Sir Gawain and The Green Knight (Oxford World's Classics)

It's ok for what she needs it for

Excellent original story. So much better than the movie!!

I loved the flow of the poem and the goodness of the story!I have been reading great western literature for over 3 years for a teaching course i have been taking. This is one of my favorites!

The kindle edition of the Oxford World's Classics edition has been corrected; the notes are now hyperlinked.Of course, the work itself is one of the greatest of Arthurian Romances and needs no further comment.

By replacing many archaic expressions with more modern phrases, this translated version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight makes the romance more accessible to the general public. The translator's writing conveys the subtle details within the text gracefully and meaningfully so that the reader can grasp the general atmosphere of the story as well as the more significant details of each line. This text's contents are great for analysis in a classroom yet also amusing for a bedtime read.Although in many texts the explanatory notes in the back of the book disrupts the reader's concentration from the actual text and destroys the general flow of the novel, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight this is not an issue. The translator's writing is detailed and clear enough so that the reader does not need to refer to the appendix of the book to understand a certain phrase or line. The translator's attention to both metric flow and detail contributes to the success of the text.The Introduction, written by Helen Cooper, is helpful yet is also a spoiler. Cooper describes to the reader the original author's writing style as well as gives the reader a background on Arthurian romances and poetic structure. However, during her process of explaining the elements of the book and the character of Sir Gawain to the reader, Cooper reveals the unfolding plot of the novel. While clearly written and easily understandable, the Introduction to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is too informal a writing to such a sophisticated text.

Great

Cheaper then in stores. A great read.

1. This is not a comment on the original text of Sir Gawain nor on the translation. See above 4 -5 star reviews, which are about the PAPERBACK.I give 5 stars for the book itself.2. This review is for the Kindle version. AS WITH MANY CLASSICS titles (i.e. works in the Western Cannon), THE KINDLE VERSION IS A MESS.--One cannot highlight individual words or make notes on individual words or lines, forcing one to write one note per page.--The endnotes are not hyperlinked. One of the advantages of ebook over traditional is hyperlinks. This doesn't have those in the text itself.--Because one cannot highlight individual words, one cannot use the dictionary/Wikipedia options.3. If this book were free, some problems would be acceptable. But it's not free. It provides LESS VALUE than the printed book and many versions of free or $0.99 books.4. Amazon needs to stop contributing to the decline of Western civilization and clean up its sloppy handling of our classic works, especially those in translation.--Until these problems are fixed, keep Kindle reviews and general book reviews separate.--Be careful about what translation someone is actually purchasing. I'll pay $8 for a good translation but I should get the creaky 19th century translation for free.--Treat these books with the same care re: technology as others. We want even more to take notes and look up words and flip back and forth between sections in these books. Just because one reads a book written in the Middle Ages doesn't mean one will accept Middle Ages standards of text (when most people had no access to good literature, burned witches, died of the plague, etc.).In sum, buy the paper version. Poke Amazon into making Kindle versions of The Odyssey, The Aeneid, The Metamorphoses, Sir Gawain, Arthur, Beowulf, etc. readable and in the most current translations. Good companies care about SERVICE (and making a buck).