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The Once and Future King Mass Market Paperback – July 15, 1987

by T. H. White (Author)

716 customer reviews

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T. H. White’s masterful retelling of the saga of King Arthur is a fantasy classic as legendary as Excalibur and Camelot, and a poignant story of adventure, romance and magic that has enchanted readers for generations.

Once upon a time, a young boy called “Wart” was tutored by a magician named Merlyn in preparation for a future he couldn’t possibly imagine. A future in which he would ally himself with the greatest knights, love a legendary queen and unite a country dedicated to chivalrous values. A future that would see him crowned and known for all time as Arthur, King of the Britons.

During Arthur’s reign, the kingdom of Camelot was founded to cast enlightenment on the Dark Ages, while the knights of the Round Table embarked on many a noble quest. But Merlyn foresaw the treachery that awaited his liege: the forbidden love between Queen Guenever and Lancelot, the wicked plots of Arthur’s half-sister Morgause and the hatred she fostered in Mordred that would bring an end to the king’s dreams for Britain—and to the king himself.

“[The Once and Future King] mingles wisdom, wonderful, laugh-out-loud humor and deep sorrow—while telling one of the great tales of the Western world.”—Guy Gavriel Kay

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A fierce and damaged man, T. H. White wrote about fierce and damaged people—and children, and animals—with a brilliant, painful innocence that has no equal in literature. He is so good at hurt and shame—how did he also manage to be so funny? I have laughed at his great Arthurian novel and cried over it and loved it all my life.”—Ursula K. Le Guin

“Certain books offer pleasures so rich and enduring, they become part of what defines us. The Once and Future King is like that for me. It manages—by some miracle—to be about its own time, and a distant, legendary time, and about today. It mingles wisdom, wonderful, laugh-out-loud humor and deep sorrow—while telling one of the great tales of the Western world. I envy the reader coming to it for the first time.”—Guy Gavriel Kay

“White took hold of the ultimate English epic and recast it in modern literary language, sacrificing none of its grandeur or its strangeness in the process, and adding in all the humor and passion that we expect from a novel. What was once as stiff and two-dimensional as a medieval tapestry becomes rich and real and devastatingly sad.”—Lev Grossman

“Touching, profound, funny and tragic.”—Los Angeles Times

“Richly imagined and unfailingly eloquent and entertaining, its appeal is timeless and universal. If a reader reads only one Arthurian tale, let this be it.”—Booklist

“The Once and Future King is full of insights, scenes and flourishes that are really quite astonishing.”—The Guardian (U.K.)

About the Author

T. H. White is the author of the classic Arthurian fantasy The Once and Future King, among other works.

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Product details

Mass Market Paperback: 639 pages
Publisher: Ace Books; Reprint edition (June 1987)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0441627404
ISBN-13: 978-0441627400
Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.4 x 6.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 716 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,133 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #35 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Arthurian
- #110 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Humorous
- #169 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Myths & Legends

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October 22, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

"The Sword in the Stone": Okay.

"The Queen of Air and Darkness": A bit better but not great.

"The Ill-Made Knight": Made the previous two books worth it. Absolutely incredible. It has a strong claim to be the second best fantasy (to Tolkien's masterpiece) ever. White is a genius when it comes to characterization, and his portrayal of Lancelot is full of incredible nuance. He makes the ill-made knight more human than I've ever even seen somebody attempt to do. The previous two books are important as set-up, though.

"The Candle in the Wind": One of the greatest tragedies I've ever seen, on par with Shakespeare. Once again, every single character feels alive. Even Mordred is presented with more sympathy than I thought possible. The ending is moving and heartbreaking.

Conclusion: Despite a slow start, the book is a masterpiece.

40 people found this helpful

Comment

Tiresome in parts, but ultimately worth the read

September 15, 2016

Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified Purchase

I spent the summer reading this along with my daughter, who had been assigned it for summer homework prior to her freshman year in high school. This volume is actually a composite of four books that were initially published separately between 1938 and 1958. The first is rather different from the others. It is about the future King Arthur's experiences as a boy while he was being tutored by Merlyn. It's a series of adventures in which Arthur is turned into various animals by way of educating him about governance. It is the most like a children's story of the four books, and it is very, very dull for the most part--though King Pellinore and his Questing Beast are delightful. The second book tells the story of Arthur's nephews, who are destined to cause problems in the future. They're raised by a witch who--and this is almost the only thing I remember from the book--boils a cat alive for purposes of magic. It's a horrific but superbly written scene. But things actually get good in the third book, when Lancelot is introduced. His relationship with Arthur and Arthur's wife Guenever form the spine of books three and four. Their love triangle--for they all love one another--is tragic and nuanced. The book is over-long, if one can criticize a classic such as this: so much detail; and those tiresome animal stories at the beginning would turn off many a reader. It's as if White wanted to weed out the chaff among his readers and save the better stuff for the hardy few. But ultimately it is worth the read, and it ends well, with the final chapter of book four summing things up well.

25 people found this helpful

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L. Ilaine Upton

Absorbing and enthralling for the fifth or sixth time reading it. A classic that stays fresh.

December 18, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This is one of my favorite books. I have read it four or five times already, since I was 13. Wanted to read it again, and got a hardback copy from the library, but the type hurt my eyes. Reading it on Kindle software on iPad is a treat for old eyes.

Anyway, the story itself. It begins when the young man who will become King Arthur meets Merlin, goes through his life, all the legends come to life, the sword in the stone, Arthur's eventually fatal misalliance with his sister, Lancelot and Guenevere's betrayal, the Knights of the Round Table, all told with wit, humor, compassion and sensitivity by the great T.H.White. My favorite parts will always be in the first part of the book, when Merlin tutors the young Arthur, or Wart, as he is nicknamed, in the ways of the world by changing him into a beast or a bird or a fish or an insect. Those little vignettes are so charming. Well, I am only halfway through this re-reading, Lancelot just met Guenevere, and, while I know how it will end, I am still absorbed and enthralled, all over again.

12 people found this helpful

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April 8, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I was reading through the one-star reviews, and I felt that I should mount a defence of my favourite book. First of all, I think it's rather important to remember that The Once and Future King is not a book about King Arthur. It is a book about being human, and about the misery and joy which attend that particular condition. It is a book about T.H. White's peculiar solitude, about loving nature more than men, and about loving humans fiercely for their flaws and their sorrows, and for the hollowness of their glory.

Coming from this perspective, I think that White is one of the only modern writers whose approach to Camelot mirrors that of the original Arthurian authors. Chretien de Troyes and Mallory were not writing about Arthur, they were writing about their own times -- the places and fashions that mattered, the people and manners that they experienced, reflected in the idealized mirror of Arthur.

The Once and Future King is about White's experiences with war and tragedy -- these are mirrored in the childish foolishness and aged grief of the Wart, and muddled into the tragedy of Lancelot and Guenever. It is not always an easy book. It is very obviously a product of its own peculiar place and time, as all good Arthurian stories should be. It is my favourite book.

17 people found this helpful

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Timeless story, richly told.

June 12, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I've just read this again after many years and I found this rich telling of the Arthur story more entertaining, delightful, suspenseful and moving than ever before. T.H. White's use of the English language is masterful and he is an engaging and witty storyteller.

8 people found this helpful

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