Saturday, 11 January 2020

Meeting King Arthur, Merlin and the others

Sometimes you get back to your old literary (and, in this case, legendary) loves. Last month, I was saying that being at my parents' home, I had the pleasure to roam the bookshelves to read and reread old books. One of them was this one. The title in English would be "The Great Book of King Arthur", about the Arthurian legend of course. I received it as a Christmas present a few years ago, I can't remember when, and I had never read it. It tells in layman's terms the details of the Arthurian legend. I had not read it before because, with all humility, I am not a layman when it comes to Arthurian literature: I did my PhD on it, so there is very little if anything I can learn from that book. That said, it is a beautiful book, with gorgeous pictures and illustrations and just for this I decided to read it. And since I have left academia a long time ago, I could enjoy it innocently so to speak, as I would have had as a child or a teenager. Without feeling guilty about reading something beneath the academic that I still am, at least in title. I did not go very far in my reading, but it was nice to meet King Arthur, Merlin and the others again, so to speak. I thought about bringing the book home, but my wife strictly forbid it (too much to read here already). So it will be for our next time home.

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