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The Once and Future King

(The Once and Future King #1-4)

T.H. White

4.08 · Rating details · 90,326 ratings · 3,626 reviews

T.H. White's masterful retelling of the saga of King Arthur is a fantasy classic as legendary as Excalibur and Camelot, and a poignant story of adventure, romance, and magic that has enchanted readers for generations.

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Published October 19th 2011 (first published 1958)

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· 90,326 ratings · 3,626 reviews

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Jun 03, 2008 Corinne Edwards rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, historical-fantasy, magic, medieval, long-book, coming-of-age, war, british, tragedy, see-the-movie

This book terrified me, on many levels. It's 667 pages long, to begin with. It's been a while since I read a serious chunkster like that (besides Harry Potter, which somehow in my mind doesn't really count...).

Besides that, I am just not a fan of "Authur" stories, despite my deep love of the Disney movie The Sword and the Stone, of course. Ever since I saw the musical "Camelot" in the theater when I was in high school, the story just didn't appeal to me. Then my book club chose this as our month This book terrified me, on many levels. It's 667 pages long, to begin with. It's been a while since I read a serious chunkster like that (besides Harry Potter, which somehow in my mind doesn't really count...).

Besides that, I am just not a fan of "Authur" stories, despite my deep love of the Disney movie The Sword and the Stone, of course. Ever since I saw the musical "Camelot" in the theater when I was in high school, the story just didn't appeal to me. Then my book club chose this as our monthly selection and I finally decided it was time to tackle this monster.

Was it worth reading? Absolutely. This book is so much more than just Arthur and Camelot. The first section of the book is essentially the Disney movie, and that part does grab you and you love Wart so much that you keep reading just to find out how it ends for him (although, it got harder and harder to keep reading for a while there, in the middle - it got a bit slow).

White, our beloved author, is a genius, really. He's like your friend or fellow book club member, who just happened to be there, in the middle ages, and he's telling you the story with his own language and always using references to modern day concerns and people. He sometimes appears to mock them and their ways (oh, especially those blundering old knights...), other times he pities them, but mostly, I felt as though he was trying to understand them and why they made the choices they did.

The book is, to me, chiefly three different things.

First, it is a "historical" study of England at the time, which is both interesting and confusing, with many Lords and Kings and battles etc. Obviously this is a fantasy book and it's based on legend, but either way, we read a lot of political and historical stuff.

Second, much of the book is devoted to a character study of Arthur and Guinevere and Lancelot. Arthur, the imperfect, naive, thoughtful and above all, forgiving king. Guinevere, the stubborn and difficult to understand queen/mistress - White often just tells us straight out that he doesn't know why she made the choices she did. And Lancelot - the ill-made knight, the self-loathing hero of the round table who made a lot of mistakes and yet always tried his best to be moral (except where Guinevere was concerned, of course).

Thirdly, I felt like this was a very moral and philosophical book. White asks difficult questions, usually through Arthur, trying to figure out issues like: Is man inherently good? Why do we have wars and what causes them? Which do we owe more loyalty to, our family (clan) or our country? Is it better to get revenge or to forgive? How do we best create peace: through worship, through wars or through civil justice?

This book is truly a work of art. I must admit however, that as soon as the "Sword in the Stone" section of the book is over, the story was completely depressing, in every way imaginable. Nearly everyone is either deceived, deceitful, or unhappy. Bad things are constantly happening to good people and even the good people seem to be constantly making bad choices. I must also admit that it was still insanely interesting and worthwhile - and, even amid the depressing things, I found myself laughing out loud. Often I found myself pondering the idea of actions and consequences and how often our actions can lead to things in our future that we never could've imagined. My heart ached for Arthur, for what he had and for what he lost.

But, you should read it. Read it for Arthur and Sir Pellinore and for White's use of the word "chuckle-head." I'd be surprised if you regret it. ...more

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Jun 16, 2008 Heather rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: awe-inspiring-monumental-books, fantasy-reads

Seriously, how do you review the pinnacle of all fantasy? You can argue with me, but that, in my opinion, is what The Once and Future King is. Sure, the evil enchantresses are stout and grumpy, the magical castles are made out of food, the lily maids are fat and of a certain age, and the knights in shining armor refer to one another as ‘old chap’s. Oh and did I mention that King Arthur’s nickname is ‘the Wart’?
Somehow, T.H. White takes the legend, undresses it, and gives it a new kind of dignit ...more

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Dec 24, 2012 Oriana rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2013, formative-reading, read-2012

In case anyone is wondering: I picked this book up for a re-read because of one throwaway line in Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal . I haven't read this since high school, but I remember loving it almost giddily as a tween.

Since it's a big monster of a book, I took a steak knife to it, as I often do, and cut it in half so I could carry it about and read it on the subway without breaking my back. Here's the new cover I put on my DIY'd "vol 2," from Vice magazine. I find it creepy & rat In case anyone is wondering: I picked this book up for a re-read because of one throwaway line in Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal . I haven't read this since high school, but I remember loving it almost giddily as a tween.

Since it's a big monster of a book, I took a steak knife to it, as I often do, and cut it in half so I could carry it about and read it on the subway without breaking my back. Here's the new cover I put on my DIY'd "vol 2," from Vice magazine. I find it creepy & rather fitting:

description

Anyway, I have been reading this for days and days and days and days and days—exactly a month, it turns out (thanks for keeping track, Goodreads!), which is about four times longer than it takes me to read most books. I'm not at all sorry to have spent so long with it, as this book encompasses multitudes, and was just consistently enthralling the whole time. I remembered it only sketchily from high school, mostly only the first book, much of which is retold in the Disney movie The Sword in the Stone: Arthur as a boy being turned into a fish and a bird, scampering about learning lessons from comical genius klutz Merlin, who is always knitting his beard into his scarf.

All that is, of course, still there, still fun and silly and charming and delightful. But, like all good epics do, what starts as a somewhat childish fantasy story grows up as its characters do, maturing in deed and thought and even language, so that by the end it is more philosophy than slapstick, more high art and the endless search for meaning than antics and adventures. The difference between right and wrong, the search for God, love and its lapses and failures, why men fight wars, how the sins of the father are visited tenfold on the son, the impossibility of absolute justice, the very meaning of life—all these are dissected, mulled over, worked around and through over these 700 pages. Additionally, throughout, there are the most fascinating digressions: on falconry, on the food and fashion of the day, on the political landscape of the British Isles through history, on many different sorts of weapons and their uses, on all the various accessories that make up a knight's attire, on needlepoint and castle architecture and the effects of weather patterns on different birds.

