[crazybigdan]

The Once and Future King by T H White is likely my favorite fictional book. A modern (1940s) retelling of Arthurian legend, it really struck me in how it was able to captivate my imagination and my emotions. In that story I found White was masterfully able to discern when to be serious and when to be playful - by which he reanimated, for me, the legend of Arthur - parts of which I started to find stale, or outright did not enjoy.

[pge]

I would add that he also does a wonderful job capturing and describing human nature. He is writing right after WWII, and the Arthurian legend is just a vehicle for his observations about humanity (and the war).

Wonderful book - I just finished reading the first section (the Sword in the Stone) out loud to my daughter, and I hope as she gets older, she will read the rest on her own.