A Comprehensive Look at the Kings of Britain Through Time: The Penguin Classics Edition

EJC: ...but this is an essential text because it was the one that the medieval chroniclers and early modern historians told each other about the dark early days of the British Isles. This text lies behind the stories that Shakespeare read to plot out his British history plays... like King Lear...

United States on May 26, 2023

L.W: Highly fantastical and entertaining but not to be taken seriously as history.
The style is very fluid and the account moves at a breathless pace. The book was written in the 1100s and attempts to give an account of the various supposed leaders of Britain. He even has Britain founded by Trojans and also a Brit sacking Rome, neither of which are true.
The raids by Julius Caesar are covered, but the book claims there were 3 instead of two. He also correctly names the 3 named Christian maytrs of Britain in the early 300s. It seems his roman history is actually better than the rest, his dark age history though is completely made up.

Arthur is described as a great war leader crushing the terrible invading saxons. He goes on to achieve many other great feats, marries the beautiful Guinevere before meeting his death defeating the treacherous Mordred.
There is no Lancelot here, no sword in the stone or lady in the lake, nor a great castle either. Instead he spends most his times fighting romans in Gaul not to mention Scots and Picts, even capturing Iceland. In this version Guinevere ends up a nun. The 'history' that follows is no more reliable either.

All in all its...

United Kingdom on May 22, 2023

Sam Spade: Great service

Canada on Apr 01, 2023

Heisenberg: A fascinating account of the rulers of Great Britain (and some of Ireland) from pre-Roman times including the founding of Britain by Brutus. Not completely reliable but very interesting as it provides an insight into the thinking of Geoffrey of Monmouth on this subject. How the naming of Britain/Albion and some of its regions (such as Cornwall) came about is instructive as is the initial settling of Ireland.

United Kingdom on Sep 09, 2020

Amazon Customer: This work is only now beginning to be more appreciated - after being much maligned for the last few centuries it seems that, although he can get some events confused, Arthur ap Gruffydd (AKA Geoffrey of Monmouth) really did know what he was talking about - read and find out for yourself

United Kingdom on Aug 19, 2020

Emmyschue: Got this because another offer cited it as the original source of the King Arthur legends. It's interesting reading a history that doesn't even attempt to appear neutral (I'd say no histories are neutral, though in modern times we like to pretend they are). Geoffrey of Monmouth makes an interesting read to say the least. One minute, he's discussing a shipwreck on which a "shipment of women for the soldiers" are all drowned or washed ashore and raped/killed. He pretty much says "oops" and moves on. The next minute, all the aristocracy run off to war and leave Britain in the hands of the plebes who get slaughtered by Vikings. To that he spends a whole page bemoaning the tragedy, not of plebes dying but on Britain left in their totally incapable hands. What a strange guy. It'd be interesting to know more about him so his motivations in writing how he did might become more clear.

United States on Aug 08, 2019

R. J. Marsella: For a book written in the 12th century Geoffrey Of Monmouth's History is remarkably accessible and entertaining to a modern reader. Part history and part mythology, it reminds one of reading Homer or some other ancient source. Here are the stories of the early settlement of the island by descendants of the ancient Trojans ,linkages between Britain and Rome , the Saxon invasion, King Arthur and in a bit of a departure from the narrative the prophesies of Merlin the Magician.
The sources for King Lear and Cymbeline are also included in Geoffrey's narrative.
I had this book on my shelf for a long time before I got around to it but once I picked it up I was hooked. One of those ancient texts that blends history and myth wonderfully while enlightening and entertaining the modern reader. Well worth checking out.

United States on Jan 16, 2017

Alan U. Kennington: I finished reading Geoffrey of Monmouth's  The History of the Kings of Britain  in November 2014, all except the 83-page "index raisonné". It's really a ripping yarn, and there's probably some truth in it. Most importantly, people in the centuries after this book did place some credibility in it. I recently read (in " Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot ") that James I of England thought that he was descended from Brutus in accordance with the genealogy in Geoffrey's book.

I thought there was not enough commentary at the beginning on just how much of the book had any historical veracity. The very early material about Aeneas and Brutus was obviously totally bogus, although an enormous amount of detail was provided. No doubt the old foundation legends were built upon, century after century, until they ended up in the hands of Geoffrey. I prefer books which give copious footnotes on the veracity or otherwise of ancient attempts at history. For example, the Penguin Pausanias guide books to ancient Greece ( Volume 1  and  Volume 2 ) give superb commentary paragraph by paragraph on the authenticity or otherwise of everything in those huge...

United States on May 16, 2016

Ian M. Slater: [Note to the Reader: just in case Amazon's software merges reviews of different translations: This is a review of the Penguin Classics "History of the Kings of Britain" by Geoffrey of Monmouth, translated by Lewis Thorpe, originally published in 1966 (with some minor bibliographic additions and corrections in the early 1970s).]

[Further note: the Kindle edition of the Penguin translation is almost 100 pages shorter than tthe paperback, because it omits the invaluable index,which packs in a lot of information. Being able to.search the text isn't a good alternative. I can't recommend it as an alternative to the paperback if you're considering which translation to.buy.]

Geoffrey of Monmouth's "History of the Kings of Britain" (as it is usually called) was, during the Middle Ages, one of the most influential books yet written in Britain. It was perhaps exceeded in European importance only by the Venerable Bede's "Ecclesiastical History of the English People" -- and Geoffrey's "Historia Regum Britanniae" is presented as a companion to Bede, covering topics that Bede, a mere Anglo-Saxon interloper, never knew. It purports to give the "real" history of the islands, from the...

United States on Jun 24, 2013

Tony Jones: This needs reviewing on two levels. The easiest is the translation which is very clear on its sources from the various versions of Geoffrey which exist. It does not give too many footnotes in the text - I would have preferred more as I have little other background on the myth. As a first encounter with the text though this version is very accessible, within limits.

The actual tale as far as I can tell is written to condemn the Saxons (called Angles only once) and paint the real Britons as being of great stock, apparently descended from the Trojans and related to the Romans. The Britons have a long history full of strange names and detail - for example the source of King Lear! All very well until we hit Merlin and Uther Pendragon. There is the story of the conception of Arthur and a massive prophecy from Merlin who then mostly vanishes. The Arthur story has the sword Caliburn and Guinevere, noble knights and great battles. Unknown to me Arthur also conquers Iceland, France and Rome! In fact the book is riddled with attacks on Gaul or by Gaul, and Brittany is of course Amorica and really settled by the Britons. Arthur is betray by Mordred and vanishes of allowing the text to...

United Kingdom on Nov 13, 2007