And of course, over it all runs the arching taut string of the foregone conclusion: everyone knows that this story is ultimately a tragedy, that no matter how carefree young Arthur frolics as a servant-turned-fish, he will still pull the sword from the stone to be revealed as King of England, he will still marry the beautiful Guenever who will have a decades-long affair with his best friend Lancelot, he will still be seduced by his half-sister to sire the bastard who will wind up being the agent of not just Arthur's own demise, but the disintegration of the entire Round Table and all those lofty goals of chivalry and valor.

So even at its sweetest, this is a bitter tale, a beautiful awful devastation, an incredible encapsulation of human failure despite all the most noble of intentions. It's wonderful and terrible and crushing and glorious.

What a spectacular world to spend a month thrashing about in. ...more

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Aug 29, 2013 Darwin8u rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: aere-perennius, 1001-ante-mortem, 2014

“They made me see that the world was beautiful if you were beautiful, and that you couldn't get unless you gave. And you had to give without wanting to get.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

description

I loved it and my two brats (11 & 13) absolutely enjoyed it, even if many of the jokes, the funky anachronistic blending of the Medieval with the Modern, might have floated a bit over their tiny wee heads.

Anyway, I think White perfectly captured the magic, power, fears and the joy of both youth and myth with this retelling of early Arthurian legend. White's theme of power and justice ("Might Makes Right") seem to perfectly capture the political Zeitgiest of now. Perhaps, White like Merlin was just writing through time backwards and wanted to capture the queer contradictions of Imperial Democracy in the global 21st century, but wanted to write it in the 1930s so Disney would be around to animate it (ugh) in the 60s and thus make his point resonate better in the early 21st century.

You might think a novel that basically focuses on a love-triangle (a quadrilateral if you include God), several affairs, a man's struggle between his love for a woman, love for God, love for his best friend, would not hold the interest of a 13 and an 11-year old for long, but this is T.H. White. The characters are so human, so filled with frailties, heroics, and insecurities that White could have written about cooking for 300 pages and my kids would have been rapt from page 1 to the end.

The story turns, about half-way through, solidly to Lancelot. It is impossible to understand Lancelot without looking at Arthur, Guinevere, Elaine & Galahad. And White digresses throughout TO&FK to capture these stories. The middle of the book pivots as Camelot, under Arthur's leadership, undergoes a change from physical quests (Round Table v. Might makes Right) to spiritual ones (Round Table > Grail quest). This change captures/mirrors the dynamic of Lancelot's own story (the vacillation between the physical and spiritual).

Finally, the weight of the conspiracies, the betrayals, the killings, and the expulsions are all there pushing against the King (I love when T.H. White calls Arthur - England) and his faith in man and justice. It just isn't to be. Do I need to hide the ending? Am I going to spoil the book for you? Come now, we are all mostly adults here. Camelot fails, but T.H. White explores the failure almost as beautifully as he does the magic of Camelot. He captures the magic of Camelot by focusing on the humanity of the people. He isn't satisfied with making (or keeping rather) Lancelot, King A, Guinevere, and even Mordred locked up in the stale symbols they often become. The trite shadows of type is not T.H. White's jam. He wants to humanize everybody. He wants to show the motives, the nuances of character that makes the reader LOVE these figures not because they symbolize things like bravery, chivalry, or justice ... but because they remind the reader of elements, times, moods and flaws found buried within. T.H. White started with a fantasy novel, but ended with an exploration of war, humanity, love, and hope.

Look, I'm skeptical of fantasy novels. They aren't my thing. I want literature. I want something that pushes you against the wall of your own head and dares you to think bigger. I think T.H. White was aiming for that -- and holy anachronisms - he nailed it. ...more

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Jan 08, 2008 Beth rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I carried a quote from this book around in my purse for decades. In my original version of the book, it is on page 111 and begins, "The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour t ...more

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Oct 03, 2012 Jeff rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: stuff-they-make-you-read-in-school, brit-lit

3.5 Stars

Way back when, I took a college class in Arthurian literature. This book was not included in the course which had us read just about everything else written about the legendary king. By the end of the semester I was sick of King Arthur, the round table, the Holy Grail and knights in general; as a consequence, I didn’t bother reading this book until now. Before I finally picked it up I assumed it would be something like Camelot (a crappy musical); I heard Lerner and Lowe based the music 3.5 Stars

Way back when, I took a college class in Arthurian literature. This book was not included in the course which had us read just about everything else written about the legendary king. By the end of the semester I was sick of King Arthur, the round table, the Holy Grail and knights in general; as a consequence, I didn’t bother reading this book until now. Before I finally picked it up I assumed it would be something like Camelot (a crappy musical); I heard Lerner and Lowe based the musical on the book. They did, but it is a loose adaptation.

This book is divided up into 4 shorter books. Merlyn is in the first two. He isn’t in rest. The book suffers for it. Merlyn, a wizard who ages backwards from the far distant future is a hoot. He’s the heart, soul and humorous center of the book. I understand that each book represents an era in Arthur’s life, but Merlyn's presence is sorely missed.

The first two books are laden in fantasy. You have plenty of magic, unicorns, griffins, a talking owl, a castle made of food, etc. The first book was the basis for the Disney feature, “The Sword in the Stone”.

The latter books deal with Lancelot and Guenever, Arthur’s desire to bring a civilized society to England, the quest for the Holy Grail and the round table’s demise.

As the book goes through each tonal shift, White maintains a very contemporary voice (with modern day references and allusions) throughout. As this worked in the more whimsical first half, it becomes jarring when juxtaposed with the epic sorrow and madness of the Lancelot/Guenever affair.

Lancelot, in White’s rendering is, to put it mildly, conflicted. I guess sleeping with your best friend’s wife, the Queen, and trying to hold onto Christian and chivalrous ideas at the same time will do that. His misery is palpable. Also, White makes Lancelot ugly as a mud fence. No Richard Gere or Franco Nero images in your mind while reading - this isn’t a bad thing.

The female characters (there aren’t many) are ill-served by White, none are very likable.

