The legends of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table have inspired some of the greatest works of literature--from Cervantes's Don Quixote to Tennyson's Idylls of the King . Although many versions exist, Malory's stands as the classic rendition. Malory wrote the book while in Newgate Prison during the last three years of his life; it was published some fourteen years later, in 1485, by William Caxton. The tales, steeped in the magic of Merlin, the powerful cords of the chivalric code, and the age-old dramas of love and death, resound across the centuries.

The stories of King Arthur, Lancelot, Queen Guenever, and Tristram and Isolde seem astonishingly moving and modern. Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur endures and inspires because it embodies mankind's deepest yearnings for brotherhood and community, a love worth dying for, and valor, honor, and chivalry.

湯瑪斯‧馬洛禮爵士（Sir Thomas Malory），英國作傢，他在十五世紀初整理許多流傳於民間的騎士傳說，並參考相關文獻，將繁雜的亞瑟王傳奇寫成英文的「亞瑟之死」(Le Morte d'Arthur)，故事從亞瑟的誕生說起，圓桌武士興亡，與亞瑟、蘭斯洛特和關妮威王後的三角關係，以及影響西方深遠的聖杯傳奇。