January selection: The Once & Future King, by T. H. White

We won't be meeting again until January 20, so that gives us plenty of time to read the 639 pages of T. H. White's classic Arthurian tale.

This is, according to The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature, actually a "quartet of novels ... published in a single volume in 1958. The quartet comprises The Sword in the Stone (1938), The Queen of Air and Darkness -- first published as The Witch in the Wood (1939) -- The Ill-Made Knight (1940), and The Candle in the Wind (published in the composite volume, 1958). The series is a retelling of the Arthurian legend, from Arthur's birth to the end of his reign, and is based largely on Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur." It was also the basis of the play, "Camelot." And, we're reminded by Wikipedia, the Disney animation, "The Sword in Stone." We get to read the real thing!