The Book Of Merlyn Analysis

668 Words2 Pages

Matthew Jenkins
I. The genre of "The Book of Merlyn" is speculative fiction or science fiction. This book is classified as a speculative fiction because of the way in which the story plays out not as an adventure but as a discussion where Merlyn, King Arthur, and some other friendly creatures of nature debate over Homo sapiens, and most of all why they have wars. There are many innovations of this book. For instance this book creates such a new type of a book that has never been seen before just like it's extremely philosophical, and intellectual nature.

II. T.H. White ( his full name is Terence Hanbury White ) born in Bombay, India on May 29,1906. He has a very technical style of writing. He is best known for his novel series called "The Once and Future King". He went to Stowe School in 1930 to become an English master .
"BiographyofT.H.White."EnglandHaveMyBones.N.p.,n.d.Web.4Jan.2014.

III. The central conflict in the plot of "The Book of Merlyn" (external)is the extensive debate between the characters as they decide the name of humans, how they fit into the world, and most importantly if they are supposed to be there. The climax is when King Arthur turns back into a human after being a goose and becoming sort of happy in his own way. The denouement occurs when the King makes a peace treaty with Mordred but the snake ruins the treaty by scaring one of Mordred's men and igniting the battle causing Mordred and King Arthur to die.
There is one subplot where King Arthur becomes a goose and falls in love. There is not much suspense in this book. This book was not originally its own book and repeats some things from "The Once and Future King" series.

IV. "The Book of Merlyn" ...

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...vention of war. It goes on and on in a rather didactic fashion, and one could skip whole chunks of Merlyn's dialogue in particular without losing out on story.
Nikki.Review.Goodreads.N.p.,n.d.Web.4Jan.2014.http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48044.The_Book_of_Merlyn>.

X. I feel this story would make an excellent book but a terrible series ender. The entire book is great and keeps the reader interested the entire time but when it comes time for the book to end it falls flat leaving me wondering why it sets such a horrible view on life that in the end the devil will win. While I liked the idea of a council from nature debating over human life; the end of the book ruins the story. Having a snake scare an enemy soldier and have Arthur's men take as a sign of war is just a sad denouement for such a brilliant writer to make as an ending of a sure fire award winner.

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