Scan barcode
A review by nate_s
The Wicked Day by Mary Stewart
5.0
So concludes Mary Stewart's masterful tetralogy chronicling the Arthurian legend as historical fiction. Unlike so many multi-volume series, this one is not weighed down by over-length, nor do the later books fumble around trying to repeat the successes of the earlier ones.
Sir Thomas Malory's epic romance "Le Morte D'Arthur," set the precedent for all future retellings, titled to invoke Arthur’s tragedy over even the early years of victory and triumph, beset from the beginning by Merlin’s vision of his eventual betrayal and death. And so Mordred, bastard son of the High King by his unholy union with his half-sister Morgause, looms in popular imagination as the "black villain" who brings down Arthur through treachery and cold ambition.
But not so in Stewart's retelling. In spite of careful attention to the sources (Malory, Monmouth, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and others), she has chosen to paint Mordred in a sympathetic light, massaging several of what she terms "absurdities" in the legend in order to make a more politically realistic portrait, replete with moral gray areas and lacking a single, all-culpable villain. Beginning the book, I found myself disoriented by the fact that not only are we seeing the story from Mordred's point of view, we are even sympathetic with him as a kind of alternate hero. My disorientation quickly disappeared, however, and I found Ms. Stewart to be weaving a profoundly compelling and plausible tale of the rise of an unlikely peasant bastard through the ranks of royalty and into the halls of power not so much by his own guile as by that of his mother, and aided by a healthy dash of the stupidity and villainy of his over-confident half-brothers, the Orkney Boys of Lothian.
The tale and the themes are old, but they are neither cliche nor tired in Mary Stewart's capable hands. Honestly, I could read her writing all day and not get tired of it. She is auteur of her subject matter and her handling of English. Few would dispute T.H. White's claim to the crown of modern Arthurian retellings. Stewart expertly makes a run at it, although the two are completely different in both interpretation and tone.
It's rare for a series to maintain its weight and excitement through its whole length. Mary Stewart's Arthurian Saga is one that does. I found the third book to be a slight anti-climax, but other than that the story keeps its shape and its luster through all four volumes, and is well worth reading all the way through. This final book, The Wicked Day, might even be the best except that nothing could really make up for the absence of Merlin.
Sir Thomas Malory's epic romance "Le Morte D'Arthur," set the precedent for all future retellings, titled to invoke Arthur’s tragedy over even the early years of victory and triumph, beset from the beginning by Merlin’s vision of his eventual betrayal and death. And so Mordred, bastard son of the High King by his unholy union with his half-sister Morgause, looms in popular imagination as the "black villain" who brings down Arthur through treachery and cold ambition.
But not so in Stewart's retelling. In spite of careful attention to the sources (Malory, Monmouth, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and others), she has chosen to paint Mordred in a sympathetic light, massaging several of what she terms "absurdities" in the legend in order to make a more politically realistic portrait, replete with moral gray areas and lacking a single, all-culpable villain. Beginning the book, I found myself disoriented by the fact that not only are we seeing the story from Mordred's point of view, we are even sympathetic with him as a kind of alternate hero. My disorientation quickly disappeared, however, and I found Ms. Stewart to be weaving a profoundly compelling and plausible tale of the rise of an unlikely peasant bastard through the ranks of royalty and into the halls of power not so much by his own guile as by that of his mother, and aided by a healthy dash of the stupidity and villainy of his over-confident half-brothers, the Orkney Boys of Lothian.
The tale and the themes are old, but they are neither cliche nor tired in Mary Stewart's capable hands. Honestly, I could read her writing all day and not get tired of it. She is auteur of her subject matter and her handling of English. Few would dispute T.H. White's claim to the crown of modern Arthurian retellings. Stewart expertly makes a run at it, although the two are completely different in both interpretation and tone.
It's rare for a series to maintain its weight and excitement through its whole length. Mary Stewart's Arthurian Saga is one that does. I found the third book to be a slight anti-climax, but other than that the story keeps its shape and its luster through all four volumes, and is well worth reading all the way through. This final book, The Wicked Day, might even be the best except that nothing could really make up for the absence of Merlin.