The revival of interest in Arthurian legend in the 19th century was a remarkable phenomenon, apparently at odds with the spirit of the age. Tennyson was widely criticised for his choice of a medieval topic; yet The Idylls of the Kingwere accepted as the national epic, and a flood of lesser works was inspired by them, on both sides of the Atlantic. Elisabeth Brewer and Beverly Taylor survey the course of Arthurian literature from 1800 to the present day, and give an account of all the major English and American contributions. Some of the works are well-known, but there are also a host of names...

The intertextuality of this brilliant poem can be more fully understood through Elisabeth Brewer's presentation of modern English versions of themes familiar from Gawain and the Green Knight --beheading, seduction and other traditional material -- from a range of medieval writings. Her book is a delightful and unusual small anthology of medieval literature; but its greatest success lies in providing a context for a fuller understanding of Sir Gawain, through its presentation of extracts and poems (including translation from Celtic and French originals) illustrating the tradition in which the...

The Once and Future King defies classification. Is it for children, or for adults? Is it fantasy or a psychological novel? In its great range, it encompasses poetry and farce, comedy and tragedy --and sudden flights of schoolboy humour. White's footnote to Malory' (his own phrase) resulted in the last major retelling of the story based on Malory's Morte Darthur, and Elisabeth Brewer explores the literary context of White's finest work as well as considering his aims and achievement in writing it. White's story of Arthur begins with his enfances', set in an imaginary medieval England, but it...