Yeah, I was rather shocked, myself…it’s one of my favorite books ever. I’ve always found it deeply moving – both the silly bits and the dark ones.
I need to reread it soon, actually, especially since I finally got a copy that isn’t in danger of falling apart if I look at it the wrong way. It’s been too long. (And I bet I’ll be able to spot a lot more of the references now, as I have a much more solid grounding in medieval literature and history than I did last time I read it… ;))
Isn’t it funny how we seem to be pretty evenly split here. Well, I’m in the camp of “I loved it”, although it is a long time since I last read it.
Incidentlaly, Chronos I do hope you will enjoy the “Book of Merlyn”, but my own recollection is that it has a different tone, is a bit of a hotch-potch, including some parts that had already been published in t"The Sword in the Stone", and, well, I jsut didn’t think it compared well with the other volumes. I’m serious about hope you do like it though! 
I love “The Sword in the Stone,” and re-read it every few years (the first part of TOAFK, not the kids’ book), but, like Cisco, I’ve never been able to finish the rest of the book. Y’all are inspiring me, though; it’s going back on my “to be read” stack.
I couldn’t stand The Mists of Avalon. Something about it just set my teeth on edge. Obviously, YMMV.
I loved it, the silly bits and the dark sections alike. It really is four different books smooshed into one, though, so be prepared for the tone to shift. However, if the first part is too light for you, it’s a good reason to keep going, as it gets darker. Much darker.
I don’t think the beginning was all that goofy. Yeah, the Sword in the Stone was a lighter book than the other three, and there is all the “turning into animals” bit, but the animal stories are really about government and society. And that’s one of the major themes of the Once and Future King…Arthur’s (failed) attempt to create a perfect society made up of imperfect people.
I really should start reading the various Arthur books myself. I’ve read 2 and they are interpretations of it. The ones I read were The Forever King where Arthur is a young boy… reborn in this day and age. I need to work on the rest of the trilogy. The other is The Dragon Queen It focuses more on Guinevere, but the second book (The Raven King) focuses on Arthur. It’s a bit of a read, lots of symbolism and Celtic themes woven in but worth it IMHO. I never did read Mists of Avalon, I started to but couldn’t get very far into it.
Thanks for reminding me I needed to check out TOAFK. I placed a hold at the library right now, so I’ll be digging into it soon as I read Dune (another book I kept putting off and now I wonder why)
Lamia-have you read Sharan Newman’s Guinevere trilogy? Probably my favorite treatment of the character. Guinevere is neither a kickass warrior babe, nor a beautiful, empty-headed temptress. Instead, she starts out as a young daydreamer, head in the clouds type of girl, who gradually matures.
TOAFK is one of my favorites, too. It’s freaking hysterical when it’s funny, and down right gut-wrenching when it’s sad. The political commentary (I believe White was a pacifist, who was arguing against the “Might Makes Right” of the times), is apt, even for today.
I also enjoyed it a great deal. I like the progression of the stories.
When I first started reading this thread and everyone was saying how they hated it, I was wondering if we had read the same one.
Good to find that others do enjoy it.
TV
MrsB loves Arthurian legend retellings, so several years back a friend gave her The once and future king omnibus.
Neither of us has managed to get more than 50 pages into it.
YMMV
IMO you can’t find a better retelling of Arthurian legend without picking up the works of Malory himself. The changes in tone in TOAFK reflect Arthur’s journey through the years, starting as a bright-eyed boy having magical adventures and ending as a weary, shattered king withdrawing from history into a fog of cannon smoke.
I loathed it.
I STILL loath it.
INM notso HO it was stupid, silly and badly written.
Maybe I was just expecting something else from it, I don’t know…
ON the flip side it WAS more readable than Umberto Eco…
I love it, it’s a great book. I think I’ll reread it again soon, now that you mention it. I wasn’t so thrilled with The book of merlyn, but it was still interesting to read.
I too have read a lot of Arthurian stories, but The once and future king is one I put up at the top of the list. (I don’t much care for Mists of Avalon-style stories, though.)
Other books by TH White: Mistress Masham’s Repose, a children’s book in which a girl finds a colony of Lilliputians, and gradually learns about the harm in exploitation of others. A good story.
And I recently read a nicely clever 30’s mystery White wrote in his early days, which is set at Pemberley (no other mention of Jane Austen, only that Elizabeth is a traditional name in the family).