The Once and Future King
core novel 1958 The Once and Future King
Record
| First published | 1958 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.06 (120,897 ratings, collected 2026-09-11) |
| Page count | 639 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780399105975 |
Synopsis
T. H. White's retelling of the Arthurian legend, loosely built on Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, is set largely in the imagined English land of Gramarye and unfolds across four linked parts originally published between 1938 and 1958. It opens with the boyhood of an orphan called Wart, raised as a ward and squire at Castle Sauvage under Sir Ector alongside Ector's son Kay, unaware of his own true parentage or destiny. His education comes from the eccentric magician Merlyn, who lives backward through time and teaches Wart by transforming him into various animals so he can learn about power, nature, and justice from outside a human perspective.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Once and Future King
- Series: not part of a registered series (standalone work within its universe)
- Author: T.H. White
Notes
- Single continuous novel uniting revised versions of 4 parts under one title: The Sword in the Stone, The Queen of Air and Darkness (a heavily rewritten version of the 1939 standalone 'The Witch in the Wood', less than half its original length), The Ill-Made Knight, and The Candle in the Wind (which had no prior standalone existence; it debuted directly in this 1958 edition). Registered as a single Core Canon work, not 4 separate books, matching this project's existing Lord of the Rings precedent (an internal Book/Part structure is not the same thing as separately-sold volumes).
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within The Once and Future King (standalone work): position 3 of 4: previous The Witch in the Wood (1939) · next The Book of Merlyn (1977)
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Once_and_Future_King
- https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-once-and-future-king/summary
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