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Title: Le Morte D'Arthur: Complete Unabridged, New Illustrated Edition by Sir Thomas Malory, John Matthews, Anna-Marie Ferguson ISBN: 0-304-35367-1 Publisher: Sterling Pub. Date: October, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.37 (51 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Overbrief Translation
Comment: In his preface, the translator Keith Baines asserts that he attempted to "provide a concise and lucid rendering of Le Morte d'Arthur" and to clarify "those episodes which, for the purpose in hand, seemed obscure, and condensing those which seemed prolix."
As an example of this condensation in progress, Baines version of The Tale of Sir Launcelot du Lake is 19 pages long. Steinbeck's translation of the same story (which had the goal of accurately preserving the story as told in the Winchester Ms.) runs over 100 pages. Throughout, Baines' edition is horribly abridged. He leaves most of the basic facts from the story intact (though some parts of his translation, especially concerning the obscurer genealogies, are plain wrong when compared to most other editions). However, he cuts all elements that make reading the legend enjoyable.
Rating: 5
Summary: Le Morte Darthur: Winchester edition
Comment: The Oxford World's Classics edition of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur is a superb text for students and the casually curious reader alike. It is the first publication of Le Morte Darthur based on the Winchester Manuscript designed for the general reader; more prominent are the editions which are compilations of Caxton's print version.
Editor Helen Cooper does a wonderful job of tackling the problem of presenting a coherent and comprehensive version of a medieval text for a twentieth century audience. Although this rendition of Le Morte Darthur is slightly abridged, it still retains its original charm. The preservation of a good deal of the vernacular in the text and the convenient glossary and footnotes really help to define the medieval setting of the story. The actual story of the life of King Arthur is most enjoyable as well, especially now that Cooper's introduction and explanatory notes enhance it. Malory's exposé of the Arthurian legend is lively enough that one can easily read this book for pleasure - the story-line and plot are more cleverly developed than, say, Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain, which seems to present itself as a chronology of dubious events. In her introduction, Cooper provides a bit of a factual background for Malory and explains many of his subtle allusions intended for his contemporary medieval audience, all of which adds to the reader's understanding of Le Morte Darthur in the context of the fifteenth century. Scholarly readers may also find Cooper's annotated bibliography quite useful.
Rating: 4
Summary: Guinevere and Lancelot vs. Arthur
Comment: In the quest, thus far, to discover the truth about King Arthur, I have encountered many aspects of several authors and how each one perceived the legend. One particular author that struck my favor was Sir Thomas Malory, especially in his book, Le Morte D'Arthur. Although, as a class assignment, I only read one particular section of the novel, which was the love affair between Guinevere and Lancelot, I can honestly say I have a strong favor and opinion towards Malory's depiction of that portion of the legend. The relationship between Guinevere and Lancelot is inevitably one that leads to adultery, which affects Arthur in a way that one can discover his true feelings about his Round Table, oddly enough. Since Lancelot was one of Arthur's strongest and most reliable knights in the hood, Arthur feels more betrayed by Lancelot's decision to act on his feelings towards Guinevere than he does by Guinevere who had more control over the situation in my opinion. In his own words, Arthur states his bond with the knighthood and how Lancelot's affair with Guinevere affects the Round Table by saying, "And much more am I sorrier for my good knights' loss than for the loss of my faire queen; for queens I might have enough, but such a fellowship of good knights shall never be together in no company (Malory, 482)."
Arthur's hardship over this love affair really brings to life his emotional level and how most of his emotion lies in the sorrows he has for his Round Table. It seems as if he is astonished that a noble knight with such great power could ever go against his own king the way Lancelot did to him. It was as if Arthur gave him all the goodness and glory a shining knight could ask for, and betrayal was his reward. Malory depicts this part of the sequence with such an astounding viewpoint, in a sense that the audience can almost feel Arthur's emotions within the story. He not only makes the story easy to relate to, but he also writes at a comfortable level in which the audience can comprehend the emotions that Geoffrey of Monmouth certainly did not portray. Not to say that Geoffrey wasn't a great writer, but I just didn't feel the emotion as much as I did in Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur. Overall, I recommend this book to anyone interested in the joys and hardships of King Arthur in order to better understand the emotional aspect of the legend.
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Title: The Once and Future King by T. H. White ISBN: 0441627404 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: July, 1987 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Idylls of the King (Penguin Classic) by Alfred Tennyson, Baron Tennyson, J.M. Gray ISBN: 0140422536 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: September, 1989 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Arthurian Romances (Penguin Classics) by Chretien De Troyes, William W. Kibler, Chretien de Troyes, Carleton W. Carroll ISBN: 0140445218 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: June, 1991 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth, Lewis Thorpe, Thrope Lewis ISBN: 0140441700 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: January, 1977 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Portable Milton by John Milton, Douglas Bush ISBN: 0140150447 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: August, 1976 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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