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38th out of 65 books
—
11 voters
Malory: The Knight Who Became King Arthur's Chronicler
Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur (1469) is one of the best-known books in the world. Virtually all modern versions of the Arthurian legends are derived from its energetic, memorably phrased and remarkably individual telling of the stirring exploits of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Yet the identity of the fifteenth-century knight who wrote it has remained...more
Hardcover, 656 pages
Published
August 1st 2006
by HarperCollins Publishers
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i want to say i liked this book, but the writing is a little too chatty for my tastes in history/biography. and there's just WAY too much conjecture. this book could more rightly be called a piece of historical forensic fiction (if such a category existed). hardyment recreates the milieu of malory's england with style and grace, giving the reader an often engaging portrait of life in the 1400s. i never got to know malory as well as his historical moment, though - a real issue with a biography. t...more
Clear extrapolation from records, and a detailed, thorough biography of the mysterious author of Le Morte D'Arthur. At times the level of detail, especially the long lists of names was stifling and made for slow going. The most interesting aspect, for me, was the look into the politics of the Wars of the Roses from the perspective of one man. I would have loved this book if it had been half the length, especially in the first part.
Better history than biography. If you cut out all the rampant speculation*, this book would probably be about 1/5 as long as it was.
* By "speculation" I'm including the lengthy historical digressions along the lines of: It is possible that Malory might have done such and so... followed by several pages of details of places he might have gone or events he might have witnessed.
* By "speculation" I'm including the lengthy historical digressions along the lines of: It is possible that Malory might have done such and so... followed by several pages of details of places he might have gone or events he might have witnessed.
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Christina Hardyment read history at Newnham College, Cambridge, and has twice held the Alistair Horne Historians' Writing Fellowship at St. Antony's College, Oxford. She is a writer and broadcaster with wide interests, and lives in Oxford, England.
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