This is Volume 1 of the free Amazon.com e-books of the out-of-copyright 2-volume 1903 Macmillan edition of Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, which was originally printed by William Caxton in 1485. This edition was edited by A. W. Pollard; obvious misprints were mostly corrected and archaic spellings were updated to more modern equivilants, but in most else this edition was kept as close to Caxton’s version as possible.

Finished sometime in 1469-1470 by Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur is an English compilation/translation of many of the existing Arthurian romances and poems of the time, most of which were originally French (resulting in the occasional mention of “the French book” in the narrative), with some personal additions/summarizations by Malory. Malory is believed to have died before Caxton prepared the manuscript for printing, leaving Caxton himself to edit the manuscript and divide it into books and chapters for printing.

The resulting 507 chapters are divided among a total of 21 books. They cover the story of Arthur Pendragon, one-time King of Camelot, from the time of his birth to his eventual death, alongside the stories of some of the more notable knights of the Round Table, including Lancelot and Tristram (commonly known as Tristan).

Volume 1 includes: a bibliographical note by A. W. Pollard; the original Preface by William Caxton; the first 9 books of Le Morte d’Arthur; and a glossary, beginning at Kindle Location 6048, of many archaic or obscure words present in the text. Plot covers the birth and rise of Arthur, the gathering of the Round Table, and some of the early adventures of many of the more notable knights.

A study, casual or not, of the popular English source for many of the later stories of the Arthurian legends.

It is a classic piece of literature and a good starting point for anyone interested in Arthurian legend.

The archaic language and story-telling style might be a turn-off for some, though the glossary at the end sufficiently addresses the former for my taste and the latter didn’t really bother me. Those who don’t have patience for such things might prefer a more modernized edition.

Because Le Morte d’Arthur is a compilation of many different Arthurian stories, some details seem like they are out of place in the timeline of the story. For example, Arthur is referred to as wielding Excalibur against his enemies before the story of his receiving the sword from the Lady of the Lake is actually presented to the reader (unless the sword in the stone was ALSO called Excalibur), and Merlin is seen aiding one of the knights of the Round Table after Merlin was said to be sealed in a cave -- without any presentation of how Merlin came to be free. Whether this is due to the basic differences in the original stories Malory was drawing from or due to the stories not being presented in perfectly chronological order, I don’t know, and as a casual reader it was not the sort of thing I would worry about. It does make for some fun reading, though, especially when looked at through a scholarly or creative lens.

As is common with free e-books of classics, the formatting is inconsistent. Luckily, the only real formatting errors here are minor -- chapter headings aren’t always consistent and there is a rare missing period at the ends of sentences. Not enough to actually detract from reading the book. It would have been nice to have active links to the glossary for the archaic words, though. As it is, the glossary isn’t even linked in the table of contents.

Disclaimer: This Kindle transcription of the out-of-copyright original does not include the information about the 1903 publisher within the e-book or directly on the Amazon.com page -- I researched that myself based on A. W. Pollard being the author of the bibliographical note at the beginning of the book. If that information is incorrect, it is my own fault. Actually, if any of the information here is incorrect, it’s my fault.

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Created Sep 30, 2013 at 1:52pm • Submit your own review...