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Publisher:
Harper Collins |
Release
Date: 15 September 2003 |
ISBN:
0007140908 |
Awards:
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Format
Reviewed: Hardback |
Buy
it at Amazon US
|| UK |
Read
an Excerpt |
Genre:
Fiction / Historical Mainstream [1490-92 Paris &
Brussels] |
Reviewed:
2004 |
Reviewer:
Rachel A Hyde |
Reviewer
Notes: |
Copyright
MyShelf.com |
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The
Lady & The Unicorn
By Tracy Chevalier
Miniaturist
Nicolas des Innocents thinks that he is lucky indeed to get a commission
for a set of tapestries from nobleman Jean le Viste. Especially
when he has such a beautiful daughter; from then on he is obsessed
with the wayward and rebellious Claude. In Brussels, he strikes
against the family of weaver Georges de la Chapelle who also has
a beautiful daughter - but Nicolas is a roguish seducer and marriage
is the last thing on his mind.
This is the sort of borderline literary
novel that boasts a neatly dovetailing plot and is likely to have
very wide appeal. Relationships rather than romance fill its pages;
between cold Jean and his religious wife, between teenage Claude
and her disappointed mother, between the happier de la Chapelle
family and above all else between the tapestry and those who labor
on it or for whom it is intended. The reader's sympathies are likely
to lie with the weavers, as the Parisians seem too wayward, or too
cold or too distant to make likeable protagonists but this does
not count against the story. Rather, the book speaks of people (especially
women) thrown into situations not of their choosing and the various
plot strands weave in and out of each other like threads on a tapestry.
Having the main characters tell the story is a wonderful idea, as
each has their own voice and opinions, and a third person's viewpoint
would not have revealed as much of this. Here too is a book that
seems to be exactly the right length and needs no editing. In short,
something of a treat.
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