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Loading... Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 2 (Penguin Classics) (edition 1970)by Thomas Malory, Janet Cowen (Editor), John Lawlor (Introduction)
Work InformationLe Morte d'Arthur, Volume 2 by Thomas Malory
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This is the second volume of Le Morte d'Arthur and shouldn't be seen as the second book of a trilogy, just a continuation, and not meant to be read alone. I agree with the reviewer who said this is not for the faint of heart, and few general readers are going to find this a great read. If you're looking for an absorbing, entertaining read with characters you can relate to and root for, you're absolutely, positively in the wrong place. Read instead Arthurian novels such as T.H. White's The Once and Future King or Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy. There are countless other such novels inspired by this material worth reading, and I've read a lot of them. But I did find it interesting at times going through this, one of the ur-texts as it were of Arthurian legend. There are other, earlier works of Arthurian literature: Geoffrey of Monmouth's The History of the Kings of Britain (1136), Chrétien de Troyes's Arthurian Romances in the 12th century and Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival in the 13th century are among the most notable. But Malory drew from several sources, so much so he's often described more as the "compiler" than the author of the work. I own a edition in two volumes that comes close to 1,000 pages. So this is an exhaustive resource of all sorts of facets of the legend. The story of Tristram and Iseult is here, for instance. And this is a medieval work, so it's imbued with its assumptions and attitudes. Obviously a source of outrage to some reviewers, and even by the standards of the time, comparing this to how women are treated in say Boccaccio's Decameron and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales--well, women don't come off well here. Misogyny abounds. And knights are held up as paragons who commit a lot of heinous acts and just plain WTF. A lot is repetitive and a slog--as one reviewer put it too much is "joust, joust, joust." And this was written about half-way between Chaucer and Shakespeare. With the spelling regularized it's quite readable, much more so than unmodernized Chaucer. But with those that choose to preserve the archaic words, that means wading through words such as "hight" (is called) and "mickle" (much). And there's just so much that can be excused by, well, "it's the times"--I found plenty of medieval writers who were wonderful reads, and just plain more humane: Dante, Boccaccio, Chaucer. I can't see Malory as their equal--not remotely. But as a fan of Arthurian literature and someone fascinated by the Middle Ages, this did from time to time have its fascinations. Thoroughly interesting read: It is often hard to find literature which fully incorporates multiple parts of the Arthurian legends. Often only the very basics are present and much of the brilliant detail is omitted. This version is one of those few works that actually bring many of the legends to light; incorporating many of the lesser known, and very interesting aspects of the legend into the commonly known main plot.It proves interesting to read about much of what is normally passed on anecdotally through families in England about one of the greatest English legends still told today. Most English people usually know the gist of the stories, but it is always interesting to find out and see people's reactions when they discover the extra details that they were unaware of previously.
This edition is one of the most comprehensive you will find, other than going out there and researching much of the hard going literature on the subject. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Publisher SeriesEveryman's Library (46) Is contained inChronicles of King Arthur by Thomas Malory (indirect) Prince Valiant, Volume 2: 1939-1940 by Hal Foster (indirect) The King Arthur Collection by Thomas Malory (indirect) Viduramžių riterių romanai (indirect) Penguin 60s Classics Giftset by Penguin (indirect) Has as a reference guide/companionHas as a commentary on the text
The text is unabridged, with original spelling and extensive, easy-to-use marginal glosses and footnotes. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.2Literature English English fiction Pre-Elizabethan 1400-1558LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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