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A review by kateloveswords
Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table by Thomas Malory
1.0
Such a difficult read - repetitive, boring, and seemingly random occurrences. I described it to a friend as a bad tabletop game with a randomizer instead of a DM. Logistically, the fighting doesn't make a lot of sense, and as literature, the story is told poorly. It's like the author doesn't even care about what he's writing (of course, it's a translation, so that must be taken into account). When two knights meet, challenge each other, fight for six hours, and one of them gets defeated and beheaded, it should take a bit more than 3 sentences. Otherwise it's just a summary.
One of my favorite (being that it's just totally ridiculous) parts is on page 400, when Sir Bors sees his brother Sir Lyonel "bound naked to a horse and being beaten with thorns by two knights." Just as he's about to save his brother, he sees a noblewoman being abducted by another knight. Sir Bors hopes his brother will withstand, and goes after the maiden. Great so far. However, after he defeats the abducting knight, instead of going back to save his brother (while he's still in the area), he leaves with the maiden to go to her castle, and recount the story to a bunch of other knights. When the knights want to present Sir Bors to the father of the maiden, it's only then that he says, "No, I have to go elsewhere," and sets off back to find his brother. It says for a long time, Sir Bors could find no trace of him, so I imagine he's been away from the scene for a long time.
It just seems a bit ridiculous that Sir Bors wouldn't go back to save his brother *before* he goes to socialize with the maiden's household. That's just one example of scores of what I would deem unchivalrous behavior by a group that is supposed to be the utmost of chivalry. And the story isn't even told in a way that makes me sympathetic with the knights who are flawed; instead their actions make no sense because their characters are 2-dimensional.
One of my favorite (being that it's just totally ridiculous) parts is on page 400, when Sir Bors sees his brother Sir Lyonel "bound naked to a horse and being beaten with thorns by two knights." Just as he's about to save his brother, he sees a noblewoman being abducted by another knight. Sir Bors hopes his brother will withstand, and goes after the maiden. Great so far. However, after he defeats the abducting knight, instead of going back to save his brother (while he's still in the area), he leaves with the maiden to go to her castle, and recount the story to a bunch of other knights. When the knights want to present Sir Bors to the father of the maiden, it's only then that he says, "No, I have to go elsewhere," and sets off back to find his brother. It says for a long time, Sir Bors could find no trace of him, so I imagine he's been away from the scene for a long time.
It just seems a bit ridiculous that Sir Bors wouldn't go back to save his brother *before* he goes to socialize with the maiden's household. That's just one example of scores of what I would deem unchivalrous behavior by a group that is supposed to be the utmost of chivalry. And the story isn't even told in a way that makes me sympathetic with the knights who are flawed; instead their actions make no sense because their characters are 2-dimensional.