Customer Reviews

Once and Future King

5 star:		(207)
4 star:		(81)
3 star:		(26)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

As this is my favorite book, I couldn't help but take a look at all the reviews. It seems to me people either love it (4 or 5 stars) or hate it (1 star to remarks of minus 50). This may be very confusing to prospective buyers. It's very simple, folks:
if you're looking for accurate, 'historic' information on King Arthur or the Middle Ages, if you're the type that likes to finish a book in an hour's reading, if you're only interested in fantasy/action packed novels of the 'Lord of the Rings' type (also an excellent book by the way), if you don't like vast, almost poetic descriptions of landscapes, seasons, moods, etc., or if you simply don't like complicated storylines, then steer clear of this book. There are many other novels which will give you far better value for money. For the others: it takes empathy and erudition to fully grasp the depth of this book. Empathy will make you love it when you're young and erudition when you are older and wiser. Added plus: each time you read it you'll discover something new. For the details, I refer to other reviews...

"The Once and Future King" is children's fantasy as it should be, a delightful read for both kids and adults. Author T. H. White manages to mingle the humorous and the sad portions of the King Arthur story successfully, and he never talks down to his audience or tries to oversimplify the events. The result is a wonderfully entertaining book that never slows down, one that's both amusing and serious.

I won't try to summarize the entire book. Suffice to say, White covers the entire story of King Arthur's life and remains pretty faithful to the traditional version of events throughout the book. What's really amazing, though, is the way that he captures the spirit of the times, making you feel like you're actually in England during the Middle Ages, watching the tournaments and quests and battles yourself. His descriptions are beautiful without ever being unnecessarily lengthy, his characters seem to come alive (especially Arthur, Guenevere, and Lancelot), and his handling of some of the classic scenes is unforgettable.

Somehow, I missed this classic when growing up, so when my daughter was assigned this book for her eighth grade honors English course, I eagerly picked it up. I was well rewarded for my efforts.

The Sword in the Stone, the most famous of the quartet and the first, was for me the least interesting, perhaps because of its lack of driving conflict. It concerns the education of Arthur, called The Wart, in often hilarious scenes as Merlyn sets out to instruct him in the way of all creatures.

The Queen of Air and Darkness is a better story than the first, though it lacks the substance of the two later books. It tells of the history and childhood of the Orkney clan (Sirs Gawaine, Gaheris, Agravaine, Gareth, and Mordred) as well as preparing for the emotional battles about to begin.

The Ill-Made Knight is simply brilliant, giving Sir Lancelot a humanity I never thought possible, not for a knight living in legend. The love triangle of Arthur, Lancelot, and Guenever (called Gwen by Arthur and Jenny by Lancelot) is given life and understanding, real force. When I finished this book, I had to stop and swallow all the angst and love before I could continue.

A Candle in the Wind begins with some of the most monotonous descriptive writing possible, with White devoting ten solid pages to Lancelot and Guenever looking out a window onto medieval England. I began to believe that White was desperate to incorporate all his research. Once the story got going, however, I couldn't put it down as the tragedy of King Arthur's life unfolded.

Although these four separately published books are often described as a modern retelling of the legend of King Arthur, readers should be aware that they were written in the late thirties and early forties, a time when readers tackled demanding reading more readily than people do today. Do not expect to breeze through the volumes; even The Sword in the Stone, long regarded as a children's classic, is written in language far too complicated and scenes much too descriptive for a casual reader. White engages in expository pages - about Arthur's philosophy, the history of the feudal system, the evolution of courts of law, etc. - that for me watered down the narrative drive. This is my reason for taking away a star from the rating.

The characters, however, are drawn with precision. I took delight in White's imagining of Sir Gawaine ("Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight", if you can remember from freshman English) and his rough-and-tumble brothers. Lancelot and Guenever are drawn with affectionate details of their strengths and failings. Mordred is a wonderfully villain, a man both mad and cunning, with a history that makes his actions seem not only believable but inevitable. Arthur, too, is given flesh, although his generosity and lack of brilliance make him less interesting than the others.

I could write on and on about this book, but Amazon.com has a word limit. Read The Once and Future King, and see for yourself.

I remember reading an anthologized fragment of this book in high school. I thought it was hilarious, forgot about it, and was glad to rediscover it by way of the second X-Men film.

This book is about adolescence. Because of the themes of maturity and growing up, I exhort (yes, EXHORT!) all parent to get their teen-age children to read this book.. This book is literary "Pet Sounds," and covers all the emotions that we feel when we grow up. I was taken back decades, and personal involvement the key to good literature.

Before reading this book, keep in mind that it is shaped by two forces. First, the Arthurian legends, primarily Mallory and Tennyson. Second, World War II. Keep both in mind, or the book makes no sense. White makes the point that the Round Table is the solution to World War II.

