Le Morte d'Arthur

The legends of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table have inspired some of the greatest works of literature--from Cervantess Don Quixote to Tennysons Idylls of the King. Although many versions exist, Malorys stands as the classic rendition. Malory wrote the book while in Newgate Prison during the last three years of his life; it was published some fourteen years later, in 1485, by William Caxton. The tales, steeped in the magic of Merlin, the powerful cords of the chivalric code, and the age-old dramas of love and death, resound across the centuries.

The stories of King Arthur, Lancelot, Queen Guenever, and Tristram and Isolde seem astonishingly moving and modern. Malorys Le Morte dArthur endures and inspires because it embodies mankinds deepest yearnings: for brotherhood and community; a love worth dying for; and valor, honor, and chivalry. Le Morte dArthur remains an enchanted sea for the reader to swim about in, delighting at the random beauties of fifteenth-century prose, said Robert Graves.