Fairly interesting quick read. I love the Unicorn tapestries at the Cloisters in NYC and will make sure to see the ones discussed in this book next time I’m in Paris.

The Lady and The Unicorn

Parts of this book were interesting and parts were not. I had hoped to love this novel more than I did, based upon my recollection of The Girl with the Pearl Earring. Some of the characters were frivolous and not critical at all to the plot. I saw no redeeming value in the descriptions of the sexual exploits of Nicholas des Innocents, the artist behind the concept of the tapestries that tell the tale of The Lady and The Unicorn; of no real consequence to the story was the exasperating behavior of the eldest daughter of the French nobleman who commissioned the creation of the tapestries. The sections of the book that were of the most interest to me were the descriptions of the Belgian family who created the tapestries: from the design cartoons that guided their work, the way they set up and used the looms, the importance of the guilds in setting the standards (and enforcing them) for their craft, the way they lived among the looms and threads used in their work. So to me, about half of the book was interesting and worthwhile, and about half was superfluous and unnecessary. But overall, I enjoyed the book.

Sometimes it's those little books that you find on the discount shelf for $2 that are the best. I really didn't know what I was getting myself into with this book, I had never heard of these tapestries before I read the book.
The books mixes the fiction and the history incredibly well so well that I found myself looking up the names to see if they were purely fiction or had actually lived. The main character, aside from the tapestries themselves, Nicolas de Innocents is the painter of the original pieces that the tapestries will be made from and the book follows his escapades from Paris and his almost romance with the man who's commissioning the tapestries daughter and then in Brussels to the daughter of the weaver of the tapesteries. It's a bouncing narrative which changes from chapter to chapter but this is one of those books in which the transistions are done so incredibly well. And this story that Chevalier that builds around these pieces of art will definitely make you look at the tapestries differently. Beautiful novel.

I like the way Chevalier works; I like the way a work of art is used as a focus and a catalyst. I don’t like most of her characters, which makes the books rather chilly reads; there’s a distance kept between the reader and the inhabitants of the book which isn’t unlike that between a viewer and the inhabitants of a painting. Even when you’re inside the head of one of the more sympathetic characters at a very intense moment there’s still a certain detachment. The chapters rotate POV among a selection of the major characters; it’s almost like an exercise in writing. I’m an art geek, so I love all the details about working in the 1400's here, and the tiny bit of weaving I did in school made this accessible; glad that was good for something. If nothing else, it’s a very pretty hardcover, and now I desperately want a) to go stand in the middle of the room hung with these tapestries and b) tapestries of my own. Recommended, but not with a whole lot of warmth.

Threads of history and fiction interestingly woven together, creating colourful symbolism and story telling.
I have always admired this tapestry and will surely revisit it with new eyes and wonder.

Tracy Chevalier has done it again in this realistic look into the French Renaissance through the eyes of several characters living different sorts of lives, but all connected somehow to a tapestry making business. There's love, mystery, betrayal and a lot more in this relatively short read. I absolutely loved it.

I wanted this to be longer! There were a lot of characters and it took a decent amount of the book for me to remember all of them. I really wanted to get to know them better. Other than that this was a super fun read.

Non condividendo l'entusiasmo generale per "La ragazza con l'orecchino di perla", mi sono approcciata a questo romanzo con un po' di titubanza.
Invece si tratta di una storia semplice ma avvincente, che unisce una scrittura vivace ad una buona caratterizzazione dei personaggi; buona ma non ottima, perchè i protagonisti pensano ed agiscono in maniera troppo moderna, sembrano persone di oggi intrappolate nel medioevo; anche l'ambientazione lascia molto a desiderare, è asettica e priva di qualunque peculiarità storica o culturale. Entrambi questi difetti li avevo riscontrati anche ne "La ragazza con l'orecchino di perla", comincio a pensare che sia proprio una precisa (e discutibile) scelta stilistica della Chevalier.
Invece ho molto apprezzato i punti di vista multipli, espediente non certo originale ma in grado di spezzare la monotonia dando un ritmo più sostenuto alla narrazione; anche i toni sempre in bilico tra commedia e dramma hanno contribuito a tenere desto il mio interesse.
In conclusione pur con tutti i suoi difetti è un libro estremamente scorrevole, che non pretende di essere un capolavoro ma intrattiene piacevolmente.

