A strange and anachronism-filled retelling of the very early years of King Arthur, when he was just a boy nicknamed "Wart". The story is wild and bizarre with absurd and comical characters and situations. The plot itself if highly episodic, taking place over a series of educational sessions where the wizard Merlin - who is living life backwards - attempts to use his magic to instruct the boy who would be king.
The main character is fairly bland, walking the fine line between open and relatable everyman and empty cipher. The character of his foster-brother, Kay, was much more interesting being pompous and grumpy yet forced and driven by convention and what is expected of him.

I didn't enjoy the book as much as I hoped. It alternated between whimsical, comedic, and historical so often I couldn't keep track of what it was trying to accomplish in every scene. The book felt schizophrenic: it couldn't quite decide what it wanted to be and what it wanted to acomplish.
The text used quite alot of British slang - both from the time of the writing and loosely period specific - making it a chore to slog through the unfamiliar text. There were far too many terms whose meaning was assumed and not explained. ( )

pretty good. ( )

This enjoyable, whimsical telling of the life of King Arthur before he became King Arthur is marred by jarring shifts of tome between rather ponderous humour, anachronistic modern references, wonderful nature writing and interpolated tales of an improving nature. I understand that T H White revised and deepened the story when he incorporated it in "The Once and Future King", but I found this version enjoyable and irritating in about equal measure. It does contain some terrific description and fine imagery, and so, in the end, I liked it more than I disliked it. I think. ( )

King Arthur's boyhood takes an interesting turn when Merlyn becomes his tutor.

I think I'm either too old or too young to have read this book for the first time. I know I'd have adored it if I'd read it when I was eight. I'd have shrieked with delight at all the Wart's adventures. I'd have longed to try everything for myself. Hell, I'd probably even have instituted my own personal eddicational system based on this book!

(I did stuff like that when I was little. It was rarely successful, but it was a hell of a lot of fun).

Were I a little older than I am now, I suspect I'd have been drawn in by the oh-so-British prose. It just begs you to do the voices in your head as you read! There's a real sense of delight behind the words, and it seems to me that White's approach owes more than a little to such children's authors as E. Nesbit. I'd probably have viewed the book as a welcome return to childhood dreams.

As it currently stands, though, I got tired of this pretty quickly. It's very much a boy's school story, (albeit with King Arthur as the boy in question), and as a result is quite episodic. There's also a great deal of educational material packed in here, both seriously and as satire, and it all got to be just a bit too much for me. Were this a treasured childhood read, I'm sure I'd have loved revisiting it with a clear idea of just what everything means... but, having come to it for the first time at twenty-four, I just found it tedious. I didn't particularly want a cleverly educational book. I didn't want a fine example of fun-yet-informative children's lit. I wanted a good story, and this just didn't deliver on that level.

Recommended to youngsters, oldsters, and those who've already read and loved it. Others, think about what you really want from the book before launching in. You, like me, may find that you're at the wrong point in your life for this tale. ( )

Illustrations by the author