Peter Field's new edition of the Morte Darthur has been hailed as "our standard critical edition of Malory". This paperback of Vol 1 only makes the complete definitive original spelling text edition available, with the same pagination as in Vol 1 of the original two-volume hardback edition.
This Paperback is volume 1 (text only) of the original two-volume edition. Selected as a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of 2014, the two-volume scholarly edition of the Morte Darthur examined the two surviving versions of the text: Caxton's edition of 1485 and the Winchester manuscript, known to have existed around 1480 but lost until 1934. All major modern scholarly editions have favoured one of these to the point of preserving corrigible error. This paperback includes the definitive original spelling text edition of Malory's classic text which has been described as a "major event in the long history of Malory scholarship". Anyone wishing to have this text along with the full critical apparatus assembled by Professor Field is referred to the two-volume hardcover edition, which remains in print.
P.J.C. Field is Professor of English at Bangor University.