This book is in four parts. The first one is "Sword in the Stone," the basis for the Disney movie of the same name. It is Arthur's tutelage under Merlyn. White captures Arthur's adolescence perfectly-it is a stunning work that made me feel thirteen again. Merlyn is the mentor, but he has his loveable foibles that make his charming. It also makes him very believable and antithetic. And the relationship between Kay and Wart is male Cinderella.

The second part is "The Queen of Air and Darkness." Once again, White shows his genius for showing family relationships. We add to Wart and Kay's relationship Gawain and families rather complex relationships. It reminded me of my own family. The different personalities makes the story so spicy. It is all personalities and relationships.

I think this story gets more poignant that the first since we both Gawain and Arthur cross into manhood. Gawain with the killing of the unicorn, and with Arthur the battle and the decision to found the Round Table to end war.

The third story is "The Ill-made Knight," which focuses on Lancelot coming to the Round Table and his affair with Genevieve. This book is about idealism and love, which is a form of idealism. Lancelot is in love with both Arthur and Guinevere, and this hero worship almost becomes "Hero Idolatry"

What bedazzled me was the lies that Lancelot believed about his affair with Guinevere. Chapter 5 sums up all of the Knight's lies:

"But please don't talk to me about the queen. I can't help it if we are fond of each other, and there is nothing wrong in being fond of people, is there? It is not as if the Queen and I were villains. When you begin lecturing me about her, you are making it seem as if there was something between us. It is as if you thought ill of me, or did not believe in my honor. Please do not mention the subject again."

These lies and Lancelot's capacity to lie and speak white lies is amazing. It is genius on White's part to come up with these half-truths. And a half truth is a total lie

This book is rather long, and I would have divided it a Chapter 13, which is where Greymere changes from medieval to renaissance culture. Arthur succeeds with Camelot, for "one brief shining moment." He then turns the Table's energy to finding the Holy Grail. This is the point: Arthur does not solve the violence problem, but merely sublimates it.

The last book is "Candle in the Wind." It is the rise of Mordred, and the fall of the Round Table. The book is about adolescence, but White is able to convey an old, tired, and very lonely Arthur who's past sins come to haunt him. In fact, the entire downfall of Camelot is due to the chastity sin.

Mordred is as good a liar as Lancelot. His problem is that Lancelot has some degree of virtue-maybe naiveté-but Mordred is a chainsaw. He lies to scheme, and then gets back at his derelict father. Another timely message.

The book stops suddenly, without a real resolution. Camelot dims, and it seems like Arthur's work has been for naught. But remember that the book is really finished in "The Book Of Merlyn."

White's Round Table was the United Nations, but in a sense, we are all still adolescents.

When I read this book in my mid-teens, I absolutely LOVED it, because it nurtured and excited my imagination.

"THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING" combines all the elements of Arthurian legend, adventure, and history in describing the lives of Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and some of the other notables of Camelot. (This is the novel, some of whose elements were later adapted to the screen as the Disney movie "The Sword in the Stone".)

White has written a delightful, entertaining story not without its harrowing moments. We first see Arthur as a boy ("The Wart") living with his adoptive family and serving as a page to his older brother. Merlin's role at the beginning of the novel is as a teacher for Arthur. (Note. Merlin had been entrusted by Arthur's real father with protecting his son.) He leads Arthur on a variety of adventures, which I won't go into here, except to say that the reader will be amazed with the rich imagery White creates.

The novel progresses through Arthur's life, his reign, his sorrows and joys, and the perils and highpoints of life in an England mired in upheaval and turmoil. White shows the reader how the forces of light and darkness interplay in the shaping of a society where magic can be a real factor in everyday life. It's a long novel, so brace yourself for a healthy sprint.

I first read this book when I was 14 years olds in 1963. Since that time, I have reread it six times, the last being c. 10 years ago. I now feel a need to read it again as I approach my 50s. First time I read it, I read it much as a fairy tale. In latter readings, it came across very much as an adult novel. Something for everyone in it -- love, war, good, evil, quest for the Holy Grail, etc. My readings of the Once and Future King caused me to read Mallory's Le Morte de Arthur, Tennyson, as well as some of the original French and English legends about the subject. So, it incited a life-long passion in Arthurian drama although I don't think any of them ever approached the majesty of The Once and Future King.

As a teenager, at the age of 17, I found this book to be an amazing, poignant work. It brings back the ideas of true honor and love which are not much represented in modern literature- not only the love between a man and a woman, but also between mentors and students, between brothers, in a family. Although the story is ended on a sad note, there is never useless melancholy, it is always touched by some kind of hope or compassion. Arthur loves his betrayer, even to the end. The title, even- denoting a future king- shows the hope which is to follow sorrow.

The characters are well rounded and built, and many are followed from life until death.

