T.H. White's Timeless Epic, "The Once and Future King"

Amazon Customer: This is great classic. Lots of action. Humorous writin. At its center, it's a complx, philosophical book about Arthur and his ideals. Relevant even today.

United States on Oct 31, 2023

Amazon Customer: I just loved this book. My only prior exposure to the King Arthur Stories has been through movies. I did not expect the depth of the discussions concerning the human condition. This book has some relevant points that are applicable to what you see in society today.

United States on Sep 19, 2023

Oscar P.: Impressed by the depth of the story. A great classic. I recommend for everyone that wants to learn about one of the tales that inspired many others.

France on Sep 10, 2023

PBJ625: Initially I thought the Kindle edition of this book was incomplete. For example, I believed it is missing most of Chapter 6 and that Chapter 13 was “misplaced.” However, the difference between the ebook and the Audible formats can be explained by two different publications of the book - White changed his original 1938 version in 1958.

United States on Aug 01, 2023

Kez: The once and Future King, published in 1958, is a rework of four previously published books by White, The Sword in the Stone (1938), The Witch in the Wood (1939), The Ill-Made Knight (1940) and The Candle in the Wind (1958). He uses these titles for the four sections of The Once and Future King. After White’s death a final book called The Book of Merlyn, written 1941, was published. Some parts of this had been incorporated into previous books by White, mainly The Sword in the Stone. This final book has since been added to end of this volume.

The first part, The Sword in the Stone, is probably the most famous due to it being made into a movie by Disney studios. Also it isn’t too far removed from that movie. It covers Arthur’s early years, in which he is known as The Wart and is under the tutelage of Merlyn. Just like the movie Wart is turned into a fish and a bird amongst other creatures by Merlyn and just like the movie there is a lot of slapstick comedy. White even manages to squeeze Robin Hood and his Merry men into his version of the Arthurian legend! On the whole this first part is a delightful if somewhat juvenile read. I enjoyed it despite the liberties taken...

United Kingdom on Jun 27, 2021

Gazza: Readers often rave about this book. They see this retelling of the Arthurian legends by T.H. White as the best retelling there is, or ever could be. However I differ on this. It may contain elements of White’s genius, with its themes and and hidden messages. But for me the author’s prose style lets it down by rendering the story boring and, as one reviewer has stated, tedious. There are better versions of this story. Rosemary Sutcliff does a better job both with her mythical Arthur (King Arthur Trilogy) and more realistic take on the story (Sword at Sunset). In addition to this there is Mary Stewart’s fabulous take on the legend with her Merlin Trilogy, now published in five separate volumes as the Arthurian Saga. And if you want something that contains the elements of Malory and Tennyson then there’s the wonderful The Death of King Arthur by Peter Ackroyd.

Of course readers will differ. But White’s version is not to my liking; tedious, long-winded and totally boring; it goes on and on and on. What more can I say! Two stars.

I hope you find my review helpful.

United Kingdom on Mar 20, 2018

amazon13313: I have just reread this, decades after first reading it as a child or adolescent, and it has lost none of its original power. In fact, I see a great deal more in it than I did on first reading, especially in White's use of humour, which relies on general knowledge I previously lacked, to spot the knowing anachronisms. I had also completely missed White's meditation on WWII, and the problems of war and power in general, the first time round.

As an adult, it's impossible NOT to read it this way, but it nevertheless enthralled my younger self as a classic sword and sorcery yarn, without having to worry what it tells us about the present day (or about the time of writing, which is largely still true - one of the morals of the story is that human nature is essentially unchanging).

The first book, "The Sword in the Stone" was originally published under separate cover, and differs from the rest, in that it is the only one specifically meant for children. Most readers will be familiar with it as the basis for the Disney film of the same name. It is by far the most lighthearted and comical of all the books, even including a farcical "pantomime horse" episode, in which two...

United Kingdom on Oct 02, 2017

Semon Strobos: I got this because recent publicity for H is for Hawk kept referring to T H White's book on hawking. So I realized I had never read his classic The Once and Future King though I have read most of the classics and have run into the title many times. It turns out to be very strange book. I wonder how many people have actually read it lately. Strange should mean original, and it is, which is good, but it's strange in other not good ways. It begins as a kind of boys's book, with adventures, knights, animals, and a kind of bildungsroman about King Arthur's boyhood and education. No present day boy would be interested in it though. Too strange and unfocussed. King was written well into the 20th century though, the age of psychological realism, so it soon becomes a psychological novel about the Arthurian characters. (Tolkien showed that this could be easily avoided.) White is an uneven psychologist at best though, and while the idea of psychoanalysing mythological characters is interesting, this turns out to be beyond his talents. Not that anyone else could manage it either, except Homer. There are along the way tongue in cheek or comedic takes on Arthurian legends, some successful..Then...

United States on Apr 20, 2015

G M. Stathis: The popularity of the film and the play, Camelot, were due in some part its association with President John F. Kennedy’s brief 1,000 days in office which came to be called Camelot by many, a time in American history of lost hope and ideals. It was also a story the late president was very fond of. Of course it had much more to do with the enduring fascination with the legends of King Arthur which had found new form in the very popular retelling of the tale by T.H. White, The Once and Future King, which proved to be the immediate inspiration for the play and film, as well as a Walt Disney animated feature, The Sword in the Stone (1963). White was born in British India, died in Greece and spent his most creative period in self-imposed exile from his native Britain in Ireland to somehow get away from a world on the verge of war which he so despised. His condemnation of war took form in his interpretation of tales found in the work he most admired Sir Thomas Mallory’s Le Morte d’Arthur (1485), and of course Mallory himself appears at the end of White’s work as well as the play and film as young Tom of Warwick who Arthur orders to avoid the coming battle and go back to England...

United States on Mar 12, 2014

Mr. Thomas Thatcher: Over the last few years, the debate within the newly enfranchised reading community (thanks to Harry Potter) seems to be, "Are you a Tolkien fan or a J K Rowling fan?" (just like it was Beatles or Stones when I was a teenager, when dinosuars stalked the earth). We can but gasp in admiration that such a debate is even taking place in a world of "whatever" and "yeah right" and "I was sat down, yeah?" and so on.

But hold on a minute - for a few pounds anybody can avail themselves of this spellbinding version of the Arthurian Legend with its rite of passage theme. The few pounds will transport anybody to a world of transformations, Dark Ages privations, pure and beautiful magic, sinister themes and the most heart-stopping animal sequences you will ever find. Your few pounds will also purchase a life's work from one of the world's, and I do mean world's, purest and most imaginative writers of the English language. T H White writes with such precision and passion that there is nobody in his class, and children from 8 -90 will find tears of sadness and laughter in every chapter.

If you have enjoyed The Lord of the Rings saga and the Harry Potter epics, I am delighted. The...

United Kingdom on Aug 29, 2005