If you’re looking for a more entertaining version of the Arthurian legend, read Thomas Berger’s Arthur Rex. Or just read the first two parts of this book.
...more

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May 15, 2014 Leonard Gaya rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

For the time being, this will be a provisional review on the “Liber Primus”, a.k.a. The Sword in the Stone. The Once and Future King is, obviously, a modern variation on the Arthurian cycle. Allegedly, T. H. White’s main source was Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d'Arthur. However, while Malory starts his hefty book with the story of Uther and Igraine, White hardly mentions Arthur’s true parents. Moreover, while Malory sweeps away Arthur’s youth in less than ten pages and a couple of short chapters For the time being, this will be a provisional review on the “Liber Primus”, a.k.a. The Sword in the Stone. The Once and Future King is, obviously, a modern variation on the Arthurian cycle. Allegedly, T. H. White’s main source was Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d'Arthur. However, while Malory starts his hefty book with the story of Uther and Igraine, White hardly mentions Arthur’s true parents. Moreover, while Malory sweeps away Arthur’s youth in less than ten pages and a couple of short chapters (I,3-7), T. H. White stretches this indefinite period into a full novel of more than 200 pages. The segment about the sword drawn from the stone is only retold — beautifully and emotionally — at the very end of White’s novel.

The bulk of The Sword in the Stone is an episodic narrative that consists of a series of adventures and considerations around young King Arthur, from the time when he was just a young boy and was called, in an affectionate yet slightly insulting way, “the Wart”. Around this young boy, a few older men, such as his foster father Sir Ector, his tutor Merlyn, his stepbrother Kay, the whimsical King Pellinore chasing the Questing Beast and the clumsy Sir Grummore (a character invented by T. H. White, playing opposite Pellinore, like the muppets Statler and Waldorf). The whole novel revolves around Sir Ector’s castle and the neighbouring forest, and quite a few episodes are about Wart being magically turned into animals by Merlyn: a fish in the moat, a hawk in the falconry, a wild goose, etc. In these woods, we also get to meet a character from another legend altogether: Robin Hood.

All in all, T. H. White’s novel displays a somewhat loose, slow-paced plotline and focuses on atmospheric and idyllic descriptions of the forest and countryside, the sky and stars, the techniques of jousting and falconry, the seasons that come and go, the pranks and funny episodes, the songs and fairytales by the fireside. It is a utopian and delightful book for all ages, that reads as a mellow, decorative and nostalgic reverie around the legends of young Arthur, with a narrator that is always gently present and introduces subtle and unworried references to the 20th century — never hinting at the fact that the book was written just before World War II’s darkest hours. It has very little to do with Le Morte d'Arthur: it instead made me think of the old infancy gospels (the legendary Apocrypha around the childhood of Jesus) or, even more, of the idealised images of the Middle Ages in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. Obviously (quite explicitly in fact), the story of this young Wart is also in line with the tale of Cinderella.

Walt Disney's adaptation of The Sword in the Stone (1963) is not top of the line, but is still a charming slapstick musical comedy — the adaptation of The Jungle Book that would be released a couple of years later is very similar but better developed. In a way, T. H. White's novel has also been a model for Monty Python and the Holy Grail, for young Luke Skywalker (Wart) and Yoda (Merlyn) in The Empire Strikes Back, and even J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, a few decades later. To be continued. ...more

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Nov 28, 2012 Ted rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: have, lit-british, fantasy, read-during-college, classics, reviews-liked

From Geoffrey of Monmouth (1*) to Thomas Malory (2*) to Alfred Lord Tennyson (3*) to T.H. White (4*) to Lerner & Lowe (5*) ...

1* Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), 1130s.
2* La Morte d'Arthur, 1485
3* Idylls of the King, 1859-85
4* The Once and Future King, 1938-41
5* Camelot, 1960 Broadway!! The big time!!!

1) See here for the association of the musical Camelot with the Kennedy Administration.

2) Here's an extended quote from the first page of the book, to indicate th ...more

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Dec 01, 2011 Jonathan Terrington rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, fantasy-challenge, classic-literature, popularity-contest

A complex and multi-tiered depiction of the epic Arthurian legend. This book is unlike any other I've read either focusing on the myth or simply in terms of fantasy writing.

While the story begins with The Sword in the Stone, a novel I had already read years ago it was refreshing to re-familiarize myself with T.H. White's eccentric and unique style of portraying the character of King Arthur as a child. In fact I believe The Sword in the Stone is the deepest depiction of the childhood Arthur I ha
A complex and multi-tiered depiction of the epic Arthurian legend. This book is unlike any other I've read either focusing on the myth or simply in terms of fantasy writing.

While the story begins with The Sword in the Stone, a novel I had already read years ago it was refreshing to re-familiarize myself with T.H. White's eccentric and unique style of portraying the character of King Arthur as a child. In fact I believe The Sword in the Stone is the deepest depiction of the childhood Arthur I have read as many other stories gloss over this. Yet it is important to understand Arthur's beginnings in order to understand his growth of character and this firstly sets T.H.White's work apart from the other tales about Arthur.

White's use of humor and his linking of the myth to the present was incredibly clever. He was in part able to both tell the tale and provide a join critique and analysis of the legend. And such a deep analysis was able to be therefore used to reflect upon the human condition, upon human beings, their wants and desires and what it is that drives them to do such acts as Guenevere in being unfaithful to Arthur. Or as Mordred desiring her as his own. It is a more effective analysis than Freud's simple conclusion that men are simple carnal beings I feel, for what it showed me is that White recognizes that yes few men are truly good but at the same time few men are truly base. It is the way they react to the events of life that makes them ignoble or even noble.

It was an incredibly deep book with so many angles that it simply astounded me. Was it a fantasy, a fairytale to enjoy with magic and well constructed characters? Was it a commentary? Was it a critique? Was it for children or for adults? Was it an analysis? Was it a collection of psychological observations? I believe that this book was all of these and yet none at the same time. It is a book that derives aspects from all of these and yet is never truly one of these alone. For here T.H.White has created a grand epic that I recommend all people read.

However, for all of its depth and magnificence I felt it was let down at times, particularly right near the end. This was majorly due to its pacing. At times it was fast and furious and at others it was slow and ponderous. It never truly was consistent. And for me this made it difficult to get into at times. I would recommend Roger Lancelyn Green's tales of Arthur instead for their pace. However T.H.White's work has a greater depth than any other Arthurian tale I have read and it is for that it is to be admired. ...more

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Aug 13, 2015 Matthias rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, my-reviews

Five stars? All the stars! This is the best book I have ever read. My other 5-star-ratings pale in comparison to this big wonder of a book. My Goodreads-rating system needs revision. Hors categorie.

