The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
This book is a fictional account of the commission, design and manufacture of five now-famous tapestries, going from character to character in the tale of their making and the personal story behind each picture. Like all of Chevaliers work, it is rich in accurate detail of the times.
Tracy Chevalier took a risk when she started her story in the viewpoint of an unlikable character: vain, self-centered, and careless of having gotten a girl in trouble. She followed it with a second viewpoint, this of a teenaged spoiled brat with nothing on her mind but defying her mother and getting laid, no matter the consequences. If I had not read Girl with a Pearl Earring and found it decently written, I might not have continued beyond the second chapter.
But in the artistic theme of the ladys seduction of the unicorn and the arrogant Nicholas use of that metaphor in his well-used one-liner for the ladies, I could see the germ of a redemptive theme, so I kept reading. Chevalier shortly switched to more sympathetic viewpoints, that of the long-suffering wife and mother who must manage the brat, and from there to the household of tapestry-weavers in Brussels and their blind daughter.
As the story weaves back and forth between the pressures of a noble household, the business of a middle-class one, and the harsh realities of life for the serving class. Chevalier also portrayed the pervasiveness of the church in peoples daily lives. Although that part seemed a little clinical, like an alien commenting on the strange doings of earth people with no idea what might drive them to behave so. Perhaps that is only her style; at times she described the sex act with the same detachment.
The interdependence of people on each other in the renaissance world was used to good effect to create the story: the supplier of woad is a boor, but he can lay a claim on the hand of the weavers daughter because they need the blue he manufactures to complete the project. The wife can weave just as well as her husband, but the guild would fine them if she was discovered to be working. No work is allowed before a certain time in the morning or after another in the evening to protect the weavers, but there is no protection from the threats of a client who demands his tapestry early.
Ms. Chevalier braids in one well-researched thread after another to make the multiple people and their dilemmas come alive. The story was not a sweeping one that should be surveyed from a distance, but a minuscule collection of details, best viewed with a magnifying glass. This is why the collection of first-person viewpoints works so well in this case.
The end is not surprising, but does wind things up very believably. A nice satisfying read, and great for research and atmosphere, although not really a page turner.
As a story, Ill give it three and a half stars, but for research, its a five-star.
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The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
- MLE (Emily Cotton)
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 3566
- Joined: August 2008
- Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
- Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
- Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
- Location: California Bay Area
- diamondlil
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 2642
- Joined: August 2008
- Madeleine
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 5860
- Joined: August 2008
- Currently reading: "Mania" by L J Ross
- Preferred HF: Plantagenets, Victorian, crime, dual time-frame
- Location: Essex/London
This is my second favourite TC book after "Girl". I loved it, although I agree with MLE that it takes a bit of getting into, but once it got going - I found it a bit slow at first - I was engrossed, and I loved the ending. Slightly whimsical, but very vividly written and imagined.
Currently reading "Mania" by L J Ross
I enjoyed this one too, but then I have liked all of Tracy Chevalier's that I have read so far.
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard nI chasront
'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'
Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal
www.elizabethchadwick.com
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard nI chasront
'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'
Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal
www.elizabethchadwick.com