The Once and Future King - Hardcover

White, T. H.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399105972 ISBN 13: 9780399105975

Publisher: G P Putnam's Sons, 1958

Synopsis

The whole world knows and loves this book. It is the magical epic of King Arthur and his shining Camelot; of Merlin and Owl and Guinevere; of beasts who talk and men who fly, of wizardry and war. It is the book of all things lost and wonderful and sad. It is the fantasy masterpiece by which all others are judged.

About this title

Review:

"A fierce and damaged man, T. H. White wrote about fierce and damaged people--and children, and animals--with a brilliant, painful innocence that has no equal in literature. He is so good at hurt and shame--how did he also manage to be so funny? I have laughed at his great Arthurian novel and cried over it and loved it all my life."--Ursula K. Le Guin

"Certain books offer pleasures so rich and enduring, they become part of what defines us. The Once and Future King is like that for me. It manages--by some miracle--to be about its own time, and a distant, legendary time, and about today. It mingles wisdom, wonderful, laugh-out-loud humor and deep sorrow--while telling one of the great tales of the Western world. I envy the reader coming to it for the first time."--Guy Gavriel Kay

"White took hold of the ultimate English epic and recast it in modern literary language, sacrificing none of its grandeur or its strangeness in the process, and adding in all the humor and passion that we expect from a novel. What was once as stiff and two-dimensional as a medieval tapestry becomes rich and real and devastatingly sad."--Lev Grossman

"Touching, profound, funny and tragic."--Los Angeles Times

"Richly imagined and unfailingly eloquent and entertaining, its appeal is timeless and universal. If a reader reads only one Arthurian tale, let this be it."--Booklist

"The Once and Future King is full of insights, scenes and flourishes that are really quite astonishing."--The Guardian (U.K.)

From the Back Cover:

T.H. White's masterful retelling of the Arthurian legend is an abiding classic. Here for the first time all five volumes that make up the story are published in one volume, as White himself always wished.

Exquisite comedy offsets the tragedy of Arthur's personal doom as White brings to life the major British epic of all time with brilliance, grandeur, warmth and charm.

The complete edition

'The Sword in the Stone
The Witch in the Wood
The Ill-made Knight
The Candle in the Wind
The Book of Merlyn'

“Magnificent and tragic, an irresistible mixture of gaiety and pathos”
THE SUNDAY TIMES

“This ambitious work will long remain a memorial to an author who is at once civilized, learned, witty and humane”
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

About this edition

• Publisher: G P Putnam's Sons
• Publication date: 1958
• ISBN 10: 0399105972
• ISBN 13: 9780399105975
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 688