BOOK: Le Morte D’Arthur (1485)

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Le Morte D'Arthur Year: 1485 Author: Thomas Malory Length: 1,974 minutes / 32.90 hours While the Arthurian legend has always fascinated me, I wasn’t entirely sure how much of what I knew was just condensed through other adaptations and interpretations and what was in the original story. I finally took it upon myself to read through this huge multi-volume set to find out what it’s actually about. To say it disappointed me would be an understatement. Perhaps it’s the prose, or the translation, or just the story structure, but I have never been so bored by a piece of literature since I forced myself to read Ulysses. Early on, Le Morte D’Arthur had enough recognizable events to keep me engaged. The origins of Arthur’s birth. The Sword in the Stone. Lady of the Lake and Excalibur. Then, things fell apart. So much of the focus in this book was on random battles and jousts that I could hardly believe the famous stories that were gleaned...
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BOOK: Augie and the Green Knight (2014)

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Augie and the Green Knight Year: 2014 Author: Zach Weinersmith Length: 219 pages While I’m slowly getting into the deep and thorough lore of the Arthurian legend, one story that seems to be popular in the cultural zeitgeist is the one about the Green Knight. I haven’t seen the recent The Green Knight (2021) movie adaptation yet, but I’m definitely aware of its overarching story due to the middle-grade book Augie and the Green Knight. It’s clear from some of the review snippets I’ve seen for the movie that the logic of the tale doesn’t hold up to today’s standards, an issue that Augie and the Green Knight thoroughly explores. This book follows Augie, a precocious girl who is definitely smarter than her years—even at the cost of the credulity of the story. When she finds herself transported into the mythical world of the Green Knight, she is unfazed by the peculiar world. The plot unfolds as it always does in this story, except that...
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