Tragedy, Romance, action, comedy- there's nothing to dislike about this book.

Whenever I need to truly escape, to take my heart and my mind to a far away place, I re-read the Once and Future King.  My mother, who calls this a classic, took lessons from it to teach us when we were young (about growing up and becoming self-aware).  This is the story of the boy who will be King Arthur, and his friend, mentor, and guide, Merlin.  The boy (called "Wart") spends a childhood of magnificent talking beasts and fascinating creatures.  He develops with guidance into the kind and balanced King Arthur.  It is the tale of Camelot as one might imagine it long before Hollywood glossed it over.  T. H. White wrote this in 1939.  To old to be relevant today?  You will find this paperback on the front counters of every and any Border's and Barnes and Noble's you enter.  The reviewer who mirrored closest my own feelings wrote, "...a warm, sad, glinting, rich, mystical, true and beautiful tapestry of human history and human spirit.  Read it and laugh.  Read it and learn.  Read it and be glad you are human."  Exactly. 

There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of retellings concerning King Arthur, Guenever, Merlin, Lancelot, the Knights of the Round Table and the Kingdom of Camelot, but only a few of them attain literary quality and even less become classics. T.H. White's four-part masterpiece (or five-part, depending on what edition you have) definitely falls into the elite category.

With oddly chatty and anachronistic prose, which describes Sir Ector as drinking port and discussing Eton before explaining that he's only using these terms because "by mentioning the modern it is easier to give you the feel," White moves from comedy and satire to grandeur and tragedy, with each book getting successively darker as they follows Arthur's growth from childhood to old age. Likewise, White extensively draws upon quotes and ideas from other scholars and writers on the Arthurian subject, such as Shakespeare, Chaucer, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Milton, Tennyson, and especially Malory, who in fact makes a sort-of cameo at the conclusion of "The Candle in the Wind." It makes for a strangely personal narrator, one who addresses the reader directly and who can go off on several tangents, creating a challenging style that's initially hard to grasp.

The story begins in "The Sword and the Stone," set in a castle within the Forest Savauge, where a young boy called Arthur (but better known as "The Wart") enjoys his idyllic childhood under the care of his foster-father Sir Ector and with the company of his foster-brother Kay. After following an escaped hawk out into the forest Arthur stumbles upon the forgetful but immensely powerful Merlyn, an enchanter who returns to the castle as his new tutor. For the next six years Merlyn oversees Arthur's education by sending him on several adventures (including one with Robin Wood - and yes, that's spelt with a W - and his Merry Men) and turning him into various animals in order to learn the wisdom of the natural world. By the time we get to the scene that everyone knows about, in which Arthur pulls out a certain sword from an anvil in a churchyard, the fruits of his education pay off in an exceptionally beautiful way - one that the well-known Disney adaptation doesn't even come close to capturing.

The story continues in "The Witch in the Wood" (more recently titled "The Queen of Air and Darkness") in which we're introduced to the Orkney brothers and their mother Morgause, who are to have a profound effect on future events. The majority of this particular book feels like setup and foreshadowing for the following volumes, in which three bumbling knights arrive in Orkney, the brothers partake in a unicorn hunt, Arthur strategises for the Battle of Bedegraine, and Mordred is conceived.

Despite the fact that "The Sword in the Stone" is White's most famous book, it is my opinion that "The Ill-Made Knight" is his finest installment in the series, focusing on Sir Lancelot and including that knight's moral struggles, his love affairs with Guenever and Elaine, his wandering in the wilderness as a mad man, the quest for the Holy Grail, and the gradual encroachment of shadows upon Camelot. Envisioning Lancelot as a misshapen and ugly fellow, who fights his sadistic tendencies with gentleness and courtliness, torn in two over his devotion to Arthur and his passion for Guenever, and following his faith to the very ends of the world, "The Ill-Made Knight" is White's masterpiece. Dreamy and poetic, poignant and heartrending, funny and romantic, this story contains what is probably the finest character study of the three main players in any Arthurian retelling.

"The Candle in the Wind" tells of the fading glory of Camelot and the destruction of the Round Table, in which Lancelot's betrayal and Guenever's adultery are brought out into the open thanks to the designs of Mordred. With one vendetta following another, the end of Arthur's glorious reign swiftly approaches.

The final segment The Book of Merlyn, is a mixed bag, and doesn't seem to be included in this particular volume. More of an essay than a story, Arthur revisits Merlyn and his animal friends before his death for one last debate over the nature of mankind and its tendency to war. Originally rejected by the publishers, it was eventually published posthumously, there are some inconsistencies that may frustrate the reader.