A fantasy classic? It's so much more than that. It's about everything that matters in life, told in the warm voice of a brilliant and gifted author. He has struck a chord within me that will keep on trembling forever.

Humor, adventure, suspense, tragedy, poetry, romance, philosophy, history, faith, so ...more

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Mar 03, 2015 Apatt rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The Once and Future King was recommended to me on Reddit as probably the best Arthurian fantasy book extant. I have read Stephen R. Lawhead's The Pendragon Cycle and Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon and - if my memory serves me correctly – did not care for either of them. I am still interested in the Arthurian saga though so I proceeded accordingly.

The Once and Future King is divided into four parts, the first three previously published as separate books. The four parts are:

• The Swor ...more

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Jan 13, 2018 Sarah rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: twentieth-century, yes-there-s-a-book, fantasy, imported-from-britain, at-my-library, arthuriana, celtic-mythology, animal-power, classics, adult

T.H. White’s Arthurian opus, The Once and Future King, is probably as influential on the modern fantasy genre as The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia, yet has been overshadowed in the mainstream by its two major adaptations: Disney’s animated feature The Sword in the Stone (1963), which is based almost exclusively on the first quarter of the book, and the Broadway musical Camelot (stage debut 1960, film 1967) which is based on the last half. To adapt White’s whole book, and do it j ...more

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Jan 17, 2008 Jeremy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: anyone who enjoys adventure, romance, history, or fantasy

I read this book about every two years. It is one of my absolute favorites. The stories and the characters are so well-crafted that I can read it over-and-over time and again with just as much pleasure as the first time.
This novel is actually divided into four 'books' within itself, and while you can read the four books out of order, it really is meant to be read from front to back.
The first book, "The Sword In The Stone", is much like the Disney animated movie that was adapted from it. There ar I read this book about every two years. It is one of my absolute favorites. The stories and the characters are so well-crafted that I can read it over-and-over time and again with just as much pleasure as the first time.
This novel is actually divided into four 'books' within itself, and while you can read the four books out of order, it really is meant to be read from front to back.
The first book, "The Sword In The Stone", is much like the Disney animated movie that was adapted from it. There are a few scenes in the movie which are not in the book, and quite a bit in the book which is not in the movie, but the overall flavor is the same, and the essence of the story is there. The main thing lacking from the movie, which is quite important in the novel, is that Merlin is teaching Arthur (Wart) about the ways of humanity, civilization, and society, so that when he becomes the King he will not just continue with things as they have been, but learn to reason and think for himself, to try his best to make the world a better place. These lessons are referred to again and again later in the novel. This first book has far more magic and fairy-tale qualities than any of the rest of the book.
The second book is called "The Queen of Air and Darkness", and primarily has to do with Arthur's nephews from his half-sister, Morgause, and ends with Morgause, not knowing that Arthur is her half-brother, bewitching him and seducing him to give her a child. This child, Mordred, is the essence of fate of Arthur and what makes this novel such a tragedy. White reveals this information as well, and knowing it here does not spoil the remainder of the book in anyway. This second book is one of the shortest of the four.
The third book is easily my favorite and is called "The Ill-Made Knight". It is the story of Sir Lancelot. This portion of the novel (and many smaller pieces of it) are where a great many Hollywood movies pull their King Arthur and Lancelot material from, only they usually get it all wrong. Lancelot, in this book, is the greatest knight in the world, though he is quite ugly - not the sexy and charming knight as is always portrayed in the movies. His face is often compared to a gargoyle. I believe this is quite important. It helps the reader to better understand his relationship with Queen Guenevere ("Jenny") and to understand that the Queen does not have this lifelong affair with her husband's best friend simply because he is charming and handsome and the best knight in the world. The character of Lancelot (as are Arthur and Guenevere) is so richly charactered. His struggles with his faith and humanity, and how those play against his love for his best friend's wife, are his lifelong struggles. Lancelot is shown to be an honest person, of the truest sense, even though he lives this lifelong struggle of adultery with his best friend's wife. The love triangle between Lancelot, Guenevere, and Arthur (and Qudrangle with God, as White often represents it) is the heart of this book, though the book really focuses on Lancelot's internal struggles. This book also serves to explore Arthur's attempts at removing the "Might Is Right" mentality of the Middle Ages, and gives us the Quest for the Holy Grail stories. This book, along with the first book, represents the bulk of this novel's content.
The last book, "A Candle In The Wind", brings together all the elements of Arthur's tragedy. The irony in this book is how Arthur's own new system of "justice" is used against him bring to light (publicly) the affair between Lancelot and Guenever.
This novel is a wonderful exploration of humanity, society, and civilization, and a beautiful fairy tale tragedy. ...more

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Mar 21, 2011 Katie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, medieval, fiction, history, favorites

Spoiler alert, I guess. But not really. It’s been 600 years.

I love this book so much, you guys. I feel like I can’t even articulate it. It is possibly my new favorite book.

The Once and Future King is a book about nostalgia, though not in the typical sense. It’s hazy and dreamy and romantic, and it has some of the loveliest prose you’re going to find anywhere, but it’s not about the idealization of the past. If anything, it can be read as an examination of its failure: all throughout the book, Spoiler alert, I guess. But not really. It’s been 600 years.

I love this book so much, you guys. I feel like I can’t even articulate it. It is possibly my new favorite book.

The Once and Future King is a book about nostalgia, though not in the typical sense. It’s hazy and dreamy and romantic, and it has some of the loveliest prose you’re going to find anywhere, but it’s not about the idealization of the past. If anything, it can be read as an examination of its failure: all throughout the book, from little Wart’s childhood education to Gawaine’s final letter, feudal society is shown as cruel and restrictive and artificial. Moments of beauty are precarious, nearly always undercut in the end by the violent or the absurd.

But I’d argue that it remains at its core a book about nostalgia, because it is a book that is persistently fixated on the sadness of failed possibilities. At first, The Once and Future King seems oddly disconnected, jumping around from character to character throughout its four books. It is difficult at first to determine the protagonist. But I think it’s a story about a person who tries to build something new, something great and lovely and filled with possibility, and then it is a story about the thousand myriad ways in which such an attempt can crack, and teeter, and fail.

