can anyone recommend any good books about king arthur?

Answer 1

BErnard Cornwall wrote a very good trilogy called The Warlord Chronicles which was a fascinating interpretation of the legend of Arthiur

update:
the titles of the 3 books were:
The Winter King
Enemy of God
Excaliber

Answer 2

Bernard Cornwell did an excellent series of 3 books: The Winter King, Enemy of God and Excalibur. Another excellent series - and its a long series - is from Jack Whyte: The first one in the series (8 books long) is The Skystone - the entire series is known as The Camulod Chronicles. The Whyte series looks at the Arthurian legend in a whole different manner, but is great reading. The Cornwell series is a bit more traditional but is also an A+ series. For a more fanciful, fairy-tale type, J. Robert King has written a series of 3 books, the first of which is Le Morte D'Avalon. All three are enjoyable, but are much lighter reading than the Cornwell and Whyte series which I would highly recommend.

Answer 3

Mallory's l'Morte d' Artur is the e book that quite started the Arthur memories that all of us comprehend at present. you're able to desire to have the skill to discover a translation (it quite is approximately six hundred years previous) in a library. Geoffrey Ashe has written countless books approximately Arthur, and examines the reality in the back of the legends. There are countless others that do this to boot. Whyte has a multi-e book sequence that looks at Arthur from a particularly distinctive perspective, yet in keeping with what might have been. there is critically much less on the subject of Robin Hood, apart from some newborn's books. Even the texts are greater scarce. This seems to be simply by Arthur's in all probability latest (albeit not a king, and no knights of the around table, etc.), while Robin Hood seems to be an amalgam of countless people who lived 1000's of years aside. some argue that Arthur additionally includes aspects from distinctive human beings, yet rather as much as Robin.

Answer 4

Yes:

Start at the beginning, with Geoffrey of Monmouth's *History of the Kings of England*

Then try the anonymous *Sir Gawain and the Green Knight*

Then read Sir Thomas Malory's *Le Morte d'Arthur*

Then you're ready for Wolfram Eschenbach's *Parzifal*

And then read *about* the Arthurian myths--try Jessie Weston's *From Ritual To Romance*

Then, and only then, should you read some of the recent and modern variations on the Arthurian myth cycle, like *The Mists of Avalon* by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Tennyson's *Idylls of the King* or T. H. White's *The Once and Future King*

Good reading...l

Answer 5

If you want to become a scholar of the Arthurian legend, you might consider the sequence recommended by Snowbaal. However, these works will not distinguish between the "historical" Arthur, about which little is known, and the various legendary ones. Most readers, moreover, would find the reading in that list daunting, if not exhausting--and, frankly, rarely pleasurable to modern taste.

If you would like a modern version, with a good bit of comic relief, you might want to begin with The Once and Future King by T. H. White. This novel is based, rather loosely, on the classic Le Morte d'Arthur, which is the version of the Arthurian legends most familiar to modern readers. The Lerner-Loewe musical, The King and I, is based upon this novel. The first of the four sections of that book, entitled The Sword in the Stone, is often published separately as a book for children.

For more recent versions, the three most widely read differ significantly from one another, so that selecting one of them depends upon the kind of book you like to read. For the avid reader, reading all three of them may prove interesting, esp. for the variations they work upon the basic story.

Mary Stewart's trilogy (The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment) focuses on Merlin; hence, it emphasizes the magical and fantastic elements of the story.

Marion Zimmer Bradley's trilogy (The Mists of Avalon, the Forest House, and and The Lady of Avalon) focuses upon the women in the Arthurian story, and emphasizes its mystic and romantic features.

Bernard Cornwall's Warlord Chronicles (The Winter King, Enemy of God, Excalibur), on the other hand, focus more on authentic historical background and go well beyond the stories recorded in Le Morte d'Arthur and other familiar legends. If you already know the basic Arthurian legend, this will surprise you and send you in different directions.

Finally, John Steinbeck's Acts of King Arthur and His Knights, unfinished at the time of his death, is closer to the original Le Morte d'Arthur, which was Steinbeck's favorite book as a child, and his retelling is occasionally flavored with his voice and humor.

There are literally hundreds of retellings of the story and/or narratives that use Arthurian lore. For one list of many of these, with brief notes, see

http://inkwire.org/Arthurian-Novels.htm

All of these recent versions are available in good copies from used book dealers and in public libraries. Browse among them and choose one to your own taste. Enjoy!!

Answer 6

Try "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White.

It is the chronicle of King Arthur as a young boy and his "lessons" with Merlin. An outstanding text!!!

Answer 7

I agree about Tennyson's Idylls of the King, Le Morte de Artur, by Mallory, Once and Future King by T.H. White, and some of the others. However, there is a series that is excellent called the Pendragon Cycles, by Stephen R. Lawhead.

Answer 8

King arthur and his kinghts of the round table by roger lancelyn green

the crystal cave by mary stewart (its the beginning of a series, but i didnt much care for king arthur, and never got to the others)

happy reading!

Answer 9

I like the author Mary Stewart and the book Idylls of the King.

Answer 10

The Once and Future King by T.H.White