Sir Thomas Malory:  Le Morte Darthur [2 volume set]
Title Details

984 Pages

24.4 x 17.2 cm

Series: Arthurian Studies

Series Vol. Number: 80

Imprint: D.S.Brewer

Sir Thomas Malory: Le Morte Darthur [2 volume set]

Edited by Peter J C Field

  • Description
  • Reviews
A new edition of Malory's Morte Darthur based on the Winchester and other source manuscripts.

CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title

Malory completed his Morte Darthur in 1469-70. The two earliest surviving witnesses, the Winchester manuscript and Caxton's printed edition, were both produced within the next sixteen years. The manuscript was soon lost, but its rediscovery in 1934 revealed that these two texts had striking differences. Eighty years of scholarship in a variety of disciplines has discovered a good deal about who changed whatand why: the Caxton, for instance, tends to be very unreliable in the last few lines of particular kinds of pages. These discoveries should make it possible to produce an edition of Malory's book that comes closer than ever before to what Malory intended to write. The present edition aims to do that, basing itself on the Winchester manuscript, but treating it merely as the most important piece of evidence for what Malory intended, and the default text where no other reading can be shown to be more probable.

P.J.C. Field is Professor of English at Bangor University.
"This is a wonderful edition, the product of a lifetime's work, and presented with great clarity and precision. Field's editorial decisions are intelligent and convincing, and he has in any case supplied readers with all the material required should they wish to differ." SPECULUM
"Will become our standard critical edition of Malory." FABULA
"[A] magisterial critical edition. . There is no doubt that this edition of Le Morte Darthur will now become the standard and indispensable one for the foreseeable years of the twenty-first century. It stands as testimony to the near-lifetime scholarly commitment of Peter Field." REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES
"Selected as a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of 2014" .
"Throws down the gauntlet to editions based solely on Caxton's version. Essential." CHOICE
"The result of decades of study of Malory and his work, P.J.C. Field's edition of Le Morte Darthur is clearly one of the major events in the long history of Malory scholarship. The edition he has produced is an invaluable contribution to Malory scholarship and will surely become the standard edition of Malory's masterpiece." ARTHURIANA
"P. J. C. Field's long-awaited edition of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur is, as might be expected from a work that has on its back cover a statement of its editorial philosophy, a monument of textual scholarship intended for scholars who can appreciate the importance of textual detail. . . . I expect this to become the standard edition for citing Malory." THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW
"Every serious scholar of Malory and of Arthurian literature will need to consult this work, which will surely be the standard edition for decades to come." TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
"The two volumes produced by Field constitute a paramount contribution to Arthurian studies, providing a well-thought synthesis of available knowledge on Malory's original text and sources reflecting almost eighty years of scholarship." Studia Anglica Posnaniensia

Hardcover

9781843843146

December 2013

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Title Details

984 Pages

2.44 x 1.72 cm

Series: Arthurian Studies

Series Vol. Number: 80

Imprint: D.S.Brewer