The Book of Merlyn - TH White

⭐6.5/10

This is the fifth and final book from White's Arthurian saga. It was published after his death, and does not really follow the rest of the story. The last book ends just before the clash between Arthur and Mordred, and in this one, Merlyn reappears to Arthur and finishes his education, which was the theme of the first book when Arthur was a child. In this one, he's mostly teaching him ethics and philosophy through straight lectures, and then of course turning him into animals which is his fav. 

I dunno. This one isn't really what I was looking for at this stage. It's VERY idea based, and I can't imagine which child would enjoy this. It almost reads like Plato's Republic where the author can explain his philosophy through a conversation between two people. White has some very interesting, very modern ideas, especially because this was written right after WWII. Lots of thoughts on human nature, violence, war, good, evil, cooperation. Like, this is a full dissertation on ethics, appearing as the last chapter of a kids fantasy novel. It's definitely strange, though the entire series is a bit strange. Still, this abandons all pretense of storytelling, and is straight sermonizing. 

I can't say I hated it. Again, White is a skilled writer, and he conveys his ideas with humour and flair. I can't say it made me rethink much, though it put some things in cool ways. I suppose it's an interesting take on some big ideas. Well I guess one thing that I have thought about a lot is that one character says that one benefit of war is that it makes for good stories. The author is pretty clearly anti-war, yet just wrote a massive novel about medieval conflict, and so I think the whole concept was pretty intriguing. I think about that often while consuming or producing things; how can we tell compelling stories without glorifying violence? So many stories are inherently built on it. 

Anyways, not a crazy concept, but one I found fun to explore in this context. He also goes back to some Arthurian stuff at the end, and man, I just really love this legend. I'm not sure this was my favorite telling overall, but I guess I'm still glad I read it, though the investment was immense.