Product Description
The 14th century English alliterative poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is admired for its morally complex plot and brilliant poetics. A chivalric romance placed in an Arthurian setting, it received acclaim from the peasantry of its time for its commentary regarding important socio-political and religious concerns. The poem’s technical brilliance blends psychological depth and vivid language to produce an effect widely considered superior to any other work of the time. Although the poem is a combination of English alliterative meter, romanticism, and a wide-ranging knowledge of Celtic lore, continental materials and Latin classics, the extent to which Classical antecedents affected or directed the poem is a point of continued controversy among literary scholars. This collection of essays by scholars of diverse interests addresses this puzzling and fascinating question. The introduction provides an expansive background for the topic, and subsequent essays explore the extent to which classical Greek, Roman, Arabic, Christian and Celtic influences are revealed in the poem's opening and closing allusions, themes, and composition. Essays discuss the way in which the anonymous author of Sir Gawain employs figural echoes of classical materials, cultural memoirs of past British tradition, and romantic re-textualizations of Trojan and British literature. It is argued that Sir Gawain may be understood as an Aeneas, Achilles, or Odysseus figure, while the British situation in the 14th century may be understood as analogous to that of ancient Troy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Misleading Product Description
I have not yet read this work but feel compelled to note that the statement in the editorial product description, that "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" "received acclaim from the peasantry of its time for its commentary regarding important socio-political and religious concerns" is absurd.First, the "peasantry" of the time did not read chivalric romances, for they could not read.Secondly, the poem exists in the unique manuscript British Library Cotton Nero A.x, and there is no mention of it until the seventeenth century and hardly acclaimed by anyone until the nineteenth century.Information on how the poem comments on the "socio-political and religious concerns" of the 14th century may or may not be found in this collection of essays, but it is doubtful that the author of the product description couldn't tell us. ... Read more

Product Description
The greatest English verson of the stories of King Arthur, Le Morte D'Arthur was completed in 1469-70 by Sir Thomas Malory, "knight prisoner."This edition is the first designed for the general reader based on the "Winchester manuscript," which represents what Malory wrote more closely than the version printed by William Caxton. Extensively annotated, this edition is highly user-friendly. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (72)

Review of the Winchester Manuscript from Oxford World Classics
This is a review of Le Morte D'Arthur: The Winchester Manuscript (Oxford World's Classics).I haven't read numerous other editions, so I can't compare this, but what I can say is that you'll be a richer person for reading this book.I don't claim that it will be easy, as significant amounts of historical English permeate the text.After a little while, though, your brain will switch over and it will be easier.There are a tremendous number of endnotes to help the reader along and a table of translations that also comes in handy.

Months after reading this I still find myself recalling the characters and stories.If you've never read it, this is as good an edition as any and I truly am happy I read this book.

Idealism Doomed by Human Weakness
Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur " is perhaps the best-known version of the Arthurian legends in English. Despite the title, "the death of Arthur", the work does not deal solely with King Arthur's death but rather with the whole of his life and reign. The error appears to have originated with Malory's first publisher William Caxton who applied the title of Malory's final section to the entire work. The book retells some well-known stories from French and English sources, such as the Sword in the Stone, the Quest for the Holy Grail, the romance of Tristan and Isolde, the adulterous love between Lancelot and Guinevere and the death of King Arthur at the hands of the traitor Mordred. One of the book's eight sections, the Tale of Sir Gareth, appears to be Malory's own invention.

The identity of the author is not precisely known. During the time it was being written, during the 1450s and 1460s, there were at least six men named Thomas Malory living in England, but most (although not all) modern scholars attribute the work to Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel in Warwickshire. This individual lived from around 1413 to 1470, so would have lived through the latter part of the Hundred Years War as well as the Wars of the Roses. He appears to have been a colourful character who served as an MP for Warwickshire but also served time in prison for various offences including rape and robbery. There is an irony if such a man was indeed the author of Le Morte D'Arthur, as one of the work's major themes is how one might reconcile two of the great preoccupations of the Middle Ages, love of God and love of violence.

