The Once and Future King

When it was first published in its entirety in 1958, T.H. White's masterly, incomparable, vastly entertaining epic novel about King Arthur and his round table was hailed by critics as an instant classic. And so it became; widely acknowledged as one of the definitive works of the fantasy genre, THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING is a retelling of the Arthurian legend that is at once both comic and political, enchanting and educational. While it works on one level as a highly entertaining saga of knights, battles, magic, and heroes, the novel also presents a conscientiously researched historical interpretation of the round table as a civilizing force that brought England out of the Dark Ages through the notion of chivalry. Divided into four books (originally published separately) which detail Arthur's boyhood, the building of his empire, his doomed friendship with Lancelot, and his undoing through the boy Mordred, White's novel re-imagines several of these well-known characters in unconventional ways, painting Arthur as sweet and in many ways simple, Lancelot as a complex and deeply troubled man with an ugly face, and several older knights of the table as sympathetic or even comic Good Old Boys, blundering amiably around in creaky armor as they support their young king without entirely understanding him.