The Death of King Arthur (Penguin Classics)

Not the easiest read, but fantastic when you sit down and put some effort into figuring out exactly what's going on. There's a lot of depth that you don't see at first glance.

This is a fantastic and although at first glance rather simplistic novel, the plot continues to thicken and weave around the growing and eventually provoking character development.Penguin Classics FTW.

I was surprised to find this book on a reading list for medieval French literature. King Arthur belong to British folklore, no? As I did some digging, I found that the tales from Geoffrey of Monmouth's The History of the Kings of Britain (which incidentally was written in Latin, not English) travelled the channel into French literature, to be taken up by writers such as Chrétien de Troyes. It was at this point that the warrior king reclaiming Britain from the barbarism of the Picts and the Scots succumbed to the pressures of the French courtly love tradition and became the tragic, somewhat weak-willed king of the later tales. It was the French who added characters such as Lancelot and elements such as the quest for the grail.This particular volume, written anonymously in the 13th century is significant because it is the first prose telling of the Arthurian tales. All previous versions had been in verse. This book covers only the fourth section of the story, beginning after the knights' return from the quest for the grail. It serves as a sequel to other volumes written by Chrétien de Troyes.The tale itself was familiar to me, but nonetheless enjoyable. Tournaments, secrets, wounded knights, scorned lovers, fire, battles, and tragedy. I've never particularly cared for Lancelot as a character and prefer versions where Arthur is the hero of the story, as opposed to this one where Lancelot takes the pedestal of heroism throughout. Overall I found it to be an engaging read, and particularly enjoyed reading the sections about the Lady of Shalott, the poem by Tennyson being one of my favorites.

This tragic medieval saga is a tale of love, adultery, jealousy, treachery, revenge and death.The adulterous love between chivalry's most valiant knight, Lancelot del Lac, and King Arthur's wife, Queen Guinevere, provokes a series of suicidal wars between chivalry's finest, noblest, most courteous, most honorable knights and their factions: `no man ever became deeply involved in love who did not die as a result.'It is an anti-war tale: `battle, how many orphans and widows you have made in this country and others!' `Where will the poor people ever find pity now?'And what is the use of all this pride? `But such is earthly pride that no one is seated so high that he can avoid having to fall from power in the world.'At the end, `we can see all our friends dead before us.' `It was to lead to the destruction of the kingdom of Logres ... lands remained devastated and waste.'Of course, the anonymous author is sometimes too sentimental, too Christian. His battle descriptions are now and then stereotypic. Nevertheless, his story written in a direct, simple, unadulterated and positive style is one of the highlights of medieval literature.Not to be missed.

I could not put this book down once I began to read. The story begins after the Grail Quest, when the King recounts all those who were lost. The loyalty King Arthur feels towards his knights, living or dead, is moving in comparison to today's vacuum of leadership. The complicated love affair between Lancelot and Queen Guinevere is unsettling because as one reads, the unraveling of Camelot is slowly exacerbated by their innocent yet treacherous passion for each other--including the King. King Arthur's self denial of the love affair is touching and stretches faith to its limits. But one can't help take both sides because the story is so well rounded from all points of view. Compared to other translations such as Keith Baines, of Signet Classics, this James Cable translation by Penguin is superior because it keeps the arcane language used in the period, thus capturing the flavor of the times, whereas Baines seems to water it down.