The Once and Future King (1958)

I read this decades ago and then 'lost' the paperback copy. Passed a bookshop last night staggering home from the pub (me not the bookshop) and saw it in the window, felt compelled today to go back for it. ( )

Where I got the book: on bookshelf. Wasabi's, to be exact.

This is a sad, sad, sad, sad book. And also very funny. The first book is the funniest, and then they get sadder. It's like White took the Malory Morte d'Arthur and sucked all the silly stuff out of it so what's left is the essence of the Arthur legend in all its tragedy and glory.

And it was written at a horribly sad time. After two World Wars, things weren't looking too bright around Europe and that outlook colors EVERYTHING that was written at the time. In fact, this reminds me strongly of C.S. Lewis, of The Lord of the Rings, of every book in which writers tried to reconcile the horror of the recent past with the hope for the future.

Example:

"The best thing for being sad," replied Merlyn..."is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails.

"You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then--to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting."

Arthur begins as an eager boy, and ends as an ever-hopeful but misguided ruler who refuses to see the sin that's taking place under his nose. Lancelot is forever undermined by the path down which love has taken him. Galahad's virtue is so rarified that he has to be removed from this world. Merlyn - oh, I wish we'd had more of Merlyn - is living life backward and understanding it forward, possibly the worst tragedy that can happen to any man.

Tragedy and hope: ladies and gentlemen, I give you the 20th century. If you want to understand it, read this. Read The Lord of the Rings. Read C.S. Lewis. Read Ray Bradbury. From our age of small wars and nameless terrors, look back and try to understand how writers used a familiar past to understand a terrifying present, and did it with a sense of humor that we just don't have.

This is one of those books that demands to be re-read. But will I ever have the courage? ( )

I only made it through "The Sword in the Stone." I found that to be a clumsy revisionst mash-up of many beloved texts, though not without it's charms. I found the second book unreadable and neve rgot past chapter 2. ( )

I can never remember whether I've read all of this or not, but a quick scanning says yes. I remember liking it, but not much about it. Rereading seems in order! ( )

I don't remember the last time I so looked forward to a book and it was as horrible as The Once and Future King. I was looking for a story told in the manner of historical fiction and instead I feel like I read 600 pages of nonsense. Does White even know what chivalry means? I can't imagine the answer is yes because I found none of the knights chivalrous at all. Nor did I find the story interesting, while the dialogue was in language clearly not used in King Arthur's time. White spent pages of characters saying 'Well' and 'What' to each other and nothing more. If you are looking for a serious telling of King Arthur I'd look to The Mists of Avalon instead of this. ( )