Since 1939 a great many readers, this reviewer and his family included, have been earnest, indeed passionate, devotees of T. H. White's "The Sword in the Stone." That unique and utterly captivating book deals with the youth of King Arthur and the remarkable pedagogy of the magician Merlin….

Now [with The Once and Future King] Mr. White, after over two decades of work, has extended his tale into the entire Arthurian epic….

Thus England's noblest tale, the composite memories of its golden age, have been put together by an expert medievalist who is also a brilliant storyteller, a wit, a master of romance and invention. T. H. White does nothing better than his superb descriptions of nature and men trying to feel like animals. Young Arthur, Wart as he was nicknamed, in the form of a fish swimming in the castle moat is a masterpiece of delicious metamorphosis.

But...