Peter Ackroyd - The Death Of King Arthur

Rating: 2/5

Review:
Disappointing

I have been an enthusiast for the Arthurian legends ever since reading Roger Lancelyn Green as a child, and I have enjoyed many of Peter Ackroyd’s previous books so was looking forward to this very much.  Sadly it was a considerable disappointment.  It is an abridgement and “translation” of Malory’s Morte d’Arthur, but I am afraid that it doesn’t really capture Malory’s spirit, nor the high, myth-like drama of the tales of magic and flawed heroes.

Ackroyd’s prose is generally very flat which robs these odd stories of their magical air, so that much of the book seems like a series of rather similar vignettes involving knights jousting, enchantments and deceptions, ladies whose virtue is in peril and so on.  The Quest for the Grail and the Death of Arthur do work better, but still failed to grip or involve me in any way.  Part of the problem is a noticeable inconsistency in language – a real surprise from such an accomplished writer as Peter Ackroyd.  For example, in the same paragraph at the start of the Quest for the Grail we get Arthur saying in a flat modern vernacular “…you have come close to killing me by making that vow…” and then “Why should I not grieve?” – two wholly different styles.  A few pages later Galahad says “I await your return with interest,” which sounds more like the close of a modern business letter than a knight talking to a loved friend who is going to mortal peril.  I’m afraid it just didn’t work for me.

I am sorry to be so critical of a book I expected to like very much, but it’s not a patch on Malory’s original.  This will do as a serviceable summary of Malory for reference, but for a really involving (if eccentric and personal) re-working of the Arthurian legends, I’d recommend T.H. White’s fabulous The Once And Future King.