When White revised "The Sword and the Stone" for its inclusion in a collected work, he added segments from "The Book of Merlyn", namely Arthur's transformation into an ant and a wild goose. These episodes are therefore repeated in this final epilogue, in which Arthur experiences these transformations as an old man. The text is almost exactly the same, which presents the problem of whether to read it or not. On the one hand, "The Candle in the Wind" is a powerful and fitting ending to the saga, but "The Book of Merlyn" (despite its confusing repetition), contains several beautiful passages pertaining to Arthur's weariness as well as the long-sought for reunion between Arthur and Merlyn.

In my opinion, the ant and goose transformations are more meaningful when experienced as an old man than as a youth, not to mention what the author originally intended, though it does mean that there are some discrepancies considering that in previous books Arthur recalls these experiences taking place in his youth. Confused yet? Perhaps it's best finish with "The Candle in the Wind," or at least take a break before reading "The Book of Merlyn."

In every version of an Arthurian retelling, it is interesting to note what each author uses as his/her themes and what characters he focuses on. Here, the key characters are Arthur, Lancelot and Guenever, with Merlyn and Gawaine as supporting characters, followed by Mordred and Galahad. Morgan le Fay and Nimue's appearances barely constitute a cameo, and concepts such as the Lady of the Lake and Excalibur are not mentioned at all. After playing a considerably large part in the first book, Kay drops out of the story entirely, as does King Pellinore, who is given a rather large subplot in the first two books as he searches for the Questing Beast.

More surprisingly, the likes of Robin Hood, Marian, Friar Tuck, Little John and Much enter the story - perhaps somewhat anachronistically - and are never seen again after the first book. Even more interestingly, Camelot itself is of minor importance. Although many stories present it almost as a character in itself that embodies Arthur's ideals, here the destruction of Camelot is far less intense than the destruction of the characters, especially regarding the failure of Arthur's life's work.

It's hard not to love and admire White's rendering of Arthur, Lancelot and Guenever. In recent publications, I have become increasingly annoyed at the characterization of these three characters. I cannot stand Marian Bradley Zimmer's portrayal of a selfish, simpering Guinevere; nor Rosalind Miles's blustering, boorish Arthur; and even the likes of Rosemary Sutcliffe and Thomas Malory, who adequately retell the barebones of the story, simply don't have enough room to offer insight on what's going on in the characters' heads. But even though I'd never read White's work before, I felt as though I was reading these three characters as I'd always imagined them in my mind: flawed, but inherently noble and loving. Arthur is honest, open-minded, modest, optimistic, and yet carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. Sir Lancelot strays far from the usual ideal of him as the handsome, charming knight - here he is tortured, complicated, and religious; both a lover and a fighter with a deep inferiority complex.

Then there's raven-haired Guenever: the best and the worst thing to happen to each man. Far from reviling her as an adulteress, White commends her for the strength of her love: "You could pretend that Guenever was a man-eating lion, or that she was one of these selfish women who insist on ruling everywhere. But she was not promiscuous. There was never anybody in her life except Lancelot and Arthur. She gathered her rosebuds while she might, and the striking thing was that she only gathered two of them, which she kept always, and that those two were the best." Because White was more comfortable writing male characters, Guenever remains rather enigmatic and one is never quite sure why Arthur and Lancelot love her so deeply. Nevertheless, there is a mystery and softness about the woman that draws you in, convincing you of their love even if it cannot be fully understood.

Although Arthur himself is entirely legendary, White presents a powerful statement on the thought that the ideas attributed to him reshaped English society, moving it out of the Dark Ages and into chivalry and civilization, where Might is not Right, and law and order become powerful tools in themselves. As such, the central themes of the novels are the search for antidote to war, and to observe the politics of man through the animal kingdom. Rather than the usual portrayal of Arthur as a warrior-king, he is an innovative thinker who breaks the rules of warfare in order to bring it to a halt, to control the violence of men by channeling it into good deeds, and then coming up with the idea of the search for the Holy Grail after the knights turn to bloody sportsmanship after peace (and stagnation) is declared. It is important to keep in mind that much of this was written during WWII, lending White's treatises on the subject a sense of bitterness, passion and hope that they may not have otherwise contained.

The best books are those that make you feel older and younger for having read them; those that you can tell the author threw their heart and soul into; the ones that make you feel as though you've been given a new perspective on the world. I don't say this about many books, but White's strange, sad, disjointed, poetic, joyful, humorous, challenging saga falls into all these categories. I'm just annoyed at myself that it took me this long to read it.

The Once and Future King is the most wonderful book I have ever read! I was forced to read it because of an assignment in school, however, I was pleasently surprised! I finished it with in a matter of days of starting it! I really got into the story and felt as though I was watching something happen right in front of me! I enjoyed the romance between Guinevere and Lancelot, the balence between gentle love, war, and justice that Arthur possessed, and the mystical adventures that Merlin took Arthur on! This was the best book that I have ever read! Next up, The book of Merlin!