each opening), which goes against traditional practice. Since the text is prose, set justified left and right, the marginal annotations of the left-hand pages could easily have been placed in the outer margin, in a mirror image of the right-hand pages. As it is there is a strong, mostly empty space along the inner edge of the left page, while the text comes to within a few millimetres of the outer edge, disturbing to the eye and leaving no thumb-room. Poetry has to be set this way, of course, with its ragged right edge - and in any case the narrower columns of text are easier to keep clear of the page's edge. But if this is Norton house style for prose, I can't see why it's necessary.

I have been dying to get my hands on this book because I really enjoy Arthurian literature. I genuinely wish I could say that I had an opinion on this book itself, but I do not. I was supposed to have received this package several days ago and upon looking at my tracking information I found that my delivery date had been pushed back almost an entire WEEK. Ordinarily, I have had such an easy time placing amazon orders and getting them in a timely manner. After this time though, I might think twice about where I buy my books in the future. Really disappointing.

Very handy and well done edition of the classic Arthurian legends. This book is not for the feint at heart as it is written in old english, but once you get through that roadblock there is a power to the tales that starts to shine through.

Not as happy with this purchase as I expected to be. I'm looking for this book in a "legitimate" translation, but in current English, not the original English language version.

Great copy of the book. No marking or folded corners. Arrived in a timely manner.