Le Morte D'Arthur - Later Publications

Later Publications

The Victorian poet Tennyson based his retelling of the legends in the Idylls of the King primarily on Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and the Mabinogion, but with many expansions, additions, and several adaptations, a notable example of which is the fate of Guinevere. In Malory she is sentenced to be burnt at the stake but is rescued by Lancelot; in the Idylls Guinevere flees to a convent, is forgiven by Arthur, repents, and serves in the convent until she dies. Tennyson amended the traditional spellings of several names to fit the metre.

In 1892, London publisher J. M. Dent & Co. decided to produce an illustrated edition of Le Morte Darthur, in modern spelling. They chose a 20-year-old insurance-office clerk and art student, Aubrey Beardsley, to illustrate the work. It was issued in 12 parts between June 1893 and mid-1894, and met with only modest success at the time. However, it has since been described as Beardsley's first masterpiece, launching what has come to be known as the "Beardsley look". It was his first major commission, and included nearly 585 chapter openings, borders, initials, ornaments and full- or double-page illustrations. Most of the Dent edition illustrations were reprinted by Dover Publications, Inc., New York, in 1972 under the title Beardsley's Illustrations for Le Morte Darthur. A facsimile of the Beardsley edition, complete with Malory's unabridged text, was published in the 1990s.

In 1922, American poet Sidney Lanier published a much watered-down and expurgated version of Malory's book entitled The Boy's King Arthur. This version was later incorporated into Grosset and Dunlap's series of books called the Illustrated Junior Library, and reprinted under the title King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.

John Steinbeck used the Winchester Manuscripts of Thomas Malory and other sources as the original text for The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights in 1976. The Book of King Arthur and His Noble Knights of the Round Table was published mainly for young people. Besides Steinbeck's work, there are at least three modern English language versions. The first was published anonymously in 1950; the second by Roger Lancelyn Green, Richard Lancelyn Green and Lotte Reiniger (illustrator), first published in 1953, and the third by Emma Gelders Sterne, Barbara Lindsay, Gustaf Tenggren and Mary Pope Osborne, published 2002.

Scholar Keith Baines published a modernized English version of Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur for Signet Classics.