The Once and Future King

The Once and Future King Review

Most fantasy books have taken a back seat these days. Small-time books are overshadowed with the ever so popular fantasy books of Harry Potter and Twilight. However, I came across a book on my family's bookshelf that revealed to me that small-time fantasy books can provide just as many hours of entertainment as any other popular book. T. H. White's "The Once and Future King" is a book I recommend for a great read if you want a simple yet fantasy based tale.

"The Once and Future King" is a fantasy book based on the young King Arthur and his magical world in Camelot. What I liked most about this book is its use of perspective. The book is surrounded with characters of all types and personalities. The book contains four parts and each part is presented from the view of a different character. All four parts of the book depict King Arthur's rise to power all the way to his death. However, the different characters that present the story are both friends and enemies of King Arthur. For instance, the third part is read through Lancelot's life, who is King Arthur's most trusted knight and protector of Camelot. On the other hand, the fourth part of the book is presented through King Orkney's four sons Gawaine, Gaheris, Gareth, and Agravaine who all wish to see King Arthur lose his throne because of Arthur's past history.

This four-part perspective book is flooded with characters that all have their unique personality. I found this most enjoyable as I made my own opinions about characters. I found it almost like a movie with characters I highly respect and others that generally irritated me.

While characters are a central part of the story, the fantasy elements to the story add a little bit of comic relief to the book. From magical animals to wizardry to even war, this book is filled with both a dramatic plot and side humor all surrounded by its unique characters.

I recommend this book not for those who wish to learn about King Arthur and his Round Table, but for those who want a simple and easy read for the sake of plot and entertainment. This story to me does not have the extreme insightful and enlightening themes that most of us enjoy in books. To me, it is just a straightforward story where you learn to love and hate the characters. "The Once and Future King" is just pure entertainment for an escape from reality. It is the epitome of a small-time fantasy book.

3 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

Fantastial!

I first read this in hardcover, ohhhh..... I'm not telling you how long ago - long enough that I had to get a new copy because the cover fell off! I loved "Arthur" stories as a kid, and the historical novels and variations that came out in the 70's and 80's as I grew up. When I stumbled across this one, I was both enthralled and vastly amused. I actually didn't realize that Disney stole the plot and twisted a chapter or two into their cartoon.... silly me! The Book Is Always Better! It's a great read that has a really "chatty", conversational tone, that assumes that you not only know a lot about King Arthur, but a little about history as well, or else you miss a lot of the jokes. But even if you do, the wizard who lives backwards and knows the future because it's his past, and the boy who turns into a fish and becomes king of all Briton will steal your heart. Enjoy!

2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

I had to read this for summer reading, and now I love it.

This book is now one of my favorites of all time. Yes, at first, it was very confusing and kind of hard to keep reading. Once you read the first or second book, it gets much easier to finish and to fall in love with. It also had alot of twists and things that you werent expecting, which is one thing that I love in books. The only thing that I had a problem with was that there were some points where it would spend way too much time describing one thing, and it also skipped over about six years of Arthur's life.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

The Once and Future King

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. I saw the movie that was based on this book and was able to imagine the cartoon characters along with the book. I higly recommend it to literature and history students and teachers.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Read this book with your Middle Schooler!

This book is a classic. If your child hasn't read any of the Arthurian legends yet and hasn't studied governmental forms, this book is a great introduction. In construction it is very much operatic, complete with the tragedy in the third act. Don't let that sway you; it is appropriate for advanced seventh and eighth grade readers.

Wasn't for me

Some people have absolutely LOVED this book and raved about it. I bought it for a book club meeting, but it just wasn't for me. I just could not get into it. I think it is well written, but just not for me. If you don't like fantasy stories you might not like it, if you do like fantasy you might love it.

0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

An Adventure to Read

I finally finished this book. It was assigned school reading, that had to be done after winter break. So guess what I spent my winter break doing! At first, I hated it. It was boring and I couldn't even stop reading it for threat that my English teacher's head would explode.
I was forced to persevere, and I'm glad I did. Once I got used to the sporadic pacing and style, I quite enjoyed it. Especially the last book. The tone of the novel changed with the story line, as things became more and more tragic. The pacing was weird though, and there were intentional anachronisms which just added to the oddness. There would parts that were dreadfully boring to read then it would get all actiony, then White would go on a rant. It would also be very frank in some places, then overly detailed in others.
I don't know. It was an experience, and I'm glad I (was forced to) read it.

Best telling of the King Arthur legend.

I loved this book. Is it the easiest book to read? Maybe not, but the complexity of the plot and the richness of the characters, is not easily told. The first book in the tetralogy is light while each of the following books become darker and more intense.

This story stays with you long after you turn the final page. There's a lot to learn about life and humanity here. I always found the usual King Arthur stories too romantic, too artificial, but T. H. White wrote this story of King Arthur for adults and those who want to think.

A classic!

Loved this book. It was a wonderful telling of the Camelot story. It made the characters very real with their triumphs and failings. It is one of the few books that I feel I would read again and again!

