Morte

I'm re-reading Le Morte D'Arthur (The Death of Arthur) with great pleasure. It's helpful to review it for the GRE Literature subject exam that I'm taking next April. BUT I HAVE been meaning to re-read it for some time now, just for the sheer pleasure of revisiting a lovely tale from my child hood.

I used to love King Arthur stories. Knights carousing and killing dreadful monsters and terrible sorceresses. So much excitement and drama and lifedeath! The Norton Anthology of English Literature explains, "Nostalgia for an ideal past that never truly existed is typical of much historical romance."

I concur. Romanced pasts are so much more fun.

Since I'm a literature nerd, I'm also attacking a book called On Literature by Umberto Eco. The book is a collection of some essays on some really great literature and his takes on various aspects of what qualifies good literature, including Dante's Paradiso from his Divine Comedy. So much fun! The book was a present from a dear professor I worked with this summer. She's such a sweetheart and knew exactly what would suit me.