The Once and Future King - still a great read.

Thanks to Ashley for hosting at her lovely house, we had a good group and a lot of fun. We have been on quite a string of medieval settings recently, how better to continue than with the legend of King Arthur.

And T. H. White spun a great story that most of us enjoyed, albeit in fits and starts. Because I couldn't find my copy from 1980, I took a lead from Dawn and listened to it on Audible.com. Great service, and a good experience. but I admit my heart sank at the 33 hours of listening.  Most others read one or another of the many editions out there. Julie brought along a copy of The Book of Merlin, a follow on novel we were surprised to find was published in 1977!

The base of the novel was written in the period leading up to World War II and there were certainly a lot of references to the use of force as a way to maintain control and power. Arthur's boyhood education, at the direction of Merlin exposed him to the many societies of animals. These specific and defined  societies, including snakes, hawks and badger have their own structures, all of which teach the young Wart or the aged King Arthur, lessons about power and justice, which is what he brings to his kingdom; a way to use might for right. The compilation of these writings, published as this novel was first published in 1958 although the works were written between 1938 and 1941.

The group generally liked this book very much and those who had not finished it were soldiering on. The book seemed to me to move between sections, with the story moving forward well, great characters, great action, only to bog down in long dreary parts, like poor King Pellinore and the Questing Beast. As well, there were long philosophical sections that tied down the narrative and in my case at least, made the listening a little difficult. It might have been better on paper, but maybe not.

Overall, it is easy to see why this book has stood the test of time. The story is lovely in so many ways. In particular, each of the main characters, Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere were treated with great respect for their individual characters, so much more so than would just move the plot along. It was clear that the reasons for action were very important to White, and were the reason for the story.

So, in the end, a lovely story, one of the many of the great King Arthur, and as good as any. We go on to our next event, on May 16 at Mary's again. (Thank you Mary!)

We are planning to watch the early movie version of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. Feel free to read the book if you want. For June, we decided to move to a modern setting and will read Still Life, by Louise Penny. If you haven't started reading this series yet, this will be a treat and this is the first of the now 11 books in the Three Pines series. I think Lynn volunteered for June, but stay tuned.

See you all at Mary's on May 16, 6:30 pm!


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