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Jean
le Viste, a busy and vain fifteenth-century nobleman, orders a
tapestry to display his family's coat of arms. He wants
pictures of bloody battles. His wife, Geneviève de Nanterre, convinces the painter,
Nicolas des Innocents, to represent ladies and unicorns
instead. The idea seduces him: he is
much more attracted to ladies than to wars. Nicolas manages to
have Geneviève de Nanterre's idea approved by Jean le Viste, and this is the beginning of the
fictional story
behind the creation of the fabulous tapestry of The Lady and the
Unicorn... Narrated in several different voices, The Lady and
the Unicorn tells not only about the conception, painting,
enlarging, and weaving of the masterpiece, but also about all
the people involved in its making, and whose lives are affected by
it. Nicolas des Innocents, a womanizer, brings mischief (along with his
fine art) in the households he visits. Smitten with
Claude le Viste, the nobleman's daughter, he makes one of the
ladies in the tapestry her likeness. Along with his creation, which
changes after he finishes painting it and evolves further into the
hands of the weavers, Nicolas is influenced by the persons he meets
because of the tapestry. All the characters are
interesting, all their voices bring different lights on the
relationships between the various characters and their understandings of the tapestry. The character of blind Aliénor
de la Chapelle, daughter of Brussel's weavers, is particularly well
achieved.
The tapestry itself is masterfully brought to life by Tracy
Chevalier's pen. Its six parts; Taste, Sound, Sight, Smell, Touch
and the more mysterious À Mon Seul Désir are given meaning and insight, which a simple glance at the tapestry would not allow.
One single disappointment: in the UK edition of the novel (the
one I read), there is no reproduction of the tapestry itself, except
for Taste on the back cover. I had to look up on the Internet for
the other parts of the tapestry, and one feels the need to have the
picture in mind, or at least in sight, when reading. Discovering
this book made me wish I could go to the Hôtel de Cluny in
Paris right away, to check out the original...
As in Falling Angels,
Tracy Chevalier has used different voices to tell a story, and as in
The Girl with a Pearl Earring,
she has observed a piece of art so carefully and cleverly that she
has managed to imagine the story behind it in a very convincing
manner. The Lady and the Unicorn is my favorite Tracy
Chevalier's novel so far...
Rating: 
© Discussing Books, 12/26/2003 |
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