Ugh

I picked up this book because I love the King Arthur legends. Once and Future King was thoroughly disappointing. White's tone is didactic, and his constant mentions of communism are not only annoying, they're out of place. He also has a tendency of disparaging other King Arthur authors (especially Malory). The only character who is at all sympathetic following "The Sword and the Stone" is Lancelot. The majority of the characters are unlikeable or badly developed. Arthur and Mordred are completely flat. The story itself is constantly slowed by random lectures White slips in as a character's musings. Part 1, "The Sword and the Stone," is somewhat interesting, but the rest spirals down.
Once and Future King would be a fantastic subject for literary criticism, particularly along political lines. It is not a book to read for pure enjoyment.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

The Curious Case of Merlyn Button

The Sword and the Stone by T.H. White was a good book, but not as sensational as all I had heard.
This section of the Once and Future King is about King Arthur's childhood and education. Arthur/Wart is tutored, with his stepbrother Kay, by the wizard Merlyn. Merlyn favors Wart and turns him into animals while Kay trains to become a knight. As the years go by Wart and Kay slowly separate and eventually Kay is knighted and Wart made his esquire. One day a quirky King Pelinore brings the Kay news that King Uther had died, leaving no successor. A challenge is put forward for the rightful heir to pull a sword from an anvil outside the cathedral in London. Kay and Wart go to London in hopes of Kay becoming King of England. The story ends well with Arthur using all he had learned from Merlyn to pull the sword from the stone, and like a typical hero's tale Wart had no idea that taking the sword would make him King.
In the novel, T.H. White seems to rehearse all that he had learned and or observed of chivalry, English Castles, hay making, and animals in the clever disguise of another King Arthur legend. This was a plus and a minus for me.
I found White's original and strange ways of thinking, shown through the wizard Merlyn, intriguing. I loved to read of White's explanations for things like birds' sounds and evolution. It was also interesting in the book to learn about how the Castle Sauvage (Sir Ector's castle) was fortified and designed. Some other great history was given on customs of the knights, farming techniques, and much more than I could mention here. I could definitely say T.H. White was brilliant.
Sadly, however, I found the down sides of the Sword and the Stone out-weighing the good. My biggest problem with the book is the lack of a steady time period. Though hints throughout put the legend in the 12th century, much is ruined by modern elements. The first time in the tale you see the future is through Merlyn. Merlyn is living his life backwards, always getting younger, born when he is ready to die and dying when he is ready to be born. In his hut he has a collection of guns from the nineteenth century. Once when calling for his hat that he "was wearing," he receives a top hat, and immediately returns it to the wind saying, "not the one I was wearing in the 18 hundreds." These minor mentions did not bother me nor ruin the feel of the book. What really did it were the constant mentions of communism. When Wart (young Arthur) was turned into a merlyn bird the colonel curses the Bolscheviks and later another knight complains about the "reds." I felt these random flashes from the 30's strongly hurt the medieval feel of the novel.
In the end, I would rate the Sword and the Stone three stars, though definitely a book worth reading. I am glad I chose this book because it seems to be one of the most referenced books I know and was a fun read.

the once and future king

I enjoyed reading this very much. I have always enjoyed tales of
king arthur and this one is quite the best one I have ever read.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

THIS IS NOT THE STORY. IT IS A SUMMARY OF THE STORY.

IF YOU WANT A SEMI-DETAILED ACCOUNT OF EVENTS, THEN THIS IS YOUR BOOK. IF YOU WANT THE POETIC PENNINGS OF SCENERY AND EMOTION, READ L'MORTE D'ARTHUR. TOO MANY TIMES IN THIS BOOK IT ELUDES TO A CHAIN OF EVENTS NOT TO BE INCLUDED. IN FACT, AT THE BEGINNING OF ONE CHAPTER, HE WRITES "THAT KIND OF STORY CAN ONLY BE TOLD ONCE, IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED, SEEK MALOROY." IT IS VERY ANNOYING.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

it was just 'okay'...

The Once and Future King was interesting for the first section, then slowly got worse as the book went on. Arthur and Merlin were not in the book often enough and they were not described in detail. I would have liked it better if there was more action and fighting. This book was just average...

Slow at first, but get's better

This book has a very slow start with lots of description and things that seem to have no point. Even though you will want to stop reading, don't, because after you get through the first book, you will really start to love it. It goes from King Arthur creating the Round Table to Lancelot betraying his best friend. There are many charecters and it's hard to keep up at first, but if you keep reading, everything makes since. The author knows how to keep you hooked and includs many themes that relate to real life. I would definetly recommend this book.

A Great Book

This book was very interesting to read because instead of telling the familiar story of King Arthur that is shown on tv shows, it used facts that generally won't be learned by watching tv shows.

Good sometimes, usually very slow.

I read this book for literature class, and it took most of my summer to read. It is very long, and very slow. About 20% of it is made up of actually interesting storytelling, but the rest is just slow moving, and hard to understand. After reading many of the chapters, i'd have to go back and read parts of it again to try and understand what happened, sometimes failing. Despite this, I still managed to finish the book, and I understood basically what was happening most of the time.

It was defiantly time consuming..

This book was not the greatest, but it defiantly wasn't boring. At times it was very entertaining, like when the wart met merlyn. Sometimes I did not understand the message they were trying to convey. I would defiantly say that you would have to be interested in this time period to want to read this book.

Not that Great

I wasn't impressed. Some good parts, some lame. It drug on in places and left others shallow. I was ready to be overwhelmed and it ended up disapponting. Sorry, I wanted to love it.

Wonderful and Enlightening!

This was by far the best book that I have ever read! From the beginning tale of the sword in the stone which is a classic that is beloved by all, to the thrilling tales of Sir. Lancelot and King Arthur. This book is filled with knowledge as well as adventure, and I only wish that the tale could go on longer. This book has inspired me to be a Merlin, Arthur and Lancelot fanatic. I simply cannot say enough wonderful things about this book. T.A. Barron is a genius.