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fairymodmother's review
5.0
Ugh. I love this book to bits. I love it in an omnibus, I love it in individual volumes. I love it on paper, I love it on audio. I've read it backwards and forwards, and every time I do I find a new element to love.
The Sword in the Stone is most well known and perhaps best beloved, for it dispenses its truths with humor and sweetness. It is whimsical and innocent. The next two, Queen of Air and Darkness/Witch in the Wood and The Ill-Made Knight are not. They are messy and cruel, bold foils of Arthur's kindly childhood. They are brutal. They are filled with wrongs, secrets, lies, and betrayals told with the same gut-wrenching insight as we got when the truths were just sweet.
These books could be melodramatic. They could be filled with the gossipy, sensational parts of the tragedy of Arthur. And it's hard to avoid all of it, of course. But instead of focusing on the brutishness of the Orkney clan and the cuckolding of Arthur, instead we see how the hurts of childhood come home to roost in the hearts of men and women. It is my unfounded contention that White saw himself in Lancelot, in a way, and I am more and more struck with the story of his life.
In short, I love these books.
CONTENT WARNING:
The Sword in the Stone is most well known and perhaps best beloved, for it dispenses its truths with humor and sweetness. It is whimsical and innocent. The next two, Queen of Air and Darkness/Witch in the Wood and The Ill-Made Knight are not. They are messy and cruel, bold foils of Arthur's kindly childhood. They are brutal. They are filled with wrongs, secrets, lies, and betrayals told with the same gut-wrenching insight as we got when the truths were just sweet.
These books could be melodramatic. They could be filled with the gossipy, sensational parts of the tragedy of Arthur. And it's hard to avoid all of it, of course. But instead of focusing on the brutishness of the Orkney clan and the cuckolding of Arthur, instead we see how the hurts of childhood come home to roost in the hearts of men and women. It is my unfounded contention that White saw himself in Lancelot, in a way, and I am more and more struck with the story of his life.
In short, I love these books.
CONTENT WARNING:
Spoiler
Animal cruelty, murder, infidelity, mild body horror, blood and gore
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