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Arthur Rex: A Legendary Novel
With these tales, the author pays homage to the lives of King Arthur, the Round Table knights and their ladies, while introducing inspired new twists to the stories of old. Thomas Berger has previously written "Little Big Man", "Killing Time" and "Changing the Past".
Hardcover, 499 pages
Published
January 1st 1978
by Delacorte Press
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This was an interesting approach, but ultimately, it wore thin for me. Berger is probably best known for Little Big Man, and his cynicism shines brightly in this send-up of the King Arthur legend. The problem for me was that while each page was in and of itself hilarious, the literary and historical references demonstrated for me that while my education was good enough to recognize that they were in fact references, my education was not good enough to appreciate them without a little digging/r...more
I wish I could rate Berger's novel more highly, but, ultimately this is about 2.5 stars for me. When it comes to irreverent and anachronistic takes on Malory's stories, The Once and Future King sets the standard, and Arthur Rex suffers by comparison.
I am most interested in Arthur, as opposed to all of the ancillary characters, so Arthuriana that focuses more on others, with Arthur as a symbol but not a realized human being, is not satisfying to me. This is why I love Stewart's Arth...more
I am most interested in Arthur, as opposed to all of the ancillary characters, so Arthuriana that focuses more on others, with Arthur as a symbol but not a realized human being, is not satisfying to me. This is why I love Stewart's Arth...more
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A friend of mine sent this home with me after a long session involving the two of us yattering on about Arthuriana (while everyone else in the room backed slowly away.)
So very much fun.
So very much fun.
Bette
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone who like Authurian books
Recommended to Bette by:
No one
This book isn't nearly as funny as "Little Big Man," but takes some of the Authurian legends to task. It is a re-writing of Malory's book, but with a definite modern twist.
Not a light read, but a wonderful read. The classic Arthur tales and legends told in classic form. A must read for Romantics and Medieval enthusiasts alike.
If you can take a joke, no several jokes, read this. It's a masterful retelling of the Arthur saga from a cynical humorist's point of view.
This is one of my favorite versions of Arthurian legend. Fun, well written and completely accessible.
An entertaining story based on the King Arthur story. Berger adds some tales from other medieval lyrics that generally are not attributed to the Arthur tale. Nonetheless, the add-ins are appropriate and familiar to the time frame of the original tale.
Dylan
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
King A Enthusiasts
Recommended to Dylan by:
Sonnet
I find this, recommended to me by Sonnet, to be an entertaining and educational companion to T.H. White's definitive masterpiece The Once and Future King. It both delves into and twists some of the often unexplored aspects of the character's psyche (A/L and G's relationships, M and his mother's separation from A) without necessitating a comparison with neither Malory's text nor White's brilliant contributions. I highly recommend Berger's understated offer to the rich (but often poorly executed)...more
Read this when I was 12... and loved it.
It's like The Once and Future King with sex and swearing and lice and stuff. (And it really does seem to be based on T. H. White rather than on the Arthur legends in general.) I am not sure I'm impressed, but I'm giving it a little more of a chance before I decide.
Good book. Good story. Interesting take on the King Arthur. Fun read.
The MOST fun you'll ever have with King Arthur and the guys. This is based on Malory but turns him upside down, inside out, and backward. Hilarious, though it misses 5 stars because of a few weak parts. I've never taught it because it's always been out of print (well, "always" in the last 12 years at least) but it's not hard to find.
Leelan
added it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
NO ONE
Shelves:
not-kept,
worst-books-of-all-time
To avoid Thomas Berger.
I love Arthurian literature in almost any form. But this book was absolute trash. How did it ever get published?
If you have read this book then you will know the scene that captures the spirit of this tale in a nutshell --- "Shake your head, my lord."
SHEESH . . .
I love Arthurian literature in almost any form. But this book was absolute trash. How did it ever get published?
If you have read this book then you will know the scene that captures the spirit of this tale in a nutshell --- "Shake your head, my lord."
SHEESH . . .
Certainly the funniest and quite likely the best post-war retelling of the Arthurian romances. Berger is deeply cynical about human nature and myth, but gives these old stories their due.
Better know for the two Little Big Man books, this is a very sarcastic take on the ye old legend. All Berger is good Berger. Try his Crazy in Berlin for the other side of the 'good war'.
Part of my Arthurian legend phase...and probably the best and funniest book I read during that time. The jousting scene is THE BEST.
By all standards I thought this was a great book, except that Berger simply took the whimsey in his tale too seriously.
A part of my Arthurian legend collection.
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Thomas Louis Berger is a U.S. novelist.
Berger was in Europe with the U.S. army, and then studied at the University of Cincinnati and at Columbia University. He worked as a librarian and a journalist before publishing his first novel, Crazy in Berlin, in 1958. Berger may be best known for the movie made from his novel Little Big Man, which starred Dustin Hoffman.
------...more
More about Thomas Berger...
Berger was in Europe with the U.S. army, and then studied at the University of Cincinnati and at Columbia University. He worked as a librarian and a journalist before publishing his first novel, Crazy in Berlin, in 1958. Berger may be best known for the movie made from his novel Little Big Man, which starred Dustin Hoffman.