One of the most interesting parts of the whole book comes from a single chapter featuring the knight Lionel recounting his adventures in pursuit of the Holy Grail, a trip that reached its climax when he nearly killed his brother Bors. He then confesses that he did, in fact, kill a hermit attempting to protect his brother. Lionel rattles off a litany of mitigating circumstances, finishing with this: “I’m afraid I was simply in a passion,” admitted Lionel after a bit. “You know how you get.” It seems terribly unfair and insufficient, but that’s the point – for all of Arthur’s efforts, for all the potential that the Round Table offers, all it takes is a streak of cruelty, a moment of pride, or even a singular episode of kindness for it to start the process that brings it all crumbling down.

But one of the loveliest things about The Once and Future King, and the part that will make me love it forever, is the fact that that despite all this sadness it’s never cynical. It’s an almost painfully human story, and it offers kindness and the possibility of understanding to all of its characters. It is a master class in the potential of omniscient narration, and it is at times almost unbearably lovely and kind. It also puts faith in the potential of the past: if its resentments and divisions can cause the violence of the present, its stories can also break those cycles, and offer the possibility of a more open view.

It is absolutely wonderful, and you should go read it as soon as you can. ...more

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Mar 20, 2017 Markus rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017, childrens-books, fantasy, arthurian-legend

A curious book. The Once and Future King is at the same time a very classical and completely unique retelling of the Arthurian legend, but it unfortunately falls short of almost all the others.

On one side it's an interesting attempt at reforging the legend to something not quite set in time and place, and a fascinating mix of Medieval English myths. On the other there are many aspects of the style that ranged from slightly annoying to deeply flawed.

Firstly, the book is written too much like a fa A curious book. The Once and Future King is at the same time a very classical and completely unique retelling of the Arthurian legend, but it unfortunately falls short of almost all the others.

On one side it's an interesting attempt at reforging the legend to something not quite set in time and place, and a fascinating mix of Medieval English myths. On the other there are many aspects of the style that ranged from slightly annoying to deeply flawed.

Firstly, the book is written too much like a fairytale for my taste. I realise this is what some people would want, but I couldn't take the constant use of things like castles made out of food, extremely forgetful and laughable knights, and witches seemingly taken from the pages of the Brothers Grimm.

Second, the anachronisms are absolutely unforgivable. White is apparently talking to the reader, and thus sees fit to bring in, among other things: Eton College, Oliver Cromwell, communism, Freudian psychoanalysis and the IRA. This does not belong in a medieval fantasy and serves for nothing but ruining the mood.

Third, White does not place his Arthurian epic in a historical setting, or even in a vague context. He puts it in the middle of the High Middle Ages, taking out all the events that actually happened during that time and calling it myth. This would have been fair enough if he had simply kept quiet about it, but alas, we get to hear all about the legendary William the Conqueror, the imaginary Richard Coeur de Lion, the supposed king Edward III, the so-called Henry IV. Just like the previous point, this just killed the book for me.

The book does have its good sides. It is pleasant and entertaining reading sometimes (although the entertainment occasionally comes from laughing at the author's style), and it does have a few enjoyable aspects. It is incredibly, conservatively, British, to the extent of making Tolkien look like a radical hippie by comparison. It includes Merlyn as a time traveller constantly travelling backwards in time. And it serves the reader a moral lesson on the atrocity of war and nationalism, two of the greatest evils in the world, using said Merlyn, with his knowledge of the future, as a vehicle.

"I never could stomach these nationalists," he exclaimed. "The destiny of Man is to unite, not to divide. If you keep on dividing you end up as a collection of monkeys throwing nuts at each other out of separate trees." ...more

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Jul 16, 2015 Cornelia Funke rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The ONE book I'd take to the island. I would chop off a finger to have written this book!

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Mar 20, 2014 Ｌᴀʏᴀ Ｒᴀɴɪ #BookDiet2019 rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: my-reviews, classic-contemporary, book-diet-2015-2016

I knew enough about the King Arthur mythology through cinematic adaptations I've seen growing up, but this is the first time that I ever read a novel about this legendary hero, and I thought T.H White's classic masterpiece The Once and Future King is the best place to start as any, considering the raving reviews I've encountered about this one every time I browse the medieval literature section in book-related websites. I was also drawn to this book because of this quotation taken from it: 'Per ...more

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Feb 14, 2016 Allison Hurd rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: man-author, fantasy, sff-bookshelf, classics, sff-2019-challenge

Listened to the audiobook this time, which is not as neat nor as concise as the written form, but which tears my heart out all the same. Every time I read it it feels meaningful in some way. Every time I find someone who is willing and able to meet me in my joy and my sorrow, and offer me insight as well as companionship. The narrator was excellent, and I have to go be sad for awhile now.

___________

This is my all time favorite book. I've read it countless times since I was first recommended it i ...more

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Jul 11, 2019 Anthony rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf-group-2018, fantasy, tbr-challenge-2019, 7-kingdoms-challenge

An incredibly ambitious, deeply complex work, filled with moments of silliness paired with moments of sorrow, and everything in between, and fueled by an enormously generous and grievously pained heart. I admire T.H. White’s effort to grapple with huge, unwieldy questions of justice and the inexorable weight of history, and I enjoy his ability to infuse his writing with wit and verve. There were times when I wanted some moments to be more vividly brought to life than he seemed willing to do, for ...more

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Jul 16, 2008 Travis French rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: All

Recommended to Travis by: Xavier & Magneto

Just last week I finished one of the greatest books I have ever read. The Once & Future King by T.H. White.

I had never heard of the book until it was mentioned in Bryan Singer's X-Men movies. Xavier talks about it with his students and Magneto can be seen reading it while in his plastic prison. Because all great works of art are connected I had to read the book. I didn't even know it was about King Arthur and his knights until I found it on Amazon.com.

Like most people I was familiar with the Just last week I finished one of the greatest books I have ever read. The Once & Future King by T.H. White.

I had never heard of the book until it was mentioned in Bryan Singer's X-Men movies. Xavier talks about it with his students and Magneto can be seen reading it while in his plastic prison. Because all great works of art are connected I had to read the book. I didn't even know it was about King Arthur and his knights until I found it on Amazon.com.

Like most people I was familiar with the characters and parts of the plot. What surprised me is how much of the story is a tragedy. The story couldn't really unfold any other way.

