Malory's Magic Book: King Arthur and the Child, 1862-1980

Description

From the time when the writer J. T. Knowles first adapted Thomas Malory's 'Morte Darthur' for a juvenile audience in 1862, there has been a strong connection between children and the Arthurian legend. Between 1862 and 1980, in Britain and America, numerous adaptations of the 'Morte' were produced for a young audience, participating in cultural dialogues relating to the medieval, literary heritage, masculine development, risk, adventure and mental health through their reworking of the narrative. Covering texts by J. T. Knowles, Sidney Lanier, Howard Pyle, T. H. White, Roger Lancelyn Green, Alice Hadfield, John Steinbeck and Susan Cooper, among others, this volume explores how books 'for' children frequently become books 'about' children, and consequently books about the contiguity and separation of the adult and the child. Against the backdrop of Victorian medievalism, imperialism, the rise of child psychology and two world wars, the diverse ways in which Malory's text has been altered with a child reader in mind reveals changing ideas regarding the relevance of King Arthur, and the complex relationship between authors and their imagined juvenile readers. It reveals the profoundly fantasised figures behind literary representations of childhood, and the ways in which Malory's timeless tale, and the figure of King Arthur, have inspired and shaped these fantasies. List of illustrations viii Acknowledgements x A note on names xi Introduction 1 1. 'Ever fresh and fascinating to the boy and girl of today': the timeless child and the childish medieval in nineteenth‑century Arthuriana 17 2. Risk and revenue: adventurous Arthurian masculinities in the work of Howard Pyle and Henry Gilbert 53 3. The ill-made adult and the mother’s curse: psychoanalysing the Arthurian child in T. H. White's 'The Once and Future King' 83 4. 'Monty Python was not that far away': the instability of 1950s Arthuriana for children 115 5. 'For a little while a magician': potent childish fantasies in John Steinbeck's 'Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights' 143 Conclusion: At the crossing-places 177 Bibliography 193 Index 225