Another Review at MyShelf.Com

Publisher: Harper Collins
Release Date: 15 September 2003
ISBN: 0007140908
Awards:  
Format Reviewed: Hardback
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Genre:   Fiction / Historical Mainstream [1490-92 Paris & Brussels]
Reviewed: 2004
Reviewer: Rachel A Hyde
Reviewer Notes:  
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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.