It all starts quite simply. Arthur is a young boy called Wart. Wart lives a sequestered life in feudal England training to be a knight. One morning Wart is searching the forest for a lost falcon and stumbles upon Merlyn's cottage. It is here that the story really starts. Merlyn becomes Wart's tutor and teaches by turning the boy into all manner of animals.

Disney adapted this section, titled The Sword in the Stone, into one of its early animated features with a fair amount of accuracy. Disney's only noticeable changes are addition of musical numbers and the absence of Robin Hood.

The next two sections, titled The Queen of Air & Darkness and The Ill Made Knight, serve to introduce more of the principle characters. It is in these two sections that we meet Queen Morguase, mother of the Orkney clan, as well as Lancelot and Guenever. It is all of these characters, including Arthur himself, who ultimately bring about the downfall of Camelot.

The final section, titled The Candle in the Wind, brings everything to its inevitable conclusion. Lancelot, by rescuing Guenever from the stake, forces Arthur to leave Camelot in the care of a wretched little prick named Mordred.

In the face of all this tragedy some hope survives. Arthur remembers his idea of a just and peaceful civilization, his candle in the wind, and passes it along to a young page named Thomas Mallory. Mallory goes on to write Le Morte de Arthur, perhaps the earliest version of the Arthurian legend.

What makes the book so great is the level of realism White brings to what would otherwise be a fairy tale. A professional journalist turned novelist White cares about the world he creates. He knows what details would add to the plot and what might take away from it. The characters are well rounded human beings; motivated by both their strengths and weaknesses. They live in a real place and coexist with all manner of fantastic beasts. Magic is a natural part of life; no more extraordinary than a jousting match.

Like any great work of art I was sorry I had to finish.

...more

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Oct 04, 2014 Liz Janet rated it really liked it · review of another edition

"But Arthur’s grave is nowhere seen, whence antiquity of fables still claims that he will return." - William of Malmesbury

He shall return... “If people reach perfection they vanish, you know.”
description

Alongside.... “We cannot build the future by avenging the past.”
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And..... "Further back, there were times when we wondered with all our souls what the world was, what love was, what we were ourselves.”
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And... “Now, in their love, which was stronger, there were the seeds of hatred and fear and conf ...more

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May 26, 2014 Tom Quinn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The Sword in the Stone: an indisputable classic of children's literature and a book I very much look forward to sharing with my kids when they reach a certain age (12ish or thereabouts, probably). As a child, I loved it for its rollicking action and imaginative fancy. As a college student, I loved it for its subversive anti-authoritarian message. As an adult, I love it for its heart. It's a charming, funny, exciting, stirring book for readers of all ages which has great staying power and sets de The Sword in the Stone: an indisputable classic of children's literature and a book I very much look forward to sharing with my kids when they reach a certain age (12ish or thereabouts, probably). As a child, I loved it for its rollicking action and imaginative fancy. As a college student, I loved it for its subversive anti-authoritarian message. As an adult, I love it for its heart. It's a charming, funny, exciting, stirring book for readers of all ages which has great staying power and sets depths of humanity dancing on every page. I found the rest of the series less engrossing as a child, but revisiting it as an adult I understand why: White's recounting of the King Arthur mythos is a vehicle for exploring maturity, character, growth, and the putting aside of childish things. Though the action never reaches such exciting heights in the sequels, White's stately, magisterial writing style throughout is an indulgent treat well worth savoring.

5 stars. Highly recommended—a book that actually grows and gains more the more you read it and the older you get.

(Honestly, I waffled on the star rating here because the quality of all the books in the series is very uneven. The Sword in the Stone is undoubtedly 5 stars and since it's the opener the rest of the series kind of just gets swept along in its wake. But Book Two is probably a 3 star stand-alone at best, and the overlong Book Three has a lot of stilted, foreshortened side plots that keep it into maybe the 4 star range... But I think that this series has to be taken as a complete whole, and the individual books can't be split up quite as easily as some other trilogy/quadrilogy/umptilogy series can. Certainly the progression of Arthur from childhood to adolescence to adulthood to middle age is a huge part of the point and must be the reason White insisted these be collected together instead of presented separately. So, since the writing quality is so incredibly high at the sentence-by-sentence level and the entire series works towards a cohesive whole, I'm sticking with a strong 5 star overall rating for the whole enchilada.) ...more

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Jun 12, 2017 Cindy Rollins rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017, 2017-audio, audiobooks

Confession: I had assigned this to 6 of my children to read but had never read it myself. Now I am thinking perhaps it should be read a little later than 7th grade. I am not sure a seventh grader can grasp the glory of it.

What a book or maybe I should say what five books!! The Sword in the Stone: Delightful. The Queen of Air and Darkness: Delightfully dreadful. The Ill-Made Knight: Tragically wonderful. The Candle in the Wind: Toweringly beautiful. The Book of Merlin: Ridiculously thoughtful.

A ...more

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Jan 14, 2012 Richard rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-epic-fantasy, classic, young-adult, fantasy

I got to page 377 before I resigned to the fact I wasn't enjoying this book and only read a couple of chapters a day after that.

There is so much wrong with this book I cannot understand why it is so popular.

Firstly there is virtually no action, adventures or quests that you would expect from a King Arthur book. It plods along painfully slowly with little or nothing going on for pages and pages at a time. Every thing is described in huge detail, even really mundane activities that are going on t I got to page 377 before I resigned to the fact I wasn't enjoying this book and only read a couple of chapters a day after that.

There is so much wrong with this book I cannot understand why it is so popular.

Firstly there is virtually no action, adventures or quests that you would expect from a King Arthur book. It plods along painfully slowly with little or nothing going on for pages and pages at a time. Every thing is described in huge detail, even really mundane activities that are going on that have nothing to do with the plot and boring conversations go on and on when the could have been easily summed up in a few lines rather than a page or two of dull dialogue. Conversely many of what should be exciting parts are summed up in a couple of paragraphs.

The story as well as being slow, bumps along without any real book long plot almost like a group of short stories that have been hashed together.

Many major events are told after the events by characters. The death of some characters are talked about by other characters some time after they have died. The entire Grail Quest is told only by those that return from it (none of those were successful) to the king and queen. Two major battles are told about in a letter and Arthur's final battle against Mordred isn't told at all. All of this gives a huge disconnect to the story and turns what should have been exciting passages into something fairly dull.

