Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56263 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-14
• Released on: 2004-12-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Chevalier, whose bestselling Girl with a Pearl Earring showed how a picture can inspire thousands of words, yokes her limpid, quietly enthralling storytelling to the six Lady and the Unicorn tapestries that hang in the Museum of the Middle Ages in Paris. As with her Vermeer novel, she takes full creative advantage of the mystery that shrouds an extraordinary collaborative work of art. Building on the little that is known or surmised - in this case that the tapestries were most likely commissioned by the French noble Jean Le Viste and made in a workshop in Brussels at the end of the 15th century - she imagines her way into a lost world. We are introduced to Nicholas des Innocents, the handsome, irrepressibly seductive artist who designed the works for the cold Le Viste, a rich, grim social climber who bought his way into the nobility and cares more about impressing the king and his court than pleasing the wife who has disappointed him by bearing three girls and no sons. Le Viste's wife, Genevieve, tells Nicholas to create scenes with a unicorn but Nicholas's love of women - and especially of Geneviève's beautiful daughter Claude - inspires the extraordinary faces and gestures of the women he depicts. A great romance unfolds. What makes the tale enthralling are the details Chevalier offers about the social customs of the time and, especially, the craft of weaving as it was practiced in Brussels. There are psychological anachronisms: would a young woman in medieval times express her pent-up frustrations by cutting herself as some teenage girls do today? Yet the genuine drama Chevalier orchestrates as the weavers race to complete the tapestries, and the deft way she herself weaves together each separate story strand, results in a work of genuine power and beauty. And yes, readers will inevitably think about what a gorgeous movie this would make.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-This fanciful, engaging tale of the making of the famous unicorn tapestries is woven together as cleverly as the artworks themselves. Dynamic Nicolas des Innocents is proud of his skill as a painter and of his sexual prowess, and displays both at every opportunity. Always in need of funds, he persuades Jean Le Viste, a powerful Parisian nobleman, to commission a series of six tapestry designs of Nicolas's choosing: scenes focused on the unicorn, a fabled symbol of male virility and mysterious powers. Jean's pious wife colludes with the artist, as do her daughter and her lady-in-waiting. Nicolas courts them all. He journeys to Brussels, where his fate becomes intertwined with the family weaving the tapestries, but most of all their daughter, Alienor, whose blindness dooms her to betrothal to a brutish wool dyer. The "family" also includes the workers who assist them, one of whom, shy Philippe, secretly adores Alienor. The deadline for completion of the tapestries is moved up, and tension increases as all concentrate on the task. The major characters' reactions to their world-early 1490s France-are revealed, like the tapestries being woven, a little at a time. The French court and its aristocracy; Flemish weavers, their work ethic, and their powerful guild-all are delineated with the consummate skill Chevalier brought to Girl with a Pearl Earring (Dutton, 2000).-Molly Connally, Chantilly Regional Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
A new historical novel by the author of the hugely popular GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING tells the story of who inspired the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, made in France circa 1490. Unfortunately, where Vermeer comes off as a weakling and a cad in the former, Nicolas des Innocents, the latter's tapestry designer, is pompous and vulgar. It's hard to believe for a second in his artistic ability as all he seems interested in is bedding every female he comes in contact with. It's disappointing because we miss out on some presumably interesting history of tapestry weaving. It's too bad too because the production is very good. Blumenfeld and Donnelly do a superb job with what they have to work with. D.G. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Can't believe anyone would not like this excellent book!
I read THE LADY AND THE UNICORN in one sitting, on a plane ride to Europe, and couldn't put it down. History has always fascinated me, and the story of Claude, nobleman's daughter. I found it amazing how Tracy Chevalier was able to take one tapestry and create an entire story about it. She builds upon what is already known to create a piece of fiction that seems almost real unto itself. I always marvel at Chevalier's works, as her language is descriptive to a fault, and doesn't assume an air of modernity which can be found in many historical novels written in the present time. I thought this was a well crafted book, the way McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD is, or perhaps the novel GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING. The writing is first-rate and right on the money. Do yourself a favor and buy this book.

An Appealing Mixture of Romance, Humor and Art History
A series of six tapestries depicting a lady seducing a unicorn now hang in the Musee National du Moyen Age in Paris. Although these tapestries --- created in the late fifteenth century --- are some of the most famous in the world, very little is known about their creation or their history. Tracy Chevalier, the novelist best known for writing the perennial book club favorite (and new feature film) GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, has used her rich imagination to weave together romance, humor and art history in THE LADY AND THE UNICORN.

Chevalier starts with one of the few facts that is actually known about the tapestries: they were created for the nobleman Jean Le Viste, whose family coat of arms features prominently in their design. In Chevalier's portrayal, Le Viste is a power-hungry nobleman with close ties to the king. He wants tapestries depicting the glories of war, but the artist, Nicolas des Innocents --- who specializes in portraits of noblewomen --- convinces Le Viste that a series of tapestries about courtly love will still bring glory to the Le Viste name.

Nicolas himself is a womanizer --- the novel opens from his point of view, and we quickly learn that his amorous sights are set on Le Viste's teenage daughter, Claude. Much to the reader's surprise (and delight), when Claude narrates the next section of the novel we learn that she is just as lustful as Nicolas, and her prose just as bawdy. Needless to say, when Claude's family discovers their flirtation, her mother (who wants to be a nun) must concoct a plan to keep the would-be lovers apart. Claude is banished to a convent and Nicolas is sent to Brussels to supervise the weaving of the tapestries there.

This development helps highlight one of the key themes of the novel, which is the juxtaposition of the sacred and the profane. Chevalier's novel is at turns raunchy and rapturous, and this contrast applies not only to the tapestries themselves and to the characters involved in their creation, but also to the whole culture of late-medieval France.

In Brussels, Nicolas once again becomes woven up in a family drama, this time in the industrious Chapelle family of weavers. Their daughter Alienor is beautiful but blind, and they fear she must marry the rude and odiferous wool dyer, whom she can't stand. Nicolas and Alienor concoct a plan to save her from her fate while allowing Nicolas to do what he does best.

In addition to being a hugely entertaining romp through art history and medieval sexual politics, THE LADY AND THE UNICORN also includes a number of interesting details about the art of weaving. By the end of this book, you'll have not only a clear picture of medieval weaving equipment and techniques, but also a greater understanding of and appreciation for the tapestries themselves, and for the weavers whose stories were lost to history --- until Chevalier creatively brought them back to life.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

Very good
This story is set in medieval/Renaissance France

A rich Paris merchant, commissions a young portrait artist better know for his womanizing to design dramatic tapestries to grace his ball room walls. Instead of battles the nobleman is talked into accepting designs based around the seduction of the Unicorn, which fits more the artist lustful view of life and women. The tension increases when the artist directs his libidinous appetite toward the daughters of his patrons.

I loved this book, the author uses seven different narrative voices , all consistent and clear which makes a far more intense and emotional reading. The mysterious Unicorn tapestry certainly makes a rich and elaborate story.