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Lancelot book cover
Lancelot
The Knight of the Cart
1176
First Published
3.56
Average Rating
173
Number of Pages

In this verse translation of Chrétien de Troyes' Lancelot, Ruth Harwood Cline revives the original story of the immortal love affair between Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, a tale that has spawned interpretations ranging from Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur to Lerner and Lowe's Camelot . By remaining faithful to Chrétien's highly structured form, Cline preserves the pace, the pungency of proverbial expressions, and the work's poetical devices and word play in translating this archetypal tale of courtly love from Old French into modern English. Cline's introduction―containing a description of Arthur in history and literature, a discussion of courtly love, and an account of the continuations of the story of Lancelot and Guinevere―makes Lancelot an ideal classroom text.

Avg Rating
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Author

Chretien de Troyes
Chretien de Troyes
Author · 13 books
Chrétien de Troyes, commonly regarded as the father of Arthurian romance and a key figure in Western literature, composed in French in the latter part of the twelfth century. Virtually nothing is known of his life. Possibly a native of Troyes, he enjoyed patronage there from the Countess Marie of Champagne before dedicating his last romance to Count Philip of Flanders, perhaps about 1182. His poetry is marked by a learning and a taste for dialectic acquired in Latin schools; but at the same time it reveals a warm human sympathy which breathes life into characters and situations. Whilst much of his matter is inherited from the world of Celtic myth and the events notionally unfold in the timeless reign of King Arthur, the society and customs are those of Chrétien's own day. In his last, unfinished work, Perceval, the mysterious Grail makes its first appearance in literature.
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