Just finished this book and I loved it! It's the first of a collection of five. It was published in 1938 and inspired the Disney movie.
What I really liked about it was the author's style. He writes in a sensitive, loose way that makes you sympathize with the characters very easily.
The books tell the story of King Arthur from the moment his education with Merlin starts to his death. This one goes as far as he becomes the king. Sometimes, the story gets kind of slow in those parts where he describes Wart's (that was Arthur's nickname) experiences as animals (Merlin transforms him to teach him lessons), but that's my only "complaint".
This is not the vision, however, we are used to have on Arthurian stories. Morgana has a minor role, being just a witch Wart and his foster brother Kay combat by Robin Hood's side. But the book has interesting lessons, since Merlin wants Arthur to learn the best values possible for a sovereign.
Besides, there are dazzling descriptions of the wild landscapes of England on these remote times. You form this image in your head, of the woods surrounding the castle, the tower were Merlin lives, the big tree in which Robin Hood and his mates camp.
I recommend it for anyone who want some simple magic.
“But there was a time when each of us stood naked before the world, confronting life as a serious problem with which we were intimately and passionately concerned... There was a time when Free Love versus Catholic Morality was a question of as much importance to our hot bodies as if a pistol had been clapped to our heads.
Further back, there were times when we wondered with all our souls, what the world was, what love was, what we were ourselves.”
