Book – The Once and Future King

The Once and Future King by T.H. White (1958) A fantasy novel about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.  It begins with Arthur pulling Excalibur from an anvil and extends through the downfall of Camelot.

What we know today as a single book is actually a compilation of four earlier works.  They make up the four sections of the classic novel – “The Sword in the Stone”, “The Queen of Air and Darkness”, “The Ill Made Knight” and “The Candle in the Wind”.  The third section deals mostly with Lancelot and the final section was first published when the novel was initially issued in 1958.  It is generally regarded as one of the finest fantasy novels of all time.  In his book “Imaginary Worlds”, fantasy historian Lin Carter wrote the following:

“… the single finest fantasy novel written in our time, or for that matter, ever written, is, must be, by any conceivable standard, T. H. White’s The Once and Future King. I can hardly imagine that any mature, literate person who has read the book would disagree with this estimate. White is a great writer.

I would certainly agree with the final sentence.  As for the rest…

Yes, I’m about to say that “The Once and Future King” simply didn’t do much for me.  I guess that leaves me out of the mature/literate category once and for all.

Long winded with a meandering story telling style that never allowed me to really get caught up in the characters or the tale, “The Once and Future King” just flopped for me.  In fact most of the characters left me, not cold, but lukewarm.  Arthur is a bit of a simpleton, just hoping that if he doesn’t think about things, maybe they’ll get better.  Lancelot is made physically ugly for no apparent reason and a sadist.  Guenever (White’s spelling) is really a bit of a zero except when she decides to get angry.  Then she’s just juvenile.  That was the feeling I was left with most of the characters.  None of them are very mature nor are any of them particularly deep thinkers.  Hardly the models of an epic social experiment or fantasy world.

Honestly, I also found White’s tendency to jump out of the story to make a comment about Sir Thomas Malory’s “Le Morte d’Arthur” a little jangling.  Malory even makes an appearance in the story as a young boy named Tom.  It was just weird.

There are some wonderful parts to this book.  “The Sword in the Stone” is easily the funniest and most engaging part of the novel.  Merlin living his life backward in time, so that he knows what will happen but not what has happened, is fascinating.  When the story telling is more focused the story flows pretty well.  Then White will suddenly wander off into a long description or philosophical discussion or whatever (a difficultly I have with Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” at times as well), he just loses my interest.

Why I Liked It – I’m not sure I do.  I’m not sure I don’t like it either.  It was a literary mountain I felt I had to climb and I did.  It’s unlikely I’ll ever try again.

Why You Will Like It – It’s Arthurian legend and provides some of our best known images of the legend.  White is a solid (if long winded) writer and there are some wonderful pieces here.

Rating – *** Worth A Look