Idylls of the King (Penguin Classic)

Rating:
Summary: Knocked off a star for the misogyny
Review: Tennyson's poetic version of Arthurian legend is inspiring and beautifully cadenced. If you are unfamiliar with the foundational tales of the Round Table this may not be the version to start out with...particularly if you also don't read poetry very often. If, however, you are familiar with Arthur, Guinevere, Galahad, and the rest of the Table, Tennyson's interpretation of the tales as a cautionary illustration of the impossible futility of human ideals juxtaposed with human frailty is moving. Feminists may find the focus on Guinevere's culpability in the destruction of the ideal difficult to stomach, but when viewed as a tale of its time (ie. 19th century) the contrasts between the Victorian Camulodian ideal and the 20th and 21st century interpretations of the legend are intriguing.

Rating:
Summary: An epic Arthurian Romance
Review: This lengthy poem about King Arthur's court is written in grand epic style, in the spirit of the Iliad, the Odyssey, and Paradise Lost, and drawing on these and other great epics. Tennyson follows many of the traditional epic conventions here--the epic similes, the epic quests, etc. But this work is not wholly an epic, it is rather more of a Romance. The book is divided into various sections, each dealing with a knight (or knights) of King Arthur's court. The adventures they encounter are various and only remotely connected, but there is a back story to each. Something is going on behind the scenes. The first part of the book deals with the rise of Arthur, and of the glory of his kingdom. The second part focuses on the gradual decline of his influence, and culminates with the King's discovery of Lancelot and Guinevere's affair.

This is one of my favorite Arthurian romances. Tennyson's verse is beautiful and vivid, and his story is both compelling and easy to follow. No study of English Romanticism would be complete without Tennyson, and this is one of his finest works.

Rating:
Summary: An epic Arthurian Romance
Review: This lengthy poem about King Arthur's court is written in grand epic style, in the spirit of the Iliad, the Odyssey, and Paradise Lost, and drawing on these and other great epics. Tennyson follows many of the traditional epic conventions here--the epic similes, the epic quests, etc. But this work is not wholly an epic, it is rather more of a Romance. The book is divided into various sections, each dealing with a knight (or knights) of King Arthur's court. The adventures they encounter are various and only remotely connected, but there is a back story to each. Something is going on behind the scenes. The first part of the book deals with the rise of Arthur, and of the glory of his kingdom. The second part focuses on the gradual decline of his influence, and culminates with the King's discovery of Lancelot and Guinevere's affair.

This is one of my favorite Arthurian romances. Tennyson's verse is beautiful and vivid, and his story is both compelling and easy to follow. No study of English Romanticism would be complete without Tennyson, and this is one of his finest works.