Rude Tales and Glorious

by Nicholas Seare

Book Overview

Preface by Nicholas Seare, Professor Emeritus, The Other Cottage, Bettws-y-Coed, Caenarvonshire, 1967; an Apologia by Davydd ap Seare (Nicholas Seare), Clerke. Line drawings by William Bramhall.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0517549867
• ISBN13: 9780517549865
• Release Date: January 1983
• Publisher: Random House Value Publishing
• Length: 207 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.

Customer Reviews

What wouldst thou do an thou hadst a grail...

Yet another pen name for the author known as Trevanian, this book is a precious satire of Medieval legends and their less than accurate and often embellishing storytellers. Anyone might appreciate the rude and glorious side, but this book is actually funnier if the reader has had any contact with medieval thought, History or other academic near misses...

Rude Tales - Not Half !!

This is the only book to date that I have had to stop readingto wipe away tears of laughter. A proper, laugh out loud riotthat takes the Arthurian legends, and adds a new perspectiveto the myth and magic .. lusty maidens, beggars, a overbearingoaf as the Lord of the Manor, a priest who 'shrives' the sins ofthe Lady and her Daughter by trials of the flesh ...it's not whatErrol Flynn portrayed at all. Imagine the 3 Musketeers films(the ones with Olly Reed & Michael York), and the humour is ina similar vein to these cinematic classics. If you like yourolden day heroes untarnished, clean and honourable, then don'tread this book. I'll never think about the Knights of the RoundTable in the same way again. Very funny, very well written withsome memorable phrases that I have used to good effect in theyears since reading it. Not recommended reading for funeralsor other such solemn occasions. Messrs Pratchett and Adams havewritten some excellent books (I've read the lot) but they palewhen compared to this 'laugh until your face hurts' masterpiece.

Charmingly irreverent! Humour's audacity at it's finest!

I finally received, from an endearing, if not downright useful cousin, a copy (hardbound , first edition in fact) of Rude Tales and Glorious -- the elusive print of an equally elusive author named Nicholas Seare (aka Trevanian aka UT Professor Rod Whitaker -- he of the numerous PhD's and other alphabetically-induced suffixes).At the risk of waxing quotidian, my only regret is not having read this piece of literature sooner. This is an irreverent, audaciously humorous send-up of Arthurian history -- albeit Arthuriana's numerous manifestations and interpretations (and those are just the "ations," as Trevanian would say.) Chaucer finds a more than worthy if not altogether brilliant extension of his idea in Seare's work.The novel, in classic Trevanian-esque jest and joust (similarly used in Incident at Twenty Mile) purports to have had a solid foundation in history -- Rude Tales and Glorious claiming to be a contemporary translation of the author's ancestor's work.Set in a Welsh knight's castle on a wintry evening, two beggar's claiming to be Launcelot and the Lady Elaine(of 600 years past) regale the dinner party with tales of the "real" Arthurian history in exchange for the orts and leavings of the feast -- "generously" given by a tale-thirsty lord.Completing the cast at dinner are the typical suspects of this genre; the bungling knight and his warped-sense of valor (along the liberal democratic tradition), a hypocritical lothario of a priest ( also along the same liberal democratic tradition), lusty maidens (thus given to same previously-mentioned political affinity), and the servile servants (as they should be..being of the conservative republican staff). All complemented with similarly-inclined characters in the tale (of Arthur) within a tale.All this is told in melliflous euphony evidenced in the English gentry's pedant in vocabulary and Twain's subtle comedy. Existent too, are Seare's/Trevanian's distaste for his perpetual foe -- the merchant, coupled with light-hearted jabs (though painful enough) at the Academic Illuminati of which Seare/Trevanian/Whitaker was, for a considerable portion of his life, a part of.The entire body of work is prefaced with the autumnal sentimentality that Seare/Trevanian allows to epiphanize quite rarely though elegantly (inspired, no doubt, by the aesthete on poetic melancholy, Kawabata Yasunari) in his other works.The tale is charmingly irreverent, and the telling is valiant and inspired!Hope everyone has the opportunity and the pleasure to read this fine work.

Hilarious, hilarious, hilarious

Boy, do I consider myself lucky to have found a copy of "Rude Tales and Glorious". Any book that has me laughing aloud as often as this deservs to be the foundation for a religion. Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett should be so funny (and they nearly are, but that's another review).

A very funny retelling of the tales of King Arthur

Since the original story of Arthur was published by Geoffrey of Monmouth, way back when men were men and women were grateful, there have innumerable retellings of the story. But none quite like this! Arthur as a stripling lad of 15, Merlin a ountry fair potion seller and Guinevere as the nymphomaniac queen are merely some of the colorful characters who we are given an entirely fresh view of in this bawdy version of the well known tales. The story is narrated by two beggars claiming to be Launcelot and his lady some 600 years after the reign of Arthur--so we have it straight from the horses mouth. The tale is bawdy and full of life, with no holds barred. The men are dumb but brawny, the woman plump and lusty, and both live life to the full. It is not only what Seare says but the way he says it which makes the book so funny. Highly recommended for a witty, well written, sometimes subtle laugh fest