Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
New Threads in the Tapestry, 13 Oct 2002
At its absolute best, this book is just plain fun and appeared in my life when I was discovering interests in both Arthurian legend and paganism.
Told through the experience of the women of King Arthur's court, the book takes a unique look at the familiar legend and embraces most, if not all, of the female characters involved in the tale in a manner and depth not found in more classical renderings. This beautifully fulfills the ultimate aim of any fictional re-telling of a familiar story: to light a faded tapestry to show threads of a more brilliant hue, thus drawing the eye and satisfying the heart with heretofore unrecognised hidden depths.
The main character, Morgaine, classically known as Morgan le Fay, is traditionally presented in the simplest terms as the nemesis of King Arthur. In The Mists of Avalon, she is portrayed in a rather more forgiving and heroic light. Convinced by what she interprets as the inexorable erosion of her native mystic-Celtic tradition to the tide of Christianity sweeping the land, she calls upon her childhood training and deeply held beliefs to battle what she sees as the death of her culture, to ultimately find that the only absolute is change and the only firm ground upon which to stand is love.
The voice of the book is not limited to Morgaine, also represented are Gwenhwyfar, Morgause, Igraine, Vivian and Nimue, all contributing their own often humourous, often heart-rending, maddening and unforgettable accounts of reality in their own thoughts and words. This book forges a feeling of having re-discovered nearly every woman you have ever known and realise you never really forgot.
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enchanting and stunningly written, 22 Jul 2002
Anyone who has any interest in anything pagan or pre-christian would definitely love this beautifully written and cleverly crafted book. It is very much a tale of enchantment and magik. Marianne Zimmer-Bradley takes you on a mystical and at times whimsical journey through the changing times of England from before the reign of Arthur to after his death. The reader is taken through the realms of faery and across the mists to the isle of Avalon which is forever under threat as a result of the narrow minded, ever punishing christian priests. The main character, Morgaine le Fay, through whose eyes we see all this is portrayed in a very sympathetic light in comparison to most other Arthurian tales who tell of her as an evil temptress continuously plotting for Arthur's downfall.
This is a truly magikal book and i doubt i shall ever read another book like it.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
How the Goddess can survive, 28 Sep 2006
This book re-tells the story of King Arthur and his knights, from the perspective of the women. This is partly what attracted me to it - as another reviewer described, it is unashamedly female - but the other aspect of the book's attraction for me was the description of how Christianity and 'paganism' collide. Due to personal changes in my life, as I have grown into womanhood, I have become more and more interested in Goddess religion / wisdom. For me, Christianity just does not have the same respect for what is female. Having now finished THE MISTS OF AVALON, I can easily say that the book did not disappoint. I found the way Zimmer Bradley wrote about Christianity and the Goddess truly inspiring. I loved the way she presented an alternative way to live a religious life, detailing different ways of performing ritual, and detailing differences in religions see certain behaviours, or acts. For example, how the expression of sexuality differed - from the Christian perspective we are told that woman is responsible for the original sin in the Garden of Eden, while from the Goddess perspective, sex is not a sinful act, but sacred.
This book was truly a breath of fresh air for me, I think I shall treasure it, and I shall certainly make the time to read it again in the future.
Highly recommended.
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