I am more than half way through the book now. I have read the Sword in the Stone, The Queen of Air and Darkness, and am pacing through The Ill-Made Knight.
I enjoyed the Sword in the Stone as a light hearted story. I did not remember much of the Disney adaptation, so it was fun to read through the rise of Arthur to power.
The Queen of Air and Darkness threw me for a loop. While I sincerely enjoyed Arthur’s resolution to form a round table for knights to pursue a Might through Right policy, the end was unexpected. I did not realize that the story of Arthur, as a whole, was a tragedy. It sort of follows looking back, knowing that Mallory’s original book from which all Arthur mythos is derived was named Le Morte Darthur; The Death of Arthur.
The Ill Made Knight is not quite what I expected but definitely has captivated my attention. I did not really know anything about Lancelot and Guinever. Its all starting to feel rather Shakespearian, or rather, this was the feeling I had while reading Romeo and Juliet for the first time, not knowing what will really happen next and knowing it will most likely not be what I wanted to happen.
I should probably be saving this all for the book review, but then again, I don’t want to give away a lot of stuff while telling people to read a book. I thought it was amusing though that White referred to Mallory’s original book as ‘his very long book’. Apparently he tell of more quests each of the knights go about and in a fair bit more detail as well.
I believe I am rambling now. I stayed up too late reading again. -_-
[Edit – Found this crazy link to a site that summarizes each of the 21 books of Le Morte Darthur.
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