------...more
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“Time is the bastard offspring of an incestuous act that God committed upon reality." Merlin to Arthur in "Arthur Rex”
—
3 people liked it
“Now lying in his swoon of death King Arthur was visited by the ghost of Sir Gawaine his late nephew.
And seeing him as a shade King Arthur said, "My dear Gawaine, I am unhappy to see thee thus! I had hoped that thou, left behind, might assume the throne when I died, and preserve it against the great felon Mordred."
"Nay," said Sir Gawaine's ghost, "I can do nothing palpably, Uncle, for my body lies rotting and provideth dinner for the worms. I have come to give you spiritual succor."
"Alas," said King Arthur, "we shall all join thee soon in Purgatory, Gawaine, for methinks we have today gone the noble Pyrrhus one better! For he survived his terrible victory, whereas I am dying. But Mordred liveth!"
"Then you must not die yet, Uncle," said the ghost of Sir Gawaine. "You have one duty left."
"Yea," said King Arthur, "to kill mine own son. Well, I think I can not, Gawaine. Perhaps there was some justice in the triumph of perfect evil over imperfect virtue, which is to say, of tragedy over comedy. For have I not been a buffoon?"
"Uncle," said the shade of Sir Gawaine, "there is no man who hath not believed the same of himself in very bad times, and beneath our armor we wear human skin, which is to say, motley. But the difference between a great man and a mere entertainer is that the former doth seek to please no audience but God, and thus he goeth against the mean instincts of humanity: the prevarications of vanity, the sentimentalizing of envy, the cowardice of greed, the slothful molesting of the weak, for all these are to celebrate nothing and to despise everything. And though man be eternally contemptible, he should not be contemptuous of that which he can achieve."
"Methinks I have achieved nothing, Gawaine!" King Arthur cried. "For amongst our company we had every human failing, and have we been better, except in rhetoric, than these barbarians, in killing whom we die ourselves?"
"Yea!" said the ghost of Sir Gawaine. "For can we not say, without the excessive pride which is sinful, that we lived with a certain gallantry?"
Now despite the grim conditions of this interview King Arthur could not but be some amused by the obsession of Sir Gawaine even as a ghost.
"Dost mean we none of us mishandled ladies?" smiling said he to the shade of his brave nephew.
"What I mean rather," said Sir Gawaine's solemn spirit, "is that we sought no easy victories, nor won any. And perhaps for that we will be remembered."
And then his ghost did vanish, and King Arthur... awoke, and from his breast he pulled Excalibur, as he had in the beginning pulled the first sword from the stone, and wondrously he bled no more.
And then he went to look for Mordred.”
—
1 person liked it
More quotes…
And seeing him as a shade King Arthur said, "My dear Gawaine, I am unhappy to see thee thus! I had hoped that thou, left behind, might assume the throne when I died, and preserve it against the great felon Mordred."
"Nay," said Sir Gawaine's ghost, "I can do nothing palpably, Uncle, for my body lies rotting and provideth dinner for the worms. I have come to give you spiritual succor."
"Alas," said King Arthur, "we shall all join thee soon in Purgatory, Gawaine, for methinks we have today gone the noble Pyrrhus one better! For he survived his terrible victory, whereas I am dying. But Mordred liveth!"
"Then you must not die yet, Uncle," said the ghost of Sir Gawaine. "You have one duty left."
"Yea," said King Arthur, "to kill mine own son. Well, I think I can not, Gawaine. Perhaps there was some justice in the triumph of perfect evil over imperfect virtue, which is to say, of tragedy over comedy. For have I not been a buffoon?"
"Uncle," said the shade of Sir Gawaine, "there is no man who hath not believed the same of himself in very bad times, and beneath our armor we wear human skin, which is to say, motley. But the difference between a great man and a mere entertainer is that the former doth seek to please no audience but God, and thus he goeth against the mean instincts of humanity: the prevarications of vanity, the sentimentalizing of envy, the cowardice of greed, the slothful molesting of the weak, for all these are to celebrate nothing and to despise everything. And though man be eternally contemptible, he should not be contemptuous of that which he can achieve."
"Methinks I have achieved nothing, Gawaine!" King Arthur cried. "For amongst our company we had every human failing, and have we been better, except in rhetoric, than these barbarians, in killing whom we die ourselves?"
"Yea!" said the ghost of Sir Gawaine. "For can we not say, without the excessive pride which is sinful, that we lived with a certain gallantry?"
Now despite the grim conditions of this interview King Arthur could not but be some amused by the obsession of Sir Gawaine even as a ghost.
"Dost mean we none of us mishandled ladies?" smiling said he to the shade of his brave nephew.
"What I mean rather," said Sir Gawaine's solemn spirit, "is that we sought no easy victories, nor won any. And perhaps for that we will be remembered."
And then his ghost did vanish, and King Arthur... awoke, and from his breast he pulled Excalibur, as he had in the beginning pulled the first sword from the stone, and wondrously he bled no more.
And then he went to look for Mordred.”
