The Lady and the Unicorn

Jean Le Viste commissions painter Nicholas des Innocents to design six tapestries that will be hung in a grand hall within his magnificent Paris home. Jean is a conniving, deviously ambitious nobleman with a depressed wife and three daughters. The oldest daughter, Claude is beautiful and falls head over heals for Nicholas. Of course, this love is not meant to be, as Claude is nobility and Nicholas is just a mere painter, not to mention a womanizer and scoundrel, yet he is deliciously appealing.
Nicolas designs six tapestries which depict a series of six ladies, each contributing to the seduction of a unicorn. The senses, touch, sense, sight, hearing, and taste are portrayed in the first five, while the sixth depicts love. The unicorn is in a quandary of sorts. Nicolas is sent to Brussels to oversee the weaving of his designs, and in doing so, helps a blind young woman, Alienor, change the course of her life. All five of the women in the designs are based on women he has loved, despised, admired or bedded. The tapestries, he comes to realize, tell his life’s story…..The ladies are, indeed, seducing this unicorn. Through irony and deception, Nicholas’ actions are threaded together, by his ladies, to a conclusion that is unexpected and unfulfilling for Nicholas.
Today, the six authentic 15th century tapestries hang in Paris’ Museum of the Middle Ages. Although not much is known of the family who actually commissioned them, Chevalier brings history to life with timely characters, and colorful, sensual prose. The reader’s senses are heightened as the story is woven within the tapestries, each one capturing the lives of a painter, weaver, or nobleman and their families

Ini yang disebut dengan a great historical romance novel!

Buku dengan latar belakang Perancis tahun 1490 bercerita tentang Nicholas yang ditugaskan bangsawan kaya untuk membuat permadani demi merayakan kenaikan pangkatnya. Tidak hanya itu novel ini juga menceritakan sepak terjang pelukis berbakat namun genitnya yang tidak ketulungan dengan berbagai wanita yang ia temui. Mulai dari anak bangsawan yang menyewanya sampai anak gadis tukang tenun permadani.

Uniknya, Lady dan Unicorn diceritakan dari sudut pandang yang berbeda-beda. Mulai dari sudut pandang Nicholas, Claude (anak Jean le Viste), Genevieve (istri Jean Le Viste), George sang penenun, Alienor (anak sang penenun), Christine (istri sang penenun). Menarik sekaligus cerdas, karena kita bisa melihat masalah dari persepsi yang berbeda-beda dengan benang merahnya proses pembuatan permadani Lady dan Unicorn.

Sudut pandang Nicholas sebagai pembuka cerita lumayan membuat saya terkaget-kaget dengan kalimatnya yang vulgar. No wonder Lady dan Unicorn masuk dalam kategori novel dewasa. Bahkan beberapa kali saya sempat mengernyitkan jidat dan berkata dalam hati,” jiahh, ini pelukis genit banget!” Karakternya yang sombong dan tukang rayu juga bikin saya ingin menendangnya!

Claude lain lagi, gadis muda yang ternyata juga tergila-gila dengan Nicholas. Karakternya kuat dan pemberontak sering membuat ibunya, Genevieve pusing kepala. Padahal Genevieve sendiri sedang bergelut dengan masalahnya sendiri, antara lain perilaku dingin sang suami sejak ia tidak berhasil memberikan anak lelaki dan keinginannya masuk biara yang pada jaman itu tidak memungkinkan, karena istri dari suami yang masih hidup tidak diperkenankan menjadi biarawati.

Setelah Perancis di tahun 1490, penulis mengajak kita berpetualang ke Brussels, tempat George dan keluarganya tinggal. Di sini kita mengenal karakter keluarga penenun dengan lebih jauh, tapi yang paling saya suka ketika Alienor mengambil alih cerita. Anak perempuan satu-satunya George yang dikisahkan buta ternyata jatuh cinta pula dengan Nicholas. Padahal ia sendiri sudah dijodohkan oleh kedua orang tuanya dengan pria lain demi ikatan bisnis.

Kelanjutan kisah Claude – Nicholas – Elianor membuat saya semakin penasaran dengan endingnya. 4 bintang untuk buku pertama karya Tracy Chevalier yang saya baca.

Setelah epilog, ada catatan dari pengarang yang ternyata mengangkat tema ini dari kisah nyata. Jean LeViste ternyata benar-benar ada. Bahkan permadaninya juga! Unicorn dengan penggambaran lima panca indera. Apabila tertarik lebih jauh dengan kisah Lady dan Unicorn, di websitenya tchevalier.com juga ada penjelasan tentang latar belakang Jean Le Viste berikut fotonya, yang menarik lagi di webnya kita juga bisa mengetahui cara pembuatan permadani yang memang diceritakan cukup detil di bukunya. I’m looking forward to read another book from Ms. Chevalier.

