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She is the author of books and articles on Chaucer and the Arthurian legends. She completes her study with an account of White's use of historical material, and the relationship of The Once and Future King to the Morte Darthur.ĮLISABETH BREWER lectured in English at Homerton College, Cambridge. In discussing these,Elisabeth Brewer looks at some of the ways in which White drew on his own personal experience at a deep psychological level, while also incorporating into his story material inspired by his antiquarian pursuits and by his years as a schoolmaster. The books which eventually made up The Once and Future Kingof 1958 appeared in distinctly different editions. Malory's chivalric virtues are rejected in favour of White's own twentieth-century values the love affair of Lancelot and Guenever is interpreted in terms of modern psychology. Through the medium of the Arthurian story he found his own voice, his unique contribution to keeping alive the flame of civilisation. White was writing in wartime England, a country increasingly absorbed by a need to find an antidote to war. White's story of Arthur begins with his `enfances', set in an imaginary medieval England, but it is far removed from the conventional historical novel.

White's `footnote to Malory' (his own phrase) resulted in the last major retelling of the story based on Malory's Morte Darthur, and Elisabeth Brewer explores the literary context of White's finest work as wellas considering his aims and achievement in writing it. Is it for children, or for adults? Is it fantasy or a psychological novel? In its great range, it encompasses poetry and farce, comedy and tragedy -and sudden flights of schoolboy humour. The Once and Future King defies classification.

The once and future king book series