The characters are often comic without being funny. Others are unbelievable and unrelatable and act in ways that make no sense. Many of the characters act irrationally and are very inconsistent making it even harder to understand or like them.

Lancelot is an awful characters, he regularly kills and injures others for little or no reason, goes to great lengths to cover up his affair with the queen and generally acts very deceitfully. One example is that he finds a tent and goes to sleep in a bed in it, the owner of the tent returns, Lancelot wakes up and he tries to kill the owner. Another time he is caught in the queens bedchamber by 14 other Knights, he tricks one of them into coming in by himself, Lancelot overpowers and kills him, takes his sword and armour, kills all but one of the other knights, the one that he 'spares' comes away with a broken arm. Despite all this most other characters think Lancelot is the best knight ever and the knight who got the broken arm is in the wrong because he should have died fighting!

The Lancelot and Queens affair is horribly written with no warmth to it, they spend most of the time behaving like a mixture spoiled children and a bitter old couple. I had no sympathy for them at all.

The king is very weak and boring, he started of great as a child but once he is an adult he is pretty pathetic. He even knows about the queens and Lancelot's affair and does nothing about it.

There are quite a few analogies that have either dated very badly or would not makes sense to most people outside of Britain. A couple are even pretty racist, sexist or otherwise offensive by today's standards.

If I was given the choice of re-reading this book or actually reading Twilight for the first time, I think the tween vampire romance novel would win out... ...more

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Aug 05, 2008 Jamie rated it liked it · review of another edition

I really didn't get what I expected out of this book, which I always thought was a serious retelling of the King Arthur legend. I mean, it is that. Eventually. But it's strangely paced and the work's tone follows this odd arc across its four books that put me off.

The first book, "The Sword in the Stone," follows Arthur's childhood, and it's dippy, whimsical, and laden with fantasy. It is, in fact, not too far from the Disney cartoon adaptation of the same name. Arthur has all kinds of adventures I really didn't get what I expected out of this book, which I always thought was a serious retelling of the King Arthur legend. I mean, it is that. Eventually. But it's strangely paced and the work's tone follows this odd arc across its four books that put me off.

The first book, "The Sword in the Stone," follows Arthur's childhood, and it's dippy, whimsical, and laden with fantasy. It is, in fact, not too far from the Disney cartoon adaptation of the same name. Arthur has all kinds of adventures when his tutor Merlin turns him into different kinds of animals so that he can commune (literally) with nature. There's also legendary figures like Robin Hood and mythical creatures like griffins. The whole thing was chock full of anachronisms and modern humor, which was pretty distracting. It's probably good stuff for young adults, but I found it pretty silly and almost quit reading.

The weird thing is that beginning in the next book and continuing on through the last two, things start to get more serious. The second book still has some humor and silliness in it, such as when two knights create an elaborate costume to impersonate the mythical Questing Beast, only to have a real Questing Beast fall in love with them and pursue them across the countryside. But it's more melancholy, too. The third book turns its focus to Sir Lancelot's rise to prominence, and by the fourth book there is no humor at all and the tone is utterly tragic as it recounts the star-crossed love triangle between King Arthur, Sir Lancelot, and Queen Guenever. It ends quite sadly and is a far cry from a young boy who turns into a talking fish and has grand adventures in the Sherwood Forest.

I actually enjoyed the parts dealing with Arthur, Lancelot, and Guenever. It's a powerful story about love, loyalty, honor, justice, and pride. Those are the kind of powerful concepts that I think of when somebody mentions the Arthurian legends, and it works here. What didn't work quite as well is how the whole novel jumps around from focus to focus and lurches along the time line without any concern for pacing. This is a story that should have felt more epic in places, and it didn't. I also didn't like how the first book about Arthur's childhood had a tone that was so discordant with the rest of things. It's not even like they're part of the same story or world.

Still, it was more entertaining and enjoyable than not, especially the tragedy revolving around a king, his queen, and his most loyal (sorta) and upstanding (kinda) knight. And it's all pretty clean with just a little violence, so I think a lot of young adults would like it, especially if they're into the setting. ...more

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Jan 24, 2013 Jane rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: unforgettable, fiction

Where I got the book: on bookshelf. Wasabi's, to be exact.

This is a sad, sad, sad, sad book. And also very funny. The first book is the funniest, and then they get sadder. It's like White took the Malory Morte d'Arthur and sucked all the silly stuff out of it so what's left is the essence of the Arthur legend in all its tragedy and glory.

And it was written at a horribly sad time. After two World Wars, things weren't looking too bright around Europe and that outlook colors EVERYTHING that was wri Where I got the book: on bookshelf. Wasabi's, to be exact.

This is a sad, sad, sad, sad book. And also very funny. The first book is the funniest, and then they get sadder. It's like White took the Malory Morte d'Arthur and sucked all the silly stuff out of it so what's left is the essence of the Arthur legend in all its tragedy and glory.

And it was written at a horribly sad time. After two World Wars, things weren't looking too bright around Europe and that outlook colors EVERYTHING that was written at the time. In fact, this reminds me strongly of C.S. Lewis, of The Lord of the Rings, of every book in which writers tried to reconcile the horror of the recent past with the hope for the future.

Example:

"The best thing for being sad," replied Merlyn..."is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails.

"You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then--to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting."

Arthur begins as an eager boy, and ends as an ever-hopeful but misguided ruler who refuses to see the sin that's taking place under his nose. Lancelot is forever undermined by the path down which love has taken him. Galahad's virtue is so rarified that he has to be removed from this world. Merlyn - oh, I wish we'd had more of Merlyn - is living life backward and understanding it forward, possibly the worst tragedy that can happen to any man.

Tragedy and hope: ladies and gentlemen, I give you the 20th century. If you want to understand it, read this. Read The Lord of the Rings. Read C.S. Lewis. Read Ray Bradbury. From our age of small wars and nameless terrors, look back and try to understand how writers used a familiar past to understand a terrifying present, and did it with a sense of humor that we just don't have.

This is one of those books that demands to be re-read. But will I ever have the courage? ...more

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Jun 07, 2009 Seth rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: humans.

