Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality. Vol. 13, King Arthur

Morris, Charles, 1833-1922Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
507K words
Chapters
51

Tags

English Originals History Books Historical ReappraisalLegendary LivesAdventure JourneyHeroismPatriotismPopular NarrativeYouth Reading

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality. Vol. 13 (of 15), King Arthur (1) by Malory et al.Author: Morris, Charles, 1833-1922,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Apr 6, 2010

Editor's review

This is Volume 13 of Charles Morris's fifteen-volume Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality, focusing on the Arthurian legends and presented in English. It is not a simple reproduction of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur but rather incorporates legendary material into the popular narrative framework of "historic tales," emphasizing the realistic texture and moral significance behind the stories. For readers who wish to encounter the main Arthurian plot in a more accessible way, this book offers an easier entry point than the original; for those studying nineteenth-century popular historiography and the reception history of legend, it is also a usable textual sample. As a public-domain e-book, it has a low barrier to entry and is suitable as supplementary classroom material or as a bridge book for family reading. Note that it carries the narrative tone and value judgments of its editorial era; it is best read alongside Malory's original to discern its selections and omissions.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Begin with the table of contents and chapter titles to grasp the editor's selection and arrangement of the Arthurian story.
  2. Read alongside the relevant passages of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, noting additions, omissions, and differences in tone.
  3. Use the book as English extensive reading material; after each chapter, retell the main points in your own words.
  4. For classroom use, select chapters on the Knights of the Round Table or the Holy Grail for group discussion.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51

FAQ

Is this book a complete translation of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur? No. It is Volume 13 of Morris's Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality, themed on the Arthurian legends. It is a popular retelling rather than a complete translation of Malory's original. It should be read as an adaptation and retelling, not as the original text.
How difficult is the English? Is it suitable for non-native readers? Overall it is popular narrative English with fairly uncomplicated sentence structures, though it retains nineteenth-century expressions and personal and place names. Readers with intermediate English reading ability can work through it with a dictionary; beginners are advised to read selected chapters or to use Chinese-language background material on the Arthurian story.
Can this book be cited as historical material? It should not be cited directly as historical evidence. It reflects how nineteenth-century popular historical writing understood and arranged the Arthurian legend and is better suited to studying reception history, popular narrative, or legend adaptation than to verifying medieval history itself.
In what order should this book be read? It can be read straight through in table-of-contents order, or you can start with key chapters such as Arthur's birth and accession, the Knights of the Round Table, the Holy Grail, and the final outcome. If reading alongside Malory's original, it is advisable to first read the corresponding chapters of this book to establish the plot framework, then return to the original to examine details and stylistic differences.

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About the author

Morris, Charles, 1833-1922 Author

Charles Morris (1833–1922) is an English-language author about whose life relatively little is publicly documented; his nationality and education are not well recorded, and 18 of his works are currently held in the collection. Judging from these works, he excelled at history and general knowledge writing for ordinary readers. His representative works include the Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality series, whose volumes treat such subjects as King Arthur, America, Spanish America, Spain, and Scandinavia, presenting historical events and legends in a lively and readable manner. He also wrote A New History of the United States, a general account of American history; The San Francisco Calamity by Earthquake and Fire, a record of the San Francisco earthquake and fire; and Man And His Ancestor: A Study In Evolution, which concerns evolutionary themes. His writing draws on a wide range of materials and balances narrative interest with the popularization of knowledge.