# The Once and Future King-anyone else read it?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 8, 2003, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714 "2003-12-08T07:08:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714/1 "2003-12-08T07:08:54Z")
I love this book-I read it back when I was a senior in high school while on an Arthurian kick, and it’s one of my all time favorites.
Now I’m re-reading it. It’s got everything-Arthurian legends, yes. And funny social commentary, humor, morals, messages, etc.
Damn good book.
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### Author:  [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714/2 "2003-12-08T07:14:19Z")
I’ve read it! It’s a favorite of mine, too.
I think T.H. White had issues, but it’s still a great book. 😉
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### Author:  [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714/3 "2003-12-08T17:55:12Z")
Yes - I love this book and always recommend it to folks getting into King Arthur legends. To my mind it’s the best version.
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### Author:  [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714/4 "2003-12-08T17:59:13Z")
I read it about 20 years ago and really enjoyed it. I should re-read it.
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### Author:  [@BuckleberryFerry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BuckleberryFerry)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714/5 "2003-12-08T18:19:41Z")
I got it for Christmas last year, but have yet to read it…I’ve tried, but it’s been difficult for me to get into. Is there a place where it really picks up?
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### Author:  [@Lao\_Tsu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lao_Tsu)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714/6 "2003-12-08T18:42:31Z")
I read it a long time ago and really enjoyed it. Have you read _The Book of Merlin_? It’s a conclusion to TOAFK from White also. I really enjoyed it too.
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### Author:  [@Bucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bucky)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714/7 "2003-12-08T19:00:15Z")
I’ve read the whole series about six times, including the Book of Merlyn. It’s worth reading again and again. I find
White’s treatment of Lancelot to be the one of themost compelling versions of any hero ever.
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### Author:  [@noodler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/noodler)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714/8 "2003-12-08T20:24:43Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by BuckleberryFerry \*
> \*\*I got it for Christmas last year, but have yet to read it…I’ve tried, but it’s been difficult for me to get into. Is there a place where it really picks up? \*\*
It starts getting pretty dark by the second part and then gets progressivly darker. So if you aren’t enjoying it now, maybe you’ll find the shift in tone after the first book more interesting.
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### Author:  [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714/9 "2003-12-08T20:31:40Z")
I’ve read it and reread it many a time, and introduced my kids to it as well. I agree with **Bucky** about White’s portrayal of Lancelot.
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### Author:  [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714/10 "2003-12-08T21:54:28Z")
I read this back in high school (or junior high?), and I remember I enjoyed it. A lot of the details are a bit fuzzy, though, and I really should read it again. Isn’t Lancelot described as really ugly in White’s telling of the story? I also read the Book of Merlyn.
I also read Tennyson’s “Idylls of the King” around the same time. I think that’s what turned me onto Victorian art and literature–especially Pre-Raphaelite paintings, which have since become a major focus of my own work.
But I digress.
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### Author:  [@BuckleberryFerry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BuckleberryFerry)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714/11 "2003-12-08T22:34:39Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by noodler \*
> \*\*It starts getting pretty dark by the second part and then gets progressivly darker. So if you aren’t enjoying it now, maybe you’ll find the shift in tone after the first book more interesting. \*\*
Do you mean book in a Tolkien LOTR sense (ie more than one “book” to a publication) or in a serial sense (ie more than one book to a series in separate publications)?
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### Author:  [@kmg365](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kmg365)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714/12 "2003-12-08T22:44:49Z")
We had to read TOAFK for our 9th grade English class. To tell you the truth, I didn’t appreciate it that much at the time, b/c we _had_ to read it. I actually liked the Walt Disney cartoon version of it better, _The Sword & the Stone._ Very entertaining.
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### Author:  [@ouisey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouisey)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714/13 "2003-12-08T22:45:10Z")
This is one of my favorite books of all time.
Just the other day I made use of an expletive in one of my favorite passages of the book:
“Castor and Pollux blow me to Bermuda!”
My son and I are almost done with the Neverending Story. I think we’ll start the Sword in the Stone next.
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### Author:  [@kmg365](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kmg365)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714/14 "2003-12-08T22:46:00Z")
Correction: that’s _The Sword in the Stone_
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### Author:  [@look\_ninjas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_ninjas)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714/15 "2003-12-08T23:25:06Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by BuckleberryFerry \*
> \*\*Do you mean book in a Tolkien LOTR sense (ie more than one “book” to a publication) or in a serial sense (ie more than one book to a series in separate publications)? \*\*
In the Tolkien sense.
We had to read the “Sword in the Stone” section for 11th grade English, but the rest of it was not required. I was the big geek who kept going anyway. Fantastic book. One of my favorites.
I’ve never read The Book of Merlyn, though. I’ll have to look that one up.
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### Author:  [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714/16 "2003-12-08T23:48:57Z")
Oh yeah, great book. I read the _Book of Merlyn_, too. I think I’ll put it on the re-reading again list…
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### Author:  [@noodler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/noodler)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714/17 "2003-12-08T23:54:21Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by BuckleberryFerry \*
> \*\*Do you mean book in a Tolkien LOTR sense (ie more than one “book” to a publication) or in a serial sense (ie more than one book to a series in separate publications)? \*\*
The novel The Once and Future King consists of four sections (I think that they were called ‘books’ and they had different dates of publication so I didn’t know if I should call them ‘books’ or ‘sections’). The four sections are called 1) The Sword in the Stone 2) The Queen of Air and Darkness 3) The Ill-Made Knight 4) The Candle in the Wind.
“The Sword in the Stone” is fairly whimsical. “The Queen of Air and Darkness” has some weird Freudian under-tones. “The Ill-Made Knight” deals with Lancelot’s angst and the begining of the end of Camelot. “The Candle in the Wind” is a sort of 'Twilight of the gods" story. I personally prefered the last three parts to the first one, so if TOAFK seems hard to get into, maybe you’ll have more luck by skipping “The Sword in the Stone”, if you have even the slightest knowledge about the King Arthur mythos you won’t be missing much, at least plot-wise.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2003, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714/18 "2003-12-08T23:59:52Z")
Just one question, **ouisey**. How do you even _almost_ finish a neverending story?
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714/19 "2003-12-09T00:04:04Z")
There are several differences between “The Sword and the Stone” as part I of “The Once and Future King,” and as a stand-alone book.
As a stand-alone book, it has the wizard’s duel between Merlin and Madam Mim (which is wonderful), but doesn’t have the wild geese and ants. Instead, it has a sort of “evolution” session where Wart gets turned into a stone and watches the geological evolution of the earth, told poetically.
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### Author:  [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-once-and-future-king-anyone-else-read-it/217714/20 "2003-12-09T00:04:59Z")
I remember reading _The Once and Future King_, but I read it ages and ages ago. _The Once and Future King_, along with _The Crystal Cave_, were my first introductions to the stories of King Arthur and his posse.
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