[So] great is the output of legends retold nowadays, amounting almost to a minor industry, that one is entitled to ask not only if the story is well told, but also if it was really worth the telling.
Rosemary Sutcliff's Tristan and Iseult deserves the highest praise on both counts. The Arthurian cycle is a defining element in our culture, as the Trojan war was in the ancient Greek, and the Tristan story is one of its loveliest strands. Miss Sutcliff tells it with her admirable mastery of that difficult thing, an epic style—never incongruously modern, never fusty or obscure, believable even in dialogue. The pace and shape of the narrative are superbly managed.