Oia satu lagi, buku ini saya dapat dari obral murah Gramedia seharga 10ribu saja!

What the fuck did I just read ? Did Tracy Chevalier really write the Girl with a pearl earring ? Was the Girl with a pearl earring actually a good book or was I just deluding myself?

As you can see, The lady and the unicorn was so tremendously horrible it fully sent me spiralling. I finished the whole book in a day, not because it was good but because I just needed it to be over so I could run straight to Goodreads and bash it like it deserves to be bashed. Seriously, no wonder the publisher was giving this one out for free because no one sane should ever pay money to experience the actual trauma that is reading this book.

First, this horrid nonsense needs several trigger warnings yet it doesn’t have any ? You can’t just write about a grown man leeching on every women he meets and trying to have sex with a 14 years old, let alone talk about her in ways so graphically disgusting they rival FUCKING LOLITA, and not put a trigger warning anywhere. I swear to god if he started calling her anything akin to « fire of my loin » I would have needed to burn sage to cleanse my home… I don’t give a flying fuck this is set in the medieval times, it certainly wasn’t published in the 15th century so as far as I’m concerned it should include trigger warnings for its extremely creepy sexual content, allusions to depression and self harm as well as the fact it treats a relationship between an obvious child and a full grown man as a legitimate love story - I got into this book thinking I’d learn about a tapestry, not a predator! It boils my blood just thinking about it.

Secondly, The lady and the unicorn might be the worst written book I have ever read. Seriously. I couldn’t keep count of the number of times the narrator went “*Name of a character* did something. *still name of the same character* was like this”. Did Tracy Chevalier unlearn what pronouns were after writing The girl with a pearl earring ? Synonyms? I hardly know her apparently. No one calls anyone anything besides their names or truly tasteful nicknames, not only in dialog but in the narration as well - was this an attempt at emulating Medieval speech patterns or something that got lost in translation? Honestly I have no idea, but The lady and the unicorn probably has some of the blandest, beigest, most pedantic writing I have ever had the displeasure of laying my eyes on; I’ve read books meant for children with infinitely better prose. I reckon half of the page count is just information dump delivered in the absolute most uncreative and uninspired manner an author could ever muster. It baffles me a book can actually be this horribly written without having Onision’s name on the cover… I might actually need to read Stones to Abigail to find a novel worst than this one. I’d much rather reread the Selection than be put through this depressing water-flavoured nothing experience.

Thirdly, I hated every single character besides the blind girl whose’s name I have forgotten. I won’t even touch on the writing of her disability because I don’t want to talk out of turn, but what I can certainly talk about is the misogyny imbued in every aspect of this novel. The main character, the absolute dirtbag behind the tapestry, is the grossest little manipulative shit I have ever had the misfortune of reading about. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE manipulative characters - I could lovingly praise the Darkling or Amy Dunn for days on end. I also think there’s a merit and a lot of potential in writing a truly disgustingly sexist character who has about as much empathy as Patrick Bateman. Everything comes down to framing and writing skills, things Chevalier is clearly struggling with here. While I believe Nicolas is supposed to have grown through the story from womanising nightmare of a human being into someone who can really see the individual qualities of the women around him and empathise with the pain his oppressively patriarchal society is causing them, it doesn’t not feel subtle and is rather unconvincing. While his perception of women may have SLIGHTLY progressed through the novel, it is still way too little to even approach something worthy of being considered a character arc; he stills behaves in a sleazy and dishonest manner towards women, still desires mostly sex from them and still doesn’t mind exploiting the power he possesses to secure sexual fulfilment. He pays prostitutes for sex from beginning to the end, sees no issues in trying to pursue a relationship with a clueless 14 years old and takes advantage of the desperation of a disabled girl to have sex with her. Worst, while he’s been pestering her for sex and harassing her since he’s met her, him having sex with her so she doesn’t end up married to another somehow worst prick is framed as an almost heroic act of kindness. Even worst yet, while she’s shown nothing but distastes towards him until this point (rightfully so), the poor thing suddenly has a change of heart and is now very much into him as well as more than willing to continue their “love affair” for an extended period of time. All the women in this novel end up different level of miserable, which worked very well in The girl with the pearl earring but absolutely rubs me the wrong way here considering there’s so many female POV characters and not even one gets a happy ending.

Honestly, this book reads a lot like Lolita, just without the beautiful imaged prose and the reassurance it is written from the point of view of a severely delusional unreliable narrator. Instead of reading about a clueless young girl suffering through men’s whims and burning her wings like Icarus flying too close to the sun, it feels as though you are listening to the apologist tale of the scumbags who took advantage of said young girl and the person who’s written them down, some sort of metaphorical LeFou, truly believes they are indeed great mens who couldn’t help but be seduced by the underage girls. Yikes.

