The Sword in the Stone (1938)

What an amazing book, full to the brim with imagination, wonders and delights. It manages to be thrilling, extremely funny and very moving without even really seeming to try. The curious blend of ancient, mythic and modern (or at least contemporary) works brilliantly, to create something that feels far more of a fantasy than it would have otherwise. First and foremost, though, it captures more accurately than any book I've ever read the pure joy of childhood. ( )

This one was a lovely book that took me right into my childhood.
The story is very well crafted and I loved how Wart learns from animals and plants and people like Robin Wood (nono, of course he isn't Robin Hood).
His little adventures were interesting and funny and I loved how the narrator sang the songs. ( )

Flip open this book to any page and you are guaranteed to find the most beautiful prose. It brims with wonderful creative ideas, clever intertextuality, and rich metaphors. It is a work of art.

It is, sadly, difficult to read; long, meandering, dense. The pacing is very poor. I really wanted to like it more than I did (that is to say - I liked it, but I didn't like reading it), and I can see why so many readers give up part-way through.

Perhaps it was aimed at a young adult audience, owing to a heavy helping of slapstick and coming-of-age elements along with perfectly blended humour and nonsense, but this would be entirely esoteric to most young readers today. It does also feature some archaic language and attitudes that shouldn't be consumed without a critical eye.

I read the rewritten version in [b:The Once and Future King|28434662|The Once and Future King (The Once and Future King #1-4)|T.H. White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1451774552l/28434662._SY75_.jpg|1140206] (which is longer... perhaps I would have enjoyed the shorter version more) so I am willing to continue onto the next volume in the series [b:The Witch in the Wood|6400069|The Witch in the Wood (The Once and Future King, #2)|T.H. White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1318128502l/6400069._SX50_.jpg|6588779] purely for the fact that it is mercifully short and I already have it in my hands. ( )

I'm very surprised I never got turned on to this when I was younger, since I loved myths, legends, and fantasy. I suppose I lumped it in with [b:Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table|672875|Le Morte d'Arthur King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table|Thomas Malory|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1309288301l/672875._SY75_.jpg|1361856] or [b:The Faerie Queene|765427|The Faerie Queene|Edmund Spenser|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328308492l/765427._SY75_.jpg|19904] and thought it would be a straight-forward telling of the King Arthur myths, something dense and old-fashioned that I really ought to read but wasn't very excited about diving into. I had seen the Disney film of "The Sword in the Stone" and really liked it, but it didn't really click with me that I needed to seek out the source material.

It was only in reading [a:Helen Macdonald|314021|Helen Macdonald|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1400594607p2/314021.jpg]'s memoir [b:H is for Hawk|18803640|H is for Hawk|Helen Macdonald|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442151714l/18803640._SY75_.jpg|26732095] a few years back that I got an inkling of what a strange, moving, and hilarious series of tales [b:The Once and Future King|43545|The Once and Future King (The Once and Future King, #1-4)|T.H. White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1338741283l/43545._SY75_.jpg|1140206] really is. The writing is smooth, the humor layered, the central morality of the story is deeply touching. The figure of Merlin, who T.H. White brilliantly envisions as a man moving backwards through time, is absolutely brilliant and delightful.

I'm working through the rest of the cycle now, and I couldn't be more charmed so far. On to "The Witch in the Woods"! ( )

This book lost my interest in a couple of spots, but overall it was quite enjoyable. My kids and I laughed out loud at several points. I know I read this when I was younger, but reading/listening to it it this time, I only remembered the part about the pike. I have a vague memory of Wart's night in the mews, but I could have manufactured that while reading H is for Hawk.

Actually, I think that part of why I don't remember much from my earlier reading of The Sword in the Stone is that so much of the language went over my head. Reading H is for Hawk just before helped fill in some of the hawking terminology and made my T.H. White experience richer. That's worth a couple of false memories, I think. Now to tackle The Once and Future King...again. ( )