There is some doubt as to whether King Arthur ever existed, and to judge from Caxton's preface there were some people who had doubts about his existence even in the 1400s. Malory, however, presents his work as though it were the true story of a real historical figure who lived about a thousand years before his own time. The work is, however, anachronistic in that the society which Malory describes bears a much greater resemblance to that of the fifteenth century than it does to that of the fifth. Malory even makes reference to cannon, even though firearms were only introduced into Europe about a century before his birth. (Mind you, the only character who actually makes use of guns is Mordred. Perhaps Malory saw them as the coward's weapon.)

Indeed, the whole work is based around an anachronism. Although fifth-century societies had warriors, they had no concept of the institution of knighthood or chivalry, something which grew up in the later Middle Ages. This institution may have developed in an attempt to reconcile warfare with Christian ideals. In "Le Morte d'Arthur" these ideals are represented by the Pentecostal Oath sworn by the Knights of the Round Table. Arthur makes his knights swear that they will only fight in a righteous cause, show mercy to defeated opponents, uphold justice, fight against oppression, protect the poor and weak and respect the chastity of women.

A key concept in the book is "honour"- except that Malory generally does not use this Norman-French loanword, preferring the native English "worship", with all its religious connotations. A knight can gain worship by mighty feats of arms, provided they are performed in a worthy cause. A knight will lose worship if he fights in an evil cause or if he fights unfairly, such as by striking an opponent who is wounded or unhorsed.

Yet despite this note of idealism, Malory's vision is at heart a pessimistic one. The only knight who wholly lives up to these ideals is Galahad, who is rewarded with a vision of the Holy Grail but dies young. Galahad's father Lancelot, in other respects a paragon of knighthood, is deemed unworthy because of his adultery with Queen Guinevere, and most of the other knights fall a lot further short of the ideals expressed in the Pentecostal Oath than does Lancelot. Even Arthur himself, although initially presented as a beacon of hope, is far from being an idealised monarch- he fathers a child, for instance, by his own sister. It is the affair between Lancelot and Guinevere which leads to the civil war which devastates the kingdom, to the downfall of the Round Table and to the death of Arthur. Malory was doubtless inspired to write these passages by the civil war which had devastated England in his own lifetime and his message is clear; idealism is doomed to failure by human weakness.

My comments are based upon the Wordsworth edition which modernises the spelling and punctuation but otherwise leaves the text as it was first published by Caxton. The modern reader's main problem with the work is unlikely to be Malory's language- there are only a handful of unfamiliar vocabulary items, and the Wordsworth edition provides a helpful glossary of these- but his long-winded prose style and tendency to repeat himself. Apart from the Holy Grail sequences, which are more like an extended religious allegory, the narrative tends to fall into a very familiar pattern- Knight A rides out, meets Knight B, fights with him, overcomes him and then moves on to a fight with Knight C, which is described in similar terms. Even Malory's similes become repetitive- two knights fighting are generally likened to two wild boars hurtling together, even though these creatures had been extinct in England for around two hundred years at the time he was writing. Malory's passion for informing us exactly how many knights Lancelot or Gawaine unhorsed at some particular tournament recalls that of the football anorak who can recite by heart all Sheffield Wednesday's results from the 1956-57 season.

Some modern editions abridge the text, and I can understand why. "Le Morte D'Arthur" may be the best-known work of English-language Arthurian literature today, but "well-known" does not always equate to "widely read", and I suspect that most readers today will owe their familiarity with the story to a modern retelling. The original, at least in its unabridged form, will probably be of most interest to those with an academic interest in the development of English literature.

Boring? Stupid?
This is not a review of any particular edition, but of the work in general and I only put this here in response to a number of one-star reviews scattered about various editions available on Amazon.

Often a reviewer will say the book is "boring" and "stupid" then give it a one-star rating. Some reviewers go on to recommend some outrageous alternative (like a video game) so I am not sure if all those reviewers are serious or not, but they do get a couple of things right -- it does get repetitive ("long and boring"?) and some of the characters do some very stupid things (like blindly promising to grant anyone pretty much whatever they ask for before knowing what it will be).

