I read this in my school days and thoroughly enjoyed the rereading! A Puffin books version written in the 1950s for children. I found this version far superior to the Antonia Fraser volume from the 1960s which may be for a much younger audience, say children versus this effort by Green is more suited to the Young Adult audience.
This version is a great introduction to the Arthur myth in an easier to read language than say Mallory’s Morte D’Arthur, but still keeps very well to the traditional tale. That said modern readers might find the violence and less than sensitive treatment of various social issue a bit confronting these days. ( )

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I got this book because the author came highly recommended and I thought it would be a fun addition to our homeschool resources.

Then I started reading it aloud to my kids.

It was fine for the first few chapters, very familiar stuff related to Merlin and the Lady of the Lake, blah, blah, blah. The knights of the round table were assembled, the prose was really wonderful, and then everyone started going out on their adventures. It didn’t take very long for things to get really tedious - there tended to be repeating themes of some mix of chivalrous, if overly naive and trusting knights, knights who had no business representing chivalrous character or manners (but were never really called on it or had to deal with consequences for their idiocy/greed/rudeness/cowardice), and women who were either perfect, ideal, virtuous saints or wicked terrible sorceresses (the only exception being Guinevere, who, because of her choice which brought ruin to the kingdom, actually had a little depth to her character). The best part of the quest stories might have been that a lot of them reminded me of their counterparts in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Well done to the Python boys for staying relatively true to the source material.

The overall experience of the stories were a disappointment. I have seen/read lots of stories including King Arthur and his knights that were thrilling and full of heart. Because of that, I was looking forward to experiencing these classic stories themselves. Instead, I really had a hard time reading through all the stories (don’t tell my kids, I skipped a couple chapters before the quest for the Grail started) and I didn’t want to finish.

I don’t fault Roger Lancelyn Green, his writing was the best part of the book. And I’m not against reading other retellings of the stories, but I might just need a break to spend some time watching Merlin or maybe Monty Python again to help motivate me. ( )

Il ciclo della Tavola Rotonda rielaborato dall'autore, con illustrazioni in bianco e nero ( )