Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table by Malory (Thos.) / Keith BainesMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
This is the second time I have read this and I have really pushed myself through. It is just not engaging as a story. I think my favorite part is the introduction by Robert Graves. While he details the multiple sources of the Arthur legend, he also highlights this readable prose in this version is miles away from the amplificatio described in The Arthur of the Iberians: The Arthurian Legends in the Spanish and Portuguese Worlds as "a very rhetorical style, typical of sentimental fiction..." Maybe it would be better that way and this is like trying to hum rap. While this builds to the few pages at the end describing Arthur's death ("Or did he!?"), Arthur is merely a background context to most of these tales. After bursting on the scene and grabbing swords and Camelot, much more is devoted to the tragic loves Tristram and Launcelot (the spelling here) as well as the quest for the Holy Grail and the rise of Sir Galahad.
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