Η ιστορία της δημιουργίας των 6 διάσημων tapisserie, με το γενικό τίτλο Η ΚΥΡΙΑ ΚΑΙ Ο ΜΟΝΟΚΕΡΟΣ, που σήμερα κοσμούν το Μουσείο Cluny (Εθνικό Μουσείο του Μεσαίωνα) στο Παρίσι, αναπλάθεται μυθιστορηματικά μέσα από τις εξομολογήσεις των μελών δύο οικογενειών: αυτής του παραγγελιοδόχου, γάλλου ευγενή αξιωματούχου του βασιλιά, και αυτής του φλαμανδού υφαντουργού κατασκευαστή της από τις Βρυξέλλες. Σφήνα, ο παριζιάνος ζωγράφος που έκανε τα 6 σχέδια, το πρόσωπο που θα σημαδέψει τις ζωές πολλών γυναικών της ιστορίας. Η γυναικεία ματιά της συγγραφέως αναδεικνύει πολλά ζητήματα σχετικά με την αέναη πάλη των γυναικών να επιλέξουν το δρόμο τους μέσα σε έναν ανδροκρατούμενο κόσμο.
Προσωπικά, το διάβασα απνευστί!

Oh! What a Tale She Weaves
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This is my favorite kind of book. One to pick up, savor each word and never want to put down. Chevalier has a rich imagination, basing this historical fiction on an existing series of fine tapestries with questionable (undocumented) history, and telling the story through (nearly) all involved in their creation.

We begin with the painter, Nicolas des Innocents, who conceptualizes the stories and major symbolisms of the work. A womanizer, he's brash and vain, yet his charm wins the day with the ladies and the reader. He learns much through his experience with the women he depicts as the tapestries take form. One can't help but fall in love with him. He calls the women he wishes to seduce, "Beauty," and offers to tell them the story of the unicorn's horn.

Through the words of Nicolas' true object of desire, Claude, the daughter of the nobleman commissioning the work, we learn much about the place of women in Paris society at the end of the fifteenth century. In fact, this is also true about all the ladies featured in the story and ultimately in the tapestry: Claude's long-suffering mother, Genevieve de Nanterre, the blind daughter of the weaver, Alienor, and her mother, Christine, who longs to be a weaver although the Brussel's weaver's guild forbids it.

Other unforgettable characters include the lady-in-waiting, Beatrice, and the servant Marie-Celeste.

Chevalier has clearly done her research, and in doing so, allows the reader to experience this story with all five senses. In taking admitted liberties with the language, it is an utterly readable tale and I give it my highest recommendation.

I read one Tracy Chevalier book before this one, "Remarkable Creatures", and liked it well enough. I enjoyed reading it, although it did not make my list of favorite reads of 2016. It was simple, clear, and not a huge time commitment, and I expected something similar from "The Lady and the Unicorn".

Unfortunately, I was hugely disappointed. Almost every character in this book is a big jerk. I like complex characters and not every character has to be likable, but when every character is unlikeable it becomes very hard to connect to any of them or root for any of them within their stories. If I am going to hate the character, I'd usually like it to be within a villain context; when the characters who are supposed to be the heroes are petty and awful, it's much harder for me to grasp. The "main" character, Nicolas des Innocents, is a jerkwad womanizer who sleeps with basically every main character female and never gets the comeuppance he deserves. I can't even sympathize with his main love interest, Claude, because she is petulant and selfish. Reading about the star-crossed lovers relationship between two terrible people was excruciating. Every other character who may have had redeeming qualities initially is eventually tainted in my mind by their association with or support of Nicolas. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

The only characters I liked were the mothers. I liked Genevieve, Claude's mother, but that was mostly because she didn't like Nicolas and she works to punish Claude for her association with him, which I darkly enjoyed. Most of her thoughts are about her desires to enter a nunnery though, which ain't all that exciting to read about. I also thought the weaver's wife Christine was fine, but mostly because she didn't really do much of anything and so didn't have many opportunities to annoy me.

The POV chapters of the weaver Georges and the weaver's associate, Philippe, were basically all about weaving, which again, exciting. It's a bit interesting to learn about medieval weaving in the beginning, but when it goes on for most of the book, even a short book like this, it gets very tedious.

I had Tracy Chevalier's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" on my to-read list but took it off after finishing "The Lady and the Unicorn" - if this is an example of what Chevalier's fictional interpretations of famous artwork turn out to be like, I'll take a hard pass.

A historical novel about the lives of those connected with the Unicorn and Lady tapestries. The designs are iconic and the story behind their creation as well as the families who brought them to life make for compelling reading.