Sir Thomas Malory: Le Morte Darthur - by Peter J C Field (Paperback)

About the Book

Peter Field's new edition of the Morte Darthur has been hailed as "our standard critical edition of Malory". This paperback of Vol 1 only makes the complete definitive original spelling text edition available, with the same pagination as in Vol 1 of the original two-volume hardback edition.

Book Synopsis

Peter Field's new edition of the Morte Darthur has been hailed as "our standard critical edition of Malory". This paperback of Vol 1 only makes the complete definitive original spelling text edition available, with the same pagination as in Vol 1 of the original two-volume hardback edition.

This Paperback is volume 1 (text only) of the original two-volume edition. Selected as a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of 2014, the two-volume scholarly edition of the Morte Darthur examined the two surviving versions of the text: Caxton's edition of 1485 and the Winchester manuscript, known to have existed around 1480 but lost until 1934. All major modern scholarly editions have favoured one of these to the point of preserving corrigible error. This paperback includes the definitive original spelling text edition of Malory's classic text which has been described as a "major event in the long history of Malory scholarship". Anyone wishing to have this text along with the full critical apparatus assembled by Professor Field is referred to the two-volume hardcover edition, which remains in print.

P.J.C. Field is Professor of English at Bangor University.

Review Quotes

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"

[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"

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"

Reviews of the two volume edition: -- "."

Selected as a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of 2014-- "."

The publishers are to be congratulated, then, for making this important text available to a much wider audience than was originally the case.-- "SCRIPTORIUM"

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"

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"

Throws down the gauntlet to editions based solely on Caxton's version. Essential.-- "CHOICE"

Will become our standard critical edition of Malory.-- "FABULA"