But all that has a purpose. It eases you into accepting and joining that reality -- falling in love with that imaginary time and place. The story starts with light hearted and humorous episodes -- good deeds are done, victories are won, valor is rewarded, romances consummated (or not) -- but as you go through the "boring" parts it slowly gets darker and darker. When it all comes to its (by then) inevitable end it really means something to you. Just where did things go wrong? Where is Merlin when you need him?

"HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE"
("Shame be to him who thinks evil of it")

Modernized Malory
This 1962 translation of Sir Thomas Malory's account of the King Arthur legend has many things to recommend it. Robert Graves, a historical novelist of just renown, writes an introduction telling us about Malory's life, the good, the bad and the ugly. We get the benefit of Graves' scholarship as well as his authorly insight. Malory, born a gentleman, was a Member of Parliament for Warwickshire in 1445, but he turned rogue and robber five years later and was imprisoned in Newgate.There he languished, wrote this collection of tales about King Arthur and there he died.

The text is a pleasure to read.Keith Baines has walked a narrow line with razor sharp accuracy.He gives us the action in clear, crisp language that contains no jarring anachronisms.This is important because the ornamental nature of Malory's fifteenth century prose is a two-edged sword.Despite the beauty of the prose, it's heavy going for a modern reader.

The importance of Sir Thomas Malory's work can hardly be overstated.Writing in the fifteenth century, he still had access to earlier works and oral legends that have been lost to later ages.In Malory's work, the legend of Arthur becomes codified into the romantic love triangle of king-queen-leading knight that still inspires a diverse collection of writers.Every era sees a definitive retelling of this story changing the emphasis and details to make King Arthur forever young.

I love this edition and it grieves me to see that it is out of print and has become a rarity. Some copyright hindrance must be the issue as this book does not lack in excellence.

A great story beautifully told
From beginning to end, this story braces the imagination, and takes one to a place and time where faith, honor, and courage were central.You just may find yourself admiring and beginning to love some of the knights and damsels you're reading about.When I finished the book and put it on the shelf, it was a lot like saying good-bye to a friend.

What makes the book even better for a modern is that Mr. Matthews' edition has rendered it extremely readable, while still keeping the ancient flavor that helps put aside for a moment the outlook of the present century.And Ms. Ferguson's excellent drawings of various scenes, interspersed throughout, are further delights that help the mind paint its own pictures along the way.

It is said that Arthur's story is known throughout the world.That must be in part because the story is great; and this edition tells it very well.

... Read more

Product Description
When A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court was published in 1889, Mark Twain was undergoing a series of personal and professional crises. In his Introduction, M. Thomas Inge shows how what began as a literary burlesque of British chivalry and culture developed to tragedy and into a novel that remains a major literary and cultural text for generations of new readers. This edition reproduces a number of the original drawings by Dan Beard, of whom Twain said "He not only illustrates the text but he illustrates my thoughts." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (136)

Overwritten, Absurdist, Unrealistic
Mark Twain is a great author, but not here. I liked his "Tom Sawyer" and "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and, I've a fine appreciation for the man's sheer wit."The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is the best short story I had to read in High School."A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" is an overblown rant against religion dressed in the trappings of novelization.

I found the plot absurd.Twain's barbs against religion were witty, but so over-the-top they interfered with the actual story.I kept finding the novel stupid instead of funny, and pointless instead of witty, especially when 'technology/modern civilization' began dominating the court. The use of detail detracted from the story; extremely overwritten. The main character was an 'expert' on everything, and felt more like an author's mouthpiece than a real man, even a caricature of a man. If you aren't amused by old-style religious slanders, expect a plot, and have read modern time travel stories, you'll hate this so-called 'great' novel.

Please feel free to discuss in the comments rather than giving me rage-unhelpfuls because you disagree with my opinion.Thanks!

Great Item- slow shipping
This item arrived in excellent condition.A little dissapointed in the amount of time it took to ship.

a fantastic story
first of all, for those of u who dont know what "thou" or "thee" means,they both mean "you"! and for all of you who say this book is anti-religion, you must fail to understand that the catholic church was a very powerful and disliked back in the middle ages, and he was describing what religion was like back then.and finally for those of you who say that they dont like the 1800's speech,IT WAS WRITTEN IN THE 1800's!do you expect mark twain to write like we would nowadays?just because he writes a book about time traveling doesnt mean he IS a time traveler!

