The Sword in the Stone (1938)

I loved this book as a child, and just started reading it to my 10 year old son, who is rapt.

I don't think this is a "children's book" however, so much as it is a book that children with good vocabularies who already love history and nature may love. Grownups who are well-read in classic literature will get a lot more of the humor and historical references,

I would say that if you enjoyed the Harry Potter books but wished the writing quality was better, you need to read this book.

This book was written before WWII. It is beautifully written by a humorous child-loving extremely well-educated Englishman of that time. It assumes you are someone compatible. It is packed with detail of all kinds; history, natural history, politics, mythology... but if you can't get through anything written before 1945, it is not for you.
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Really good read, different take on the Arthur/Merlin legend. ( )

I read this when I was younger, but I don't remember loving it so much then. I didn't remember how the narrative voice blended humour and beautiful descriptions, anachronisms and explanations of relatively historically accurate details. I forgot how intertextual it is -- Merlin putting his fingers together like Sherlock Holmes, and all the hints at Lancelot's doings and so on, and Robin Hood...

But it is all those things. There are parts of it that are beautiful, parts that are so wonderfully well described, like Wart's time with the geese, or when he's turned into a fish, and the narrative voice is so wonderfully understanding of what goes on inside people's minds. I like the way it treats Kay -- like he's good at heart, but he messes things up by trying too hard to be what he's not, the pride in him. And one of my favourite moments is when Ector says to him that he will always be proud of him, and Kay then decides to tell the truth...

So glad I came back to this book. I'm pretty sure I never really got beyond it, now that I'm looking at the opening of the next book, so I hope I do this time, and I hope all the books are as good. ( )

Dissertation reread time! I acquired a distaste for T.H. White sometime during my MA, and I'm not sure exactly why: rereading The Sword in the Stone, I still rather loved it, with its gentle humour and the character of the narratorial voice and its understanding of each character. I note that in my first review I noticed the way it treats Kay, which is a good sign for this dissertation...

It's written in a conversational way, but it's also beautiful. There are descriptions of the natural world that are almost breathtaking, and Wart can at once be a silly little boy and a very noble one. And Kay can at once be a proud big kid, prone to bullying, and a scared boy who really just wants to hold his own. And Merlyn can be a mysterious wizard and a kindly old man.

I'm looking forward to rereading the rest of it now -- although I think the warm sympathy for Kay is less of a thing in the other books, and they're probably not going to be so useful. ( )

A wonderful book. Superbly evokes an imaginary and magical England. There is an admirable but not extra-ordinary protagonist, a brave, considerate, kind hearted, noble boy who discovers at the end that he is King Arthur and has serious work to do. Until that point, however, he has many fabulous and whimsical adventures with the assistance of the magician Merlin.

Neville Jason's reading is excellent. ( )