billybookblog

*contains spoilers* As I stated in my blog about Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur (Volume 1), the complete text, consisting of all twenty-one Books, was published in its entirety for the first time in 1484 by William Caxton. Penguin Classics, however, are good (great, in fact) enough supply an updated version in two still lengthy but much more digestible and separate volumes. You can of course read the text in its more complete and original form in Malory: Complete Works (published by Oxford Standard Authors), but if you’re getting into the medieval tales of knight errantry for the first time, I’d suggest the Penguin editions as a reliable toe-dipper. It’s at this point, in Le Morte D’Arthur (Volume 2) , when Malory begins to address the issue concerning the title of the work: the actual death of King Arthur. But before everything begins to unravel, and before the knights of the Table Round descend into nihilistic and violent chaos, we are first reminded of what made this rather...

*contains spoilers* One of the first things that occurred to me on picking up Jane Austen’s revered masterpiece, Emma , was that I’d not yet read it! Honestly, Billy… But I made up for this piece of sacrilegious neglect on my part by diving eagerly into this text. Emma is considered one of Austen’s best completed works, ranging up there with her two most famous pieces, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility , though I think it is possibly the best of hers I’ve read so far! In her own estimation, Austen declared Emma to be a character “whom no one but myself will much like”, which is to some extent quite true. On reaching the halfway point in the novel, which itself comes about halfway through Volume II of III, I discussed Emma’s character thus far with a friend: “She’s really fucking annoying”, he said, and I didn’t completely disagree. And here’s why: Emma Woodhouse is spoilt. She’s constantly fussed over by her father (who himself regularly complains and requires attention a...