This is a very interesting book,describing in detail what it would be like to mix middle ages with the 19th century.would recomend this book to anyone that knows what "thee" or "thou" means.

Excellent literature, not a children's book
This is Twaine at his best.The book provokes thought, draws sympathy, and is downright hilarious.It also reads smoothly and at a brisk pace.It's a quick, fun read.I should also emphasize that while this is frequently labelled as children's literature, I find that label to be completely misleading.While it can no doubt be enjoyed by children at their level, there are a number of subtleties, particularly in the humor, that will be beyond the comprehension of most 13 year olds.

The most pervasive feature of theme of the book is the ignorance of people in the sixth century.The Yankee is constantly dazzling both king and commoner with all manner of "miracles" (really just works of engineering or culture that he has as a result of his 19th century education).The people are the most easily duped idiots imaginable, and hold the most base conceptions and prejudices, and have no conception of justice.Twain believes these shortcomings are a product of their environment and education, rather than inherrent deficiencies ("training, all is training").He also tackles slavery (an institution out of practice by the time of this book's writing), draws sympathy for slaves, and advocates the equality of all humanity.All pretty simple stuff.At a slightly deeper level, he tackles economic policy, namely protectionism vs. free trade, a debate that raged into his day and even into our own.He ridicules the views of the protectionists and their inability to understand the meaning of real vs. nominal wages, clearly a slap at certain arguments of his own day.

Though the social commentary is interesting, if elementary, the satire is by far the best part of this book.Twain takes so many shots at so many targets that it's difficult even for the careful reader to notice them all.By far the funniest character is Alisande, a charicature of Arthurian women, who the yankee pejoritively nicknames "Sandy."When she rambles on for hours to no apparent purpose "running her mill," by whihc Twain pokes fun both of women in general and of their style of speech in Arthurian literature.A very funny scene is when Sandy relates a story from Thomas Mallory ver batim, with the Yankee constantly interjecting with suggestions to improve Mallory's arid writing style."The Irish guy sounds like all the others, Sandy.You ought to give him a brogue, or at least have him say something like 'be jabbers' so that you'd know it's him speaking," which of course is a suggestion Sandy takes.

Another great piece of satire is Twain's commentary on the yankee himself.When he defeats opposing knights, he makes them sell all sorts of trinkets and products, from top hats to soap to stoves, as his way of spreading civilization.Of course these goods don't make a nation civilized, but that the yankee thinks they do is Twain's pejorative commentary as a westerner on eastern materialism.Twain's way of telling it is very funny stuff.There's much more excellent humor that can't be mentioned for the sake of space.

The ending is another excellent commentary.The yankee's beautifully crafted civilization crashes down because of the irrascible prejudices of the people, which the church uses to its advantage.Twain's negative view of imperialism is here reflected, in how he depicts the folly of elevating a society by outside influences.A civilization must grow at its own pace, developing its views and values through a long process of trials.Attempts to import institutions from without are bound for failure.Though relevant in Twain's day, this is equally applicable in ours.

So, if you want the whole package:a quick, easy read that also provides thought-proviking commentary and great humor, I'd recommend reading this.It would be hard to find a better book that has everything this one does.

Twain pays his debt to Cervantes and Swift
Not quite a classic, Twain pays his debt to Cervantes and Swift in this satiric fable about the collision between the "modern" world (19th Century America) and the world of Arthorian (authorian?)legend (6th century England).Twain gets in some sharp jabs against both time periods, with a deft touch of modern irony that makes the book seem surprisingly fresh at times (Twain even pops a "dudes and dudesses" reference!).

He puts his finger on the clear difficulty of interacting with (or portraying on books and movies) that pre-modern world:they inability to grasp the concepts of irony, reasoning, or disbelieve, leave Twain literally unable to communicate at times to both satiric and serious effect..

But the train wanders off the track in long dissertations on purchasing power, class and slavery, and Twain's seemingly gleeful telling of his facile ability to kill 50,000 knights with modern explosives, electric fences, and Gatling guns seems jarringly horrific and disturbing, especially after the historically-realized horrors of the last hundred years. ... Read more