The Morte Darthur is a superb story of adventure and love, honor and betrayal, and one of the classics of world literature. Malory perfected his art during the writing of the long and complex work and the earlier parts, though excellent, lack the dramatic power and pervasive tragic irony of the passion, war, and society that constitutes the last quarter of the book. By presenting the last quarter alone, this edition focuses on the greatness of Malory's achievement and allows the reader to see it and enjoy it more fully.

No one knows for sure who the author of Le Morte D'Arthur was, but the generally accepted theory is that of American scholar G.L. Kitteredge, who argued it was Sir Thomas Malory, born in the first quarter of the fifteenth century, and who spent the greatest part of his last twenty years in prison. Another possibility is a Thomas Malory of Studley and Hutton in Yorkshire, or an author living north of Warwickshire. It is generally accepted that the author was a member of the gentry and a Lancastrain. John Lawlor was Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Keele. He is the author of The Tragic Sense in Shakespeare, Piers Plowman: An Essay in Criticism and Chaucer. Janet Cowen is a senior lecturer in English at King's College, University of London