"Idylls of the King" by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Aran Joseph Canes: As an American, I am not one to over celebrate the British monarchy. Still, Elizabeth II has been a symbol of strength and goodness for several generations and the Jubilee seemed like a good occasion to read Tennyson’s account of the King Arthur saga, The Idylls of the King.

Dedicated to Queen Victoria, the poem celebrates all the values that made the British Empire possible: military courage, strength, a strong sense of duty, respect for elders and authority, a high ideal of romantic love.

It’s easy from a modern vantage point to criticize this worldview as chauvinistic, nationalistic and imperial. And, even granting this, one can simply study the poem as a work of art—more or less apart from the values it promotes.

But another angle may be to say that Tennyson was not simply celebrating the British Empire. The story is, after all, about how a kingdom implodes: moral lapses leading to out and out abandonment of any sense of character or virtue.

Did Tennyson intend to imply that, just as Arthur’s realm, England’s empire would surely fall? Why else strew throughout the book foreshadowings of the Round Table’s doom? Why direct the story...

United States on Jun 01, 2022

Ylenia Vinci: Edizione fittamente annotata, a differenza delle Norton e delle Oxford mancano i saggi di approfondimento sull'opera, ma già le note sono sufficienti a chiarire qualsiasi cosa possa rimanere oscura alla prima lettura.

Italy on May 25, 2021

Thomas A Hebert: This is the classic Tennyson work of poetry on the legend of King Arthur, molded to fit the triumphalism of the British Victorian Age. It continues to resonate today on Broadway in the revival of Camelot.

Canada on Apr 13, 2019

SilverGirl: Great read. This was a mandatory reading for class, and I was surprised that I really enjoyed reading it.

Canada on Jan 12, 2018

Chris Booth: Tennyson is out of fashion. Passages in the Idylls can certainly be used as an argument in favor of Tennyson's cannonic diminishment. But to follow the fashion-trend of Tennyson's current disfavor is to miss more than is gained thereby. Not only is it a great retelling of the Arthurian tales, there is great poetry in there, too. This is a major work of poetic literature, one of the great Victorian epics, and it is worthy of study and reflection, too. Tennyson was a bit too strictly rum-tee-tum for the modern ear, but at his best he transcended versification gloriously.

In its day, The Idylls of the King was one of the most celebrated, best-selling, and influential works of literature that there was. If one is a reader, this should be on one's list, and better still on one's bookshelf or nightstand.

United States on Sep 06, 2016

Aralinya: Arrived in good time, satisfied with purchase. Love Tennyson!

United Kingdom on Nov 21, 2015

beowulf: Ich bin ein grosser fan von king arthur und den geschichten von der tafelrunde. Das verborgene juwel "Idylls Of The King" liebe ich solang ich denken kann. Es gehört mit zu den wichtigsten erzählungen um den legendären könig. Umso mehr freue ich mich jetzt üüber diese kleinformatige "taschenbuchausgabe", die man bequem überallhin mitnehmen kann...........

Germany on Feb 10, 2015

A Reader: For lovers of Arthurian mythology this is a must. There are copious notes to go with each poem. Finally, penguin has given the edition eight pages of blank pages for readers to put down their own thoughts. For me, this is a great thought from any publisher. I hate to put notes or thoughts in the text, and can not abide finding them when looking through any used book. Giving the reader a place to put down their own thoughts about the work, or inspirations that may have come from it is a great boon.

United States on Jan 28, 2015

Gary Carden: I first read Idylls of the King some 50 years ago and immediately fell in love with the lyrical narrative. All these years, I have carried the image of Arthur's departure on the barge. He vanishes into the fog and then somewhere we hear (or imagine that we hear) the sound of a city that welcomes home the return of a hero. That still moves me.

United States on Sep 28, 2012

K. Jump: For Tennyson, the Arthurian legend was an evolving love affair that lasted throughout the poet's life, and the "Idylls of the King" is the ultimate offspring of that enchanted love. Composed of a dozen individual yet interlinked story-poems, the Idylls span the whole of Malory's opus from Arthur's glorious rise to power to his fog-shrouded and mysterious death, "lest one good custom should corrupt the world." But Tennyson humanizes Malory's stories and infuses the whole with an almost Shakespearean aura of tragedy, redefining many of the legendary tales with a new level of gravitas unmatched before or since. The Idylls include:
* The Coming of Arthur, introducing the Age of Camelot
* Gareth and Lynette, a variation of the popular "Fair Unknown" theme and one of Arhturiana's most beloved stories as well as perhaps the one which most perfectly embodies the golden values of chivalry
* The Marriage of Geraint, taken from the works of Chretien De Troyes, who called the titular knight "Erec"
* Geraint and Enid, a lovely tale of marital trust
* Balin and Balan, one of the grimmest and bloodiest of all Arthurian tales, about the struggle between decency and monstrousness...

United States on Feb 13, 2004