The Once and Future King

By: T. H. White

Narrated by: Neville Jason

Length: 33 hrs

Publisher's summary

The complete "box set" of T. H. White's epic fantasy novel of the Arthurian legend. The novel is made up of five parts: "The Sword in the Stone", "The Witch in the Wood", "The Ill-Made Knight", "The Candle in the Wind", and "The Book of Merlyn".

Merlyn instructs the Wart (Arthur) and his brother, Sir Kay, in the ways of the world. One of them will need it: the king has died, leaving no heir, and a rightful one must be found by pulling a sword from an anvil resting on a stone. In the second and third parts of the novel, Arthur has become king and the kingdom is threatened from the north. In the final two books, the ageing king faces his greatest challenge, when his own son threatens to overthrow him. In "The Book of Merlyn", Arthur's tutor Merlyn reappears and teaches him that, even in the face of apparent ruin, there is hope.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©1939, 1940, 1958 T. H. White (P)2008 Naxos Audiobooks

Critic reviews

AudioFile Earphones Award, 2009

"For those who have never read these five books, prepare to be surprised by their adultness, their laugh-out-loud humor and tongue-in-cheek commentary on modern life; for those who know them well, prepare to be delighted with Neville Jason's transcendent reading. The lovely timbre of his narrative voice, his rhythmic, easy pacing and host of individual characterizations transport listeners into White's weird and wonderful otherworld as quickly as Alice slipped through the looking glass. This long production is so entrancing that one wishes it would never end." (AudioFile)

Excellent storytelling!

Very enjoyable listen! Funny, engaging, and extremely thought-provoking! I would recommend this book to all.

brilliant performance, profound ideas

This book is a treasure for any thoughtful reader, from 16 to 75 or more.

The Knights of the Round Table are a topic probably more for boys or a masculine audience, but there's no reason why my daughter wouldn't have loved it when she was younger.

White wove an unexpectedly political subtext through the stories but in the best possible ways.

As he puts it, paraphrasing, more to provoke thought than to be thought of.

One of the greatest books.

I loved every minute of this book. If you are an observer of the cycle of perpetual human tragedy, political and otherwise, you will love how the cycle is described here. This book may be fantasy but it is real; maybe not in the literal sense but in the human one.

amazing story. amazing voice.

All roads lead to Mallory, but this was an exquisite tale that reveals the humanity behind the immortal history. I wept like a baby at least six times.

Amazing and Immersive!

This a must "read/listen" for anyone interested in topics related to Arthurian tales. It the most complete version of the epic I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing.

Kind of weird

I love Arthurian legend. These books sounded familiar but took odd twists. After reading them, I don’t really like the characters at all. They were all just awful people. The ending was too philosophical and political for me. The narrator was really good though.

The original 5 book story!

I absolutely loved this book, but a word of caution if you need to read for school, or are following along with a physical copy: this appears to be the original versions of books 1-5. Books 1-4 were published during White's life, and then substantial edits occurred and parts of book 5 were added to book 1 (the ant and goose stories) and book 2 was shortened by half. The physical copy of the book probably used in a class, and the summaries you'll find on sparknotes and the like are the edited 4-book version.
I personally think this is a much better version, as I find book 5 to be the book which explains Arthur's struggle in a really poignant way(even if it gets a little preachy sometimes)

Truly a thought provoking classic.

defintely an array of different ideas challenging you to give each one time to ponder. A nice change from the normal portrayal of these characters in a wold fantasy world, but rather a pleasant ride through historical fiction.

An interesting twist King Author

The story starts out quite interesting since it's new ie a prequel to all the stories we heard or read.

Once what's the story starts to come to the present stories of King Arthur it gets a little bit muddled. In a not shell the story because a bit boring.

Finally the last couple chapters kind of puts everything back together again and talks about the creatures at the beginning of King Arthur's education and his death.

The story has some interesting to us especially on different religions mixed into the book.

Disappointing Ending

At first it was really interesting, then it turned into a weird love story, and gave you no true conclusion for the ending. After all that reading you'd want a spectacular ending, but no it refuses.