A New Companion to Malory

by Megan G. Leitch (Contributor), Cory James Rushton (Editor)

A comprehensive survey of one of the most important texts of the Middle Ages.

Malory's Morte Darthur is now a canonical and widely-taught text. Recent decades have seen a transformation and expansion of critical approaches in scholarship, as well as significant advances in understanding its literary, cultural and historical. This volume adds to and updates the influential Companion of 1996, offering scholars, teachers and students alike a full guide to the text and the author. The essays it contains provide a synthetic overview of, and fresh perspectives on, the key questions about and contexts connected with the Morte.

MEGAN G. LEITCH is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Cardiff University; CORY JAMES RUSHTON is Associate Professor in the Department of English at St Francis Xavier University, Canada.

Dorsey Armstrong, Thomas Crofts, Siân Echard, Rob Gossedge, Daniel Helbert, Amy Kaufman, Megan Leitch, Andrew Lynch, Catherine Nall, Ralph Norris, Raluca Radulescu, Lisa Robeson, Meg Roland, Cory Rushton, Masako Takagi, Kevin Whetter.

Genres: Arthurian, Nonfiction

344 pages, Hardcover

Published March 15, 2019

Reviews

[Tegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first 'Companion to Malory' (Archibald and Edwards, 1996) was a very comprehensive guide to Sir Thomas Malory's 'Le Morte Darthur', approaching the text in relation to its sources, the editing debate (the 'Hoole' book versus separate tales) and including analytical chapters of each section of the 'Morte' individually. Whilst it is not necessary to compare Archibald and Edwards' 'Companion' to Leitch's (they are both vital to any Malorian), it is important for any medievalist to realise that they each offer something quite different to the researcher. This 'New Companion' is just as extensive as its predecessor, but largely deals with Malory thematically. Nall's union of historical context and literary analysis in her chapter 'Malory in Historical Context' offers a detailed look into this rarely extensively dealt with area of Malorian scholarship. Other themes in this text include print, form, character, and source texts.
The clearly defined chapter titles are just one way in which I have found this book more useful to my research than other Malory resources, not in the least because my thesis researches the presentation of gender, an idea which Kaufman's chapter 'Malory and Gender' has provided a thorough and fruitful discussion of.
Leitch's 'New Companion' is an easy addition to any Arthurianist's library and will no doubt be a touchstone for future Malory research.

[Gonzalo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I am someone reading this for fun, my only complain is that this “New Companion” was far more expensive than the original one. It does not substitute it though, so I am glad of having read both. As a non-specialist, I will refrain from assessing the quality of the scholarship included, but I would highlight the last three chapters: Malory in Wartime Britain, Japan, and America, for changing my mind to topics I was not particularly interested. On the areas I was already interested in, “Writing the Morte Dartur”, and “Malory in Print” are probably the ones I found more useful.
If only I could justify getting more of these books...

[train fiend · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helpful for finding secondary sources when you have to write three 3-6 page essays within the next week haha I miss sleeping and eating