What I learned from this book is I should never ever read anything by this author ever again. A friend of mine was enthralled by The Virgin Blue and requested I read it. Although I hated it I thought I'd possibly give The Lady and the Unicorn a chance since I love art history. Sadly, I cannot say I liked a single thing about this book. I hated the plot, story, characters and writing style. Hated.

Από τα καλύτερα βιβλία που διάβασα το τελευταίο διάστημα!! Το ξεκίνησα εχθές με μία επιφύλαξη αλλά σήμερα που το συνέχισα διαψεύσθηκα. Η Chevalier ξεδιπλώνει μια ιστορία , με τα ελάχιστα στοιχεία που είναι γνωστά από ιστορικής άποψης, με αριστοτεχνικό τρόπο. Οι ήρωες, τα γεγονότα, όλα μπλέκονται μεταξύ τους με τέτοιον τρόπο ώστε μοιάζουν με ενιαίο σύνολο που πράγματι κάποτε συνέβη και δεν φαίνεται να αποτελούν αποκύημα της φαντασίας της συγγραφέως. Οι σελίδες κυλούν πολύ εύκολα και ενώ από την μία πλευρά εύχεσαι να τελειώσει για να μάθεις τι θα γίνει από την άλλη δεν θες να αποχωριστείς τους χαρακτήρες.
Ο Νικολά ντεζ Ινοσέν υπήρξε ο αγαπημένος μου παρά τον επιπόλαιο χαρακτήρα του. Δεν νευρίασα μαζί του και μάλιστα στεναχωρήθηκα που δεν μπόρεσε να είναι μαζί με την αγαπημένη του. Παρά τον αυθορμητισμό που τον διακατείχε και την απερισκεψία κάποιες φορές, δεν μπόρεσε να μου δημιουργήσει αρνητικά συναισθήματα. Γρήγορα μάλιστα παρατήρησα στροφή στον χαρακτήρα του , κυρίως μετά το πρώτο ταξίδι του στις Βρυξέλλες. Λυπήθηκα για τον ανεκπλήρωτο ωστόσο έρωτά του. Όπως επίσης λυπήθηκα και την Κλόντ. Μια ηρωίδα υποταγμένη στις αποφάσεις και τα θέλω της μητέρας της που αγνοούσε όμως τα αισθήματα του ίδιου της του παιδιού σκόπιμα στερώντας της την χαρά που και η ίδια δεν κατόρθωσε να ζήσει. Την αντιπάθησα τόσο πολύ που ήθελα να σκίσω τις σελίδες που διάβαζα ώρες ώρες. Έβαλε την κόρη της στο μοναστήρι για να την προστατεύσει από έναν "επικίνδυνο" ζωγράφο που, κατά την γνώμη μου, αγαπούσε αληθινά την νεαρή κοπέλα. Ήταν ασυγχώρητη. Υποτίθεται ό,τι έκανε ήταν προς όφελος της Κλόντ αλλά μόνο έτσι δεν ήταν τα πράγματα. Ήθελε να στερήσει την χαρά και την αγάπη από την κόρη της για έναν απλό λόγο (που και η ίδια γνώριζε): την ζήλια. Που η Κλόντ βρήκε κάποιον να αγαπά και που την αγαπάει εν αντιθέση με εκείνη που έμεινε δεσμευμένη σε έναν αποτυχημένο γάμο. Οι καλές προθέσεις της φάνηκαν και στο τέλος εξάλλου καθώς αφήνεται να εννοηθεί πως ούτε η Κλόντ αλλά ούτε και ο Νικολά έζησαν ευτυχισμένοι.
Παρά το τέλος , το βιβλίο μου άφησε μια ευχάριστη αίσθηση και την επιθυμία να διαβάσω και άλλα βιβλία της συγγραφέως !

DNF at page 134.

This book did for unicorns what Jeanette Winterson’s The PowerBook did for tulips.

I’m all sorts of set.

This book has been on my TBR for a while and the synopsis intrigued me. But I actually chose to read it, due to Decades Bingo, as it is a 2003 publish. I give it about 3.5 stars, and I enjoyed it. It had an interesting structure, as the story moves through 7 or 8 points of view as it is being told. I found that interesting. The story of course is of a series of six tapestries in the house of Jean Le Viste, that depict the story of The Lady and the Unicorn, which is a story of seduction. This book is the story of what might have happened to both inspire the series, as well as during its development and manufacture. And of course, these ladies have to deal with power and seduction during the course of the project and the book. I thought it was well done. It was different and I enjoyed it.

I never thught I'd enjoy a book about tapestry making set around 1492 but I did. Of course, I enjoyed a book on the plague written by Geraldine Brooks so I guess I am up for anything. Anyway, this was a fascinating look into life at that time and the actual work of tapestry making. I love when I learn about words we use now adays so reading about cartoonists and what they did then was a plus. I loved the characters and the use of an unlikeable, immoral man as the central character was inspired. I loved this book and couldn't put it down.