My favorite book in the universe. Decisively not for everyone, it is rambling, preachy, occasionally tedious, and always outrageously British. Much of it consists of a cranky Englishman going on and on about whatever happens to pop into his head, whether it be the intricacies of jousting or lamentations on the current state of film industry (yeah, what?). Many will find it insufferably pretentious. Which it is! But it is also hilarious, and sad, and it contains everything that is good about life My favorite book in the universe. Decisively not for everyone, it is rambling, preachy, occasionally tedious, and always outrageously British. Much of it consists of a cranky Englishman going on and on about whatever happens to pop into his head, whether it be the intricacies of jousting or lamentations on the current state of film industry (yeah, what?). Many will find it insufferably pretentious. Which it is! But it is also hilarious, and sad, and it contains everything that is good about life. Well, maybe not EVERYTHING (Jackie Chan, for instance, is not featured), but more of it than rightly belongs in a single book.

I will attempt to explain four reasons why I love this book so much. First, it contains in the chapters about Sir Lancelot the most accurate description of chronic depression that I have ever read. Secondly, King Pellinore. He is awesomeness. Full stop.

Third, for all his verbosity, White knows how to cut with words. Every once in a while reading this massive tome, I will come across a single line that is so devastatingly sad, or so deeply, uncomfortably penetrating, or so... so... I don't even KNOW what, that just reading makes me feel like White just concentrated all the wisdom and wit in the universe into some kind of literary laser-beam and used it to cut away at curtain of reality just a teensy bit, then pulled it back to expose some sort of deep, eternal truth about the human condition. And this is from a science guy who thinks that the human condition as revealed by literature is bullshit. Some of these lines are on my profile. They might not work so well out of context.

Fourthly, reading this book made me a better person. The Once and Future King is fundamentally about a group of people struggling very, very hard to Do the Right Thing. They're usually not sure what that thing is. Most of them destroy themselves in the doing of it. And, of course, it's not clear that they succeed. But the trying is beautiful. And it made me think that maybe I should try too, every once in a while.

If anyone is actually reading this, I assure you that this is by far the most earnest thing I will ever write. Everything else will be full of hipster snark and irony. ...more

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Mar 22, 2008 Werner rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Fantasy fans (especially of Arthurian fantasy)

Shelves: fantasy

As the above description notes, this collection (it includes The Sword in the Stone, The Witch in the Wood, and The Ill-Made Knight, plus, I believe, some additional material) is "different" in it's approach to the Arthurian legend; but whether it represents "the modern" view of Arthur is dubious --White's view is pretty much unique. (If there is such a thing as a "modern" view of Arthur, it would probably be the historical view that tries to place him the actual historical-cultural setting of h ...more

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Aug 15, 2018 ALLEN rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Between 1938 and 1940, author T.H. White wrote five novels that treated, fictionally and humorously, the Arthurian Legend. The first four, with slight modifications, became THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING in 1958. Sixty years later, the book retains its curiously bivalent ability to charm, tossing adventure at kids and winks at knowing adults,

Even in the first book, THE SWORD IN THE STONE, we see the duality at work -- "Wart" (who grows up to be the adult King Arthur) is challenged by the usual coming ...more

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Jul 07, 2019 YouKneeK rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: standalone, fantasy

Although I was familiar with some of the basic events due to how often they’re referenced in modern culture, my only significant exposure to Arthurian legend had been in a very non-traditional form. I’ve therefore been interested in getting some exposure to a more traditional version of events, but I also went into this with some dread because I knew there were large parts of the story I would not enjoy.

This is split up into four parts. The first part focuses on Arthur’s early years, from childh Although I was familiar with some of the basic events due to how often they’re referenced in modern culture, my only significant exposure to Arthurian legend had been in a very non-traditional form. I’ve therefore been interested in getting some exposure to a more traditional version of events, but I also went into this with some dread because I knew there were large parts of the story I would not enjoy.

This is split up into four parts. The first part focuses on Arthur’s early years, from childhood up to the point where he became King. The second part focuses on how he began to build his kingdom and why he did it that way. I’ll put the third and fourth parts in spoiler tags, although I don’t think it would spoil anything for anybody with general knowledge of Arthurian lore. (view spoiler)

The first part, and to some extent the second part, was much sillier than I expected. I’m talking Pratchett-level silliness, at times. King Pellinore was hilarious, what? I wasn’t quite expecting the story to be populated with so many bumbling, muddled people, but I enjoyed the humor. I was expecting the entire book to be more serious, and it does become much more serious by the second half. The second half of the book met my expectations as far as all the stuff I had been dreading, and I enjoyed it less. (view spoiler)

I think I was expecting something a little more historically accurate, only with fantastic elements mixed in, so I was perplexed by all the anachronisms at first. Not just the ones that are explained in the story, like when the author tells us he’s using more modern terms for the sake of making things easier for us to understand, and when Merlyn uses anachronisms because he’s living life backward, but the whole setting seemed full of anachronisms until I understood that the author was setting the story almost 1000 years after the actual believed lifetime of King Arthur. At least, that’s how it seemed to be? My knowledge of history is pathetic, which didn’t help my muddled attempt to figure out how this story could be historically accurate. Eventually I gave up and just took things at face value without trying to make it make historical sense in my head.

In spite of having a general idea of how the main events would go, many aspects of the story were not at all what I expected, so that helped keep things interesting for me. Even toward the end, I knew how things would end but it didn’t get there in quite the way I expected. Some of the things that surprised me: (view spoiler)

I’m glad I read this. I admit I’m still very attached to the completely-messed-up version I was first exposed to and I was worried the differences in this book might bother me, but it was so completely different that it didn’t even feel like the same story, just a few characters with similar names. I enjoyed becoming more familiar with Arthurian lore as most people know it. There were parts I liked a lot, and parts I disliked a lot, so all in all I think it averages out to 3 stars. ...more

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About T.H. White

T.H. White

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Born in Bombay to English parents, Terence Hanbury White was educated at Cambridge and taught for some time at Stowe before deciding to write full-time. White moved to Ireland in 1939 as a conscientious objector to WWII, and lived out his years there. White is best known for his sequence of Arthurian novels, "The Once and Future King", first published together in 1958.

Other books in the series

The Once and Future King (5 books)

Books by T.H. White

The Sword in the Stone (The Once and Future King, #1)

The Book of Merlyn (The Once and Future King, #5)

The Once and Future King (The Once and Future King, #1-5)

The Ill-Made Knight (The Once and Future King, #3)

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Trivia About The Once and Futu...

44 trivia questions
4 quizzes

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Quotes from The Once and Futu...

“The bravest people are the ones who don’t mind looking like cowards.” — 3943 likes

“The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.” — 3276 likes

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