I have liked other Tracy Chevalier novels, but this one, not so much. I won't be recommending it. I view the crudeness, especially at the beginning, gratuitous, and none of the characters are likeable. Interesting about how tapestries are made, and I will certainly go see these ones when I am next in Paris.

_The Lady and the Unicorn_ treads on familiar territory. Like Chevalier's celebrated _Girl with a Pearl Earring_, the novel takes a well-known piece of art and creates an elaborate story around it. This novel focuses on the famous Lady and the Unicorn tapestries in the Cluny Museum in Paris. Chevalier researched their history, as well as the history of tapestry production for the book, and the reader is granted with the great opportunity to learn more about this art form.

Chevalier's story is narrated by seven different characters at different stages in the tapestries' production. The painter, and designer of the tapestries, Nicholas des Innocents, plays the prominent role in the narratives because he is the link between the patrons, in Paris, whom the tapestry is being made for, and the weavers in Brussels, who work tirelessly to produce the panels. The patrons are a wealthy noble family who commission the tapestry to celebrate their daughter's betrothal. The weaver family in Brussels are working-class laborers who are very skilled in their craft. Each character plays an important role, and therefore becomes part of the tapestry and its metaphorical story. Chevalier takes special care with each of her characters and exposes their thoughts, feelings and desires.

Great book. Probably a 3 and half star. A wealth of insight into life in the late 1400s all in a well written book, good story.

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.

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.

In the same vein as her book Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Lady and the Unicorn is a fictional account of the story surrounding the creation of the famed Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries, now housed at the Musee national du Moyen-Age (Musee Cluny) in Paris. This topic was particularly intriguing to me, since I'd seen the tapestries in person back in 2001.

While the book provides a really interesting up-close look at the design and weaving processes, I could have done with out the rest of the story, which was fairly bawdy. I didn't really care about the characters—just the tapestries. :D It's a good read if you want to find out how it was done (keeping in mind that it's not really a history book) and don't mind the bawdiness, but I wouldn't exactly recommend it to my mother.


...who of course, then received the book as a gift from a friend and read it anyway. Go figure.

4.5 stars

Loved it, good light reading. Its been a while since I read this but the birth of this tapestry (I am sure there is a lot of fiction woven in there as well) is fascinating. The characters came to life as did the times. Which I always look for in a good book. So I can certainly recommend this.

This was one I really wanted to enjoy, but I just could not. It turned out to be tiresome, and while there was an interesting section or two -- mostly about the symbolism of the famous Cluny tapestries, I was bored witless by this one. Too bad, as there could have been a really great novel here. I still don't understand why this one was considered to be such a great novel, I guess folks were taken in by the term Unicorn...

For the complete review, please go here:
http://www.epinions.com/content_13577...

Mooie historische roman over de prachtige wandtapijten De dame met de eenhoorn, die ik enkele jaren in het Musee de Cluny in Parijs heb mogen zien.
We weten niet wie ze gemaakt hebben en waar ze precies gemaakt zijn, maar Tracey Chevalier heeft de lacunes in onze kennis opgevuld zoals alleen een romanschrijver dat kan, en heeft zowel het adellijke milieu in Parijs als de weverswerkplaats in Brussel eind 15e eeuw tot leven gewekt.
Geschiedenis is geweldig!!

Volledige bespreking is hier te vinden: https://bettinaschrijft.blogspot.com/...

I hope someone has pointed out to Tracy Chevalier that if you are going to have seven different narrators for your story, you really need to give each of them a distinctive voice. This is a major failing of this novel, which I found plodding and flat, and lacking in any genuine exploration of character or motivation. The harsh working lives of the weavers are described in some detail but the description doesn't connect with the characters. And also, if you are going to use the first person in a historical novel, try to make it fit the context, and don't describe anything as "peppered with" since peppers in this era would not have been very well known. I know that isn't a major flaw but it just added to the sense of inauthenticity.

The tapestries aren't one of my favourite works of art anyway, and the twee way in which the unicorn allegory was presented made me want to go and find a unicorn and strangle it!


The Girl with the Pearl Earring wasn't a bad read - but having read this later product, I suspect that this writer hasn't really got much more to say.

This book reminded me of why I typically try to have as few preconceptions about novels as possible -- I avoid the summaries on the inside flap/back cover, rarely read reviews past the first few lines, and never examine cover art too closely. Otherwise, I start forming expectations of plot lines, style, and tone for the book, and usually end up (perhaps unfairly) disappointed when the book doesn't measure up.

All that to say, I've seen the tapestries on which this book is based, and I was really hoping for a better story than Chevalier has given them. I got to spend quite a while in the tapestries' special room in the Musée national de Moyen Age, and between the moody archival lighting, the exhibit design, and the impressive presence of the tapestries themselves, I left with a strong sense that these were artifacts of consequence.

So, to have much of the story boil down to, "Well, there's this artist, and he really wants to get into some ladies' pants. . ." was frustrating. I would have much preferred to read more about the mechanics of weaving, the symbolism of the tapestries, and the politics and economics of creating a work of art like this. The story actually had all of these elements, but the characters felt silly and shallow, and I just didn't care if the fictional cartoonist got to sleep with any of the women he chased, or if the weaver's blind daughter ended up marrying the smelly woad-dyer.

I certainly see the appeal in taking something as grand as these tapestries and giving them a frivolous backstory, but since I'd already been won over to the Fuck Yeah, Tapestries! team, I was simply not in the mood for it this time.

Ar geriau nei Mergina? Ne, nepasakyčiau. Bet irgi neblogai. Gražus, plaukiantis vertimas ir dar gražesnis autorės tekstas. Ne taip kaip Merginoje, čia man sunkiau patikėti istorinių reikalų autentiškumu - atrodo, kad mažiau gylio, istorinių žinių svorio, detalių - gi purvas, tamsa ir žmogaus niekingumas nėra viskas, kuo laikmetis išsiskiria? Visgi, skaitosi greitai ir įtraukia, gal tik retas kuris veikėjas iki galo atrodo patrauklus, tačiau visi savaip įsimintini - neabejotinas Chevalier tekstų privalumas. Susitaikyti su čia aprašomo amžiaus aktualijomis baisiai sunku, jei ne neįmanoma - tose pačiose tarpuvartėse chebra ir mylisi, ir mušasi, ir, nevyniokim, kakoja. Daug purvo, bet vat meilės menui, ne taip kaip Merginoje, mažokai - nebent pinigų skaičiavimą vadintume meile. Gal todėl ir gobelenų grožis nublanksta - jų kaina visapusiškai per didelė. Per skaudi.

Kad skaičiau nesigailiu, bet ne taip kaip Merginos, lentynoje nebepasilikčiau - per dažnai jaučiausi plaukianti paviršiumi: meno, santykių, skausmo. Ir moterų veikėjams man čia pritrūko atspalvių bei sluoksnių - žinant, kad Chevalier gali geriau, knyga mano akyse šiaip arčiau 3.5 gula, nei kad stipraus 4.