The King in the Tree (Magill’s Literary Annual 2004)
At a glance:
- Author: Steven Millhauser
- First Published: 2003
- Type of Work: Novellas
- Genres: Long fiction, Arthurian romance, Novella, Novel
- Subjects: Wives, Love or romance, Marriage, England or English people, Adultery, Revenge, Kings, queens, or royalty, Boredom, Fables, Arthurian legend
In his new trilogy of novellas, Steven Millhauser focuses on the powerful obsession of love. In all three stories, love is explored not as it happens in contemporary “date movies” but as the stuff of blind passion and tragic finality. Millhauser’s lovers echo the madness of Heathcliff in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847), who would tear the world apart to claim his Cathy; the adolescent lunacy of William Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers in Romeo and Juliet (1595-1596), who simply cannot wait; or the insanity of the title character in Shakespeare’s...
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