This is Volume 2 of the free Amazon.com e-books of the out-of-copyright 2-volume 1903 Macmillan edition of Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, which was originally printed by William Caxton in 1485. This edition was edited by A. W. Pollard; obvious misprints were mostly corrected and archaic spellings were updated to more modern equivilants, but in most else this edition was kept as close to Caxton’s version as possible.

Finished sometime in 1469-1470 by Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur is an English compilation/translation of many of the existing Arthurian romances and poems of the time, most of which were originally French (resulting in the occasional mention of “the French book” in the narrative), with some personal additions/summarizations by Malory. Malory is believed to have died before Caxton prepared the manuscript for printing, leaving Caxton himself to edit the manuscript and divide it into books and chapters for printing.

The resulting 507 chapters are divided among a total of 21 books. They cover the story of Arthur Pendragon, one-time King of Camelot, from the time of his birth to his eventual death, alongside the stories of some of the more notable knights of the Round Table, including Lancelot and Tristram (commonly known as Tristan).

Volume 2 includes: the last 12 books of Le Morte d’Arthur and a glossary, beginning at Kindle Location 6926, of many archaic or obscure words present in the text. Plot covers the later adventures of many of the knights of the Round Table, the Quest for the Holy Grail, the breaking apart of the fellowship of the Round Table, and the events surrounding Arthur’s death.

A study, casual or not, of the popular English source for many of the later stories of the Arthurian legends.

It is a classic piece of literature and a good starting point for anyone interested in Arthurian legend.

The archaic language and story-telling style might be a turn-off for some, though the glossary at the end sufficiently addresses the former for my taste and the latter didn’t really bother me. Those who don’t have patience for such things might prefer a more modernized edition.

Like Volume 1, this volume also has the inconsistent formatting of many free classic e-books, though it is more prevelant than it was in the first volume. While there were no active links to the glossary throughout the text, the glossary was linked in the table of contents.

Disclaimer: This Kindle transcription of the out-of-copyright original does not include the information about the 1903 publisher within the e-book or directly on the Amazon.com page -- I researched that myself based on A. W. Pollard being the author of the bibliographical note at the beginning of Volume 1. If that information is incorrect, it is my own fault. Actually, if any of the information here is incorrect, it’s my fault.

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Created Sep 30, 2013 at 2:02pm • Submit your own review...