By: Terence Hanbury White Publisher: Ace Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Ace Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 639 Publication Date: July 15, 1987
A Masterpiece Ok, I have finished reading this book, and fell in love with it throughally. Anyone with any imagination or ounce of intellengence would learn to love and appreciate this book.
As for the numerous reviews that rated it a 1 because it was boring, is to be expected from a 1939 novel. It will of course have words they have to look up in the dictionary, and require wit they are not capibale of.
Many reviews that deemed themselves intellegent had no idea why Merlyn changed young wart into various animals. Arthur (as it is explained) has to learn how all animals co-exist. The final tale told to Wart by a beaver, is of man being lord over the animales, yet being one of the only creatures to love war. Arthur has to learn that might is only to be used for right. All the animals come together for his final lesson in pulling out the sword. They all remind him of what they have taught him, and he is able to pull it out, not just because it is rightfully his, but because he had been preparing for that moment for 7 years.
The details in this book can be a bit long at times, but they are only used to give the reader the best possible understanding to what is going on. I found this book ingenius beyond measure, and if you not only love to read, but enjoy reading something of value, I highly reccommend this enchanting tale of a boy that becomes the "Great" king.
This tale is also known to be Charles Xavier's favorite book, and he quotes himself in x-men to be like Merlyn.
I would also reccommend reading The Lady of Shallot by Tennyson. It is a poem you can find online...it is beautiful.
This book is rather long and will require some devotion on the readers part. However, I was not required to read this book. I read it for its history, and I rate it above any work of fiction in today's time. TH White is up there with Austen and Shakespeare in my book.
book review I purchased this book a couple weeks ago and was very surprised when it came. It looked brand new and came under my expected time.
Please don't read this book I had to read this book for summer reading, and let me tell your, reading it is more painful than getting hit by a car. This book has brought me so much pain, I almost thought about calling the school and telling them I wasn't going to read it. The book is all dialogue, which is really boring. T.H. White is a really bad writer, and I have to think all the people who gave it five-stars are insane. This book is honestly less interesting than the phone book. Don't read it!
The Once and Future TH White This book is in my lifetime top ten list. I've read it three times. Its pages are full of wisdom, humor, mysticism and hard life, an unbeatable combination. I call the story "a hopeful tragedy." For sure it is a high tragedy up to Greek levels and then some. And yet it's hopefulness lies in King Arthur's ability to continue deepening, learning, reaching for the goodness that he still believes is in every person.
Someone said that The Once and Future King was the "Harry Potter" of its day. While I love the Harry Potter series, Rowling is no T.H. White. Her writing is a serviceable yeoman's march compared with White's kingly, profound, sometimes soaring performance. Harry changes very little as he grows up, while his supporting characters seem to stay exactly the same. Not so with Arthur. He changes before our very eyes, sometimes not for the better, as does Lancelot, Guinever and others. Though both tales are mythological, White's story feels real and gets us deep down in the bowels of our conscience, our morality and our fears. Eventually, it provokes compassion, allowing us to become more forgiving of ourselves and others. Not a bad way to live in the world. When you really learn something, you become a different person. You will really learn something from The Once and Future King, making T.H. the Once and Future White.
Amazing When I picked The Once and Future King up off of the shelf, I thought "Whoa. This is a huge book." It was 2 times as thick as my hand! Once I sat down to read it, though, I couldn't put it down. There are four volumes in the book, and the first one drew me in like a fly to honey. The first book was called "The Sword in the Stone", and it was about a young boy called `the Wart', who is the future King Arthur. The Wart goes on several fantastic adventures, from being turned into all kinds of different animals to meeting the infamous Robin Wood. The first book was humorous and was probably my favorite one out of all of them. The second book, "The Queen of Air and Darkness", I liked because while still being funny, it had more serious motives behind it. It focuses more on the Orkney clan, Gawaine, Agravaine, Gaheris, and Gareth. In this chapter, we start to see where some of the Round Table's trouble will come from. "The Ill-Made Knight" was the third book, and one of my favorites, even though it was much, much darker and got a bit disturbing. It was all from third-person Lancelot's point of view, and it was really interesting despite the dark note. The last book, "The Candle in The Wind", wasn't funny at all, but it was necessary to complete the story. The legend of King Arthur would have been much happier if not for this book, but it was still amazing and the most suspenseful of all of them. My heart was racing the whole time I read it, and it was wonderfully scary. It was also very sad and even though the ending was sort of happy, it was bittersweet because everyone probably died the next day. Overall, the book was excellent and I loved it. It was one of the best books I've ever read. It was funny, serious, and scary all in one.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
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