Le Morte Darthur /

The tales of King Arthur, his noble Knights of the Round Table, and the quest for the Holy Grail have fascinated audiences for at least a thousand years. In 1485 William Caxton published Le Morte D'Arthur, ever since considered the definitive collection of Arthurian tales. In the 1930s the Winchester manuscript was uncovered; it differed significantly from Caxton's version. In this new, and hefty, two-volume critical edition, Field (Bangor Univ., Wales) gets as close as possible to Malory's intended text using the Winchester manuscript as his primary text, but drawing also on Caxton's and, uniquely, Malory's sources. This edition represents a lifetime of scholarship--Field previously edited the third edition of The Works of Sir Thomas Malory (1990; 1st ed. by Eugene Vinaver, 1947) based on the Winchester manuscript and later published Malory: Texts and Sources (1999). Volume 1 of the set includes the complete text, without footnotes or commentary; these are in volume 2, cross-referenced by page and line numbers. This readable critical edition stands as a worthy replacement to the Oxford edition, and throws down the gauntlet to editions based solely on Caxton's version. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. J. J. Doherty Northern Arizona University