Is this the first book on the Arthurian legend?

[Michael]

I want to read the first book that's tells of the Arthurian legend is this it?

[Bryan]

No, this isn't the first "book" of Arthurian legend...but yes, you should definitely read it.

Arthurian legend was already pretty old by the time Malory (whoever the hell he really was) wrote this book. The first mentions of Arthur came from early Celtic poetry, then these stories inspired French stories, which inspired...well, basically stories in just about every major European language at the time. Malory essentially took good bits from as many of these tales as he could find and wrote it into what may be the first English novel.

Is it the first Arthurian book? No, but it is pretty much the main (and often the only) source for every modern author who writes about Arthur.

And in my humble opinion, it kicks ass.

[Michael]

Wow I definitely will have to read it