Arthur the King: A Romance: Book 1 ("The Dark Ages" trilogy) - Hardcover

Massie, Allan

 
9780297816782: Arthur the King: A Romance: Book 1 ("The Dark Ages" trilogy)
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0297816780 ISBN 13: 9780297816782
Verlag: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003

Inhaltsangabe

In this epic novel, Allan Massie cleverly uses the key points of the Arthurian legend - Arthur himself, his wife Guinevere, his lover Morgan le Fay, Merlin, the sword Excalibur, and the Knights of the Round Table - but readers would need to be exceptionally well versed in Arthurian lore to tell where Massie has added his own inventive twists to the tale. From the moment when callow young Arthur succeeds in drawing the sword Excalibur from the stone, thus becoming King, the story unfolds. We see how, with the aid of Merlin and the knights, Arthur welded England into a single nation, and became involved in the wars of a wider Europe, until at his death England fragmented once again. We may think we know the story of Arthur and of Camelot, but in Massie's hands it comes across as newly minted.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Allan Massie is the author of seventeen highly praised novels, as well as non-fiction works on Muriel Spark, a study of twelve emperors of ancient Rome, a history of crime in 19th-century Edinburgh and the acclaimed GLASGOW: PORTRAITS OF A CITY. He was brought up in Aberdeenshire and educated at Glenalmond School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read history. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been a judge of the Booker Prize. He is also a journalist, contributing to the Scottish and English press. He is married, has three children and lives in the Scottish Borders.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

THE EVENING OF THE WORLD

'It is mighty entertainment - and a humbling feat. Allan Massie knows so much about so many different aspects of this period that his writing seems effortlessly edifying' Thomas, Hodgkinson, Literary Review

'A funny, sad, exuberant and richly told tale' Murrough O'Brien, Independent on Sunday

'Massie's hotch-potch romance reflects the fractured and unstable world of crumbling empires and tattered creeds, as old religions decline into underground cults and the new Christianity is splintered by heresies' Caroline Moore, Sunday Telegraph

'A romance in the old sense, the novel abounds in digressions and stories within stories from travelling companions' Patrick Gale, Daily Telegraph

'Entertaining, informative, vivid and well-realised, The Evening of the World will not disappoint the many admirers Allan Massie's novels have attracted' Carolyne Larrington, TLS

'Skilfully plotted, intriguing and intelligent, this is a novel that keeps the reader turning the pages as well as satisfying the intellect. The subsequent books in the trilogy have a high standard to maintain' The Scotsman

'This is a book that can be recommended to anyone who thinks that the historical novel is moribund' Peter Parker, Sunday Times

Aus dem Klappentext

From its opening scene where knight after knight endeavours to draw a jewelled sword from a cleft in a stone in order to become the new King of Britain, Allan Massie's ARTHUR THE KING is a thrilling and original novel inspired by the Arthurian legend.

In Massie's Camelot - set, incidentally, on the River Tweed - we are in the
post-Roman era where kings are jockeying for position, for title, land and power. Massie draws on the familiar characters of the legend - Merlin, Guinevere, Morgan Le Fay as well as Arthur himself, the various Knights of the Round Table and the sword Excalibur.

When we first meet Arthur he is a callow youth with a friend and servant by the name of Cal. We learn something of the origins of the magician Merlin (the son of a Roman centurion) and how he nurtures the child Arthur. His relationships with Morgan Le Fay and Guinevere are complex.

The Arthur of Massie's novel is an increasingly troubled monarch, worn down by the affairs of state. He disapproves of his knights' yearning for battle; he thinks their quest for the Holy Grail is selfish. Massie's Arthur is the great statesman of his times. Many readers will see parallels with more recent history.

ARTHUR THE KING shows Allan Massie at the top of his form as a historical novelist. Here is a familiar legend freshly minted.


£14.99
In UK only

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Verlag
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Erscheinungsdatum
2003
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0297816780
ISBN 13 
9780297816782
Einband
Tapa dura
Auflage
1
Anzahl der Seiten
304
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar

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