ABSTRACT
Thomas Berger is one of the most comprehensive and complex Arthurianists of the twentieth century; comprehensive in the breadth of his source material, and complex in his simultaneously ironic and nostalgic attitudes towards that material. According to the book jacket of Arthur Rex, Berger’s encounter with the Arthurian legend began when he encountered a children’s version of Le Morte d’Arthur at the age of eight; he calls Arthur Rex his ‘memory of that childish version as edited and expanded according to the outlandish fantasies he has had in the years since’. When Arthur Rex appeared in 1978, it was immediately heralded for its caustic humour; later critics pointed out how closely Arthur Rex adheres to its literary and philological roots. Brooks Landon’s view of Berger’s work seems more subtle; he sees the central tragedy of Arthur Rex as the fact that real-world complexity finally overwhelms the black-and-white thinking of chivalry.
