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A review by reasie
Le Morte D'Arthur, Volume II by Thomas Malory
2.0
What can I say about Le Morte d'Arthur that I didn't say in my review of part 1?
I had to sort of force my way through it, as an essential part of my Arthurian reading. Still, I find that it wasn't worthwhile, really. I had thought it would give me insight into modern Arthurian stuff, which seemed to have little to nothing to do with most of the lays I had read. Someone said that most things are based on Le Morte, so I thought I'd check it out.
I think most things are based on things based on Le Morte. It's just so tediously written. I wonder it did well on first publication. Sure, the really good Arthurian stuff was all in French, but c'mon, Chaucer did some translating back in his day - was there no one more skilled than this punter in the 15th C to bring the French Arthurian romances back home to England? I mean... it's as bad as I'm saying, kids. He summarizes. He's formulaic. It's prose so you wonder why he can't describe things a little more interestingly. He even has a few "Except that wasn't Gareth, it was Gawain, my bad" lines. It's like listening to someone badly re-tell a story.
I had to sort of force my way through it, as an essential part of my Arthurian reading. Still, I find that it wasn't worthwhile, really. I had thought it would give me insight into modern Arthurian stuff, which seemed to have little to nothing to do with most of the lays I had read. Someone said that most things are based on Le Morte, so I thought I'd check it out.
I think most things are based on things based on Le Morte. It's just so tediously written. I wonder it did well on first publication. Sure, the really good Arthurian stuff was all in French, but c'mon, Chaucer did some translating back in his day - was there no one more skilled than this punter in the 15th C to bring the French Arthurian romances back home to England? I mean... it's as bad as I'm saying, kids. He summarizes. He's formulaic. It's prose so you wonder why he can't describe things a little more interestingly. He even has a few "Except that wasn't Gareth, it was Gawain, my bad" lines. It's like listening to someone badly re-tell a story.