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A review by reasie
Le Morte D'Arthur, Volume I by Thomas Malory
2.0
Have I read enough medieval romance to be able to judge this work with its contemporaries? I'm gonna go on a limb and say "Sorta."
There were a few frustrations with this work. First that the preface said that there is an earlier manuscript of it that they didn't use, so I'm all "Wait, why give us the later if there's an earlier? Why tell us about it just to tease us?" The translator's notes tended to be next to useless, leaving confusing words undefined and telling me for the fifth time that gules means red, which, dude, I know. Also don't need a definition for "Seneschal", kthnx.
Secondly, it reads like a summary. Malory was obviously summarizing several sources and trying to make them sort of fit together, which they don't. So there are lots of confusing bits - just how many sisters does Arthur have, for example. Many passages read like a sporting page for Jousts. Who was there, wins, losses, final results. YAWN!
And when he says "Richly arrayed, as they were in those days." you just know he's omitting a nice five-stanza passage of costume description!
Still, it's a lot of Arthurian backstory filled in, and I'm glad to have read it, and I'll read part two, just to complete my understanding of the Arthurian Legends as they stand.
There were a few frustrations with this work. First that the preface said that there is an earlier manuscript of it that they didn't use, so I'm all "Wait, why give us the later if there's an earlier? Why tell us about it just to tease us?" The translator's notes tended to be next to useless, leaving confusing words undefined and telling me for the fifth time that gules means red, which, dude, I know. Also don't need a definition for "Seneschal", kthnx.
Secondly, it reads like a summary. Malory was obviously summarizing several sources and trying to make them sort of fit together, which they don't. So there are lots of confusing bits - just how many sisters does Arthur have, for example. Many passages read like a sporting page for Jousts. Who was there, wins, losses, final results. YAWN!
And when he says "Richly arrayed, as they were in those days." you just know he's omitting a nice five-stanza passage of costume description!
Still, it's a lot of Arthurian backstory filled in, and I'm glad to have read it, and I'll read part two, just to complete my understanding of the Arthurian Legends as they stand.