book data
2629 ratings, 3.49 average rating, 316 reviews
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published
December 28th 2004
(first published 2007)
by Plume
binding
Paperback, 256 pages
isbn
0452285453
(isbn13: 9780452285453)
description
If you think you wouldn't raise your skirts for a rakish legend about the purifying powers of a unicorn's horn, then maybe you aren't a 15th-century s...more
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avg 3.49
Read in May, 2008
Tracy Chevalier
The Lady and the Unicorn
New York: Penguin, 2004
250 pp. $23.95
0-525-94767-1
“The Lady and the Unicorn,” written by Tracy Chevalier, is a historical fiction novel about medieval French tapestries which depict a woman seducing a unicorn. Although not much is known about the tapestries, Tracy Chevalier has written an excellent love story based on the few known facts. Jean Le Viste, a French nobleman, commissions a Parisian painter, Nicolas des Innocents, to create a set...more
The Lady and the Unicorn
New York: Penguin, 2004
250 pp. $23.95
0-525-94767-1
“The Lady and the Unicorn,” written by Tracy Chevalier, is a historical fiction novel about medieval French tapestries which depict a woman seducing a unicorn. Although not much is known about the tapestries, Tracy Chevalier has written an excellent love story based on the few known facts. Jean Le Viste, a French nobleman, commissions a Parisian painter, Nicolas des Innocents, to create a set...more
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Laura Ana T.
Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful!
I found Lady and the Unicorn even better than Girl with a Pearl Earring. I felt utterly transported to the middle ages and immersed in a very good tale, immaculately told.
As she did with The Girl With the Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier takes a classic work of art and artfully spins a tale inspired by the original which becomes an original itself.
It was specially fascinating living among the Brussels weavers and coming to understand the magnitude of their tas...more
I found Lady and the Unicorn even better than Girl with a Pearl Earring. I felt utterly transported to the middle ages and immersed in a very good tale, immaculately told.
As she did with The Girl With the Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier takes a classic work of art and artfully spins a tale inspired by the original which becomes an original itself.
It was specially fascinating living among the Brussels weavers and coming to understand the magnitude of their tas...more
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Read in October, 2006
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 ...more
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 ...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
people who want to waste their time on a terrible book
What I learned from this book is I should never ever read anything by this author ever again. A friend of mine was enthralled by The Virgin Blue and requested I read it. Although I hated it I thought I'd possibly give The Lady and the Unicorn a chance since I love art history. Sadly, I cannot say I liked a single thing about this book. I hated the plot, story, characters and writing style. Hated.
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This is one of those books someone unfortunately picked for book club. The story was so uninteresting, I am surprised I made it through the entire book.
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Read in September, 2008
A set of medievel tapestries hang today in a chamber in Paris,portaying a women's seduction of a unicorn. The story behind the tapestry is unknown, but Tracy Chevalier weaves fact and fiction to help us unfold the story with her book,"The Lady and the Unicorn".
The story takes place in 1490, Paris about a French nobleman who commisions six tapestries to be made, celebrating his rising status in court. He hires Nicolas des Innocents to design them, but Nicolas adds his own twist to t...more
The story takes place in 1490, Paris about a French nobleman who commisions six tapestries to be made, celebrating his rising status in court. He hires Nicolas des Innocents to design them, but Nicolas adds his own twist to t...more
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Read in November, 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...
Two families, two cities, one rogue go-between, and a set of gorgeous tapestries, all in a late medieval setting.
Nicolas des Innocents, a handsome, lascivious artist, is summoned to the Paris home of Jean Le Viste, a nobleman who wants Nicolas to design a series of battle tapestries for his house. Jean’s wife, Geneviève, persuades Nicolas to talk her husband i...more
Two families, two cities, one rogue go-between, and a set of gorgeous tapestries, all in a late medieval setting.
Nicolas des Innocents, a handsome, lascivious artist, is summoned to the Paris home of Jean Le Viste, a nobleman who wants Nicolas to design a series of battle tapestries for his house. Jean’s wife, Geneviève, persuades Nicolas to talk her husband i...more
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_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 n...more
Chevalier's story is n...more
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in April, 2005
I listened to this one on tape and really enjoyed it. It was read by Robert Blumenfeld and Terry Donnelly. I especially loved Terry Donnelly’s voice. It was historically interesting and full of rich sights, sounds, and smells. Chevalier is really good at bringing faraway times and places to life. It was a little baudier than The Girl With the Pearl Earring and more comic. Very lively and enjoyable. I liked having the different points of view of the different characters. Makes for a...more
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Read in July, 2005
I really enjoyed reading "Girl with a Pear Earring" and so was curious to read another book by Tracy Chevalier. This author's writing is stark, simple, uncomplicated and yet very engaging and possessing a clear beauty in the way she weaves her story, much like the tapestries of the Lady and the Unicorn were weaved. I really enjoyed this book, with all its different points of views, which allowed us to see events from different perspectives and understand the characters better.
Tryin...more
Tryin...more
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Read in July, 2007
Jean Le Viste commissions painter Nicholas des Innocents to design six tapestries that will be hung in a grand hall within his magnificent Paris home. Jean is a conniving, deviously ambitious nobleman with a depressed wife and three daughters. The oldest daughter, Claude is beautiful and falls head over heals for Nicholas. Of course, this love is not meant to be, as Claude is nobility and Nicholas is just a mere painter, not to mention a womanizer and scoundrel, yet he is deliciously appealing. ...more
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Read in June, 2007
Sebuah cerita fiktif yang terinspirasi oleh karya seniman perancis The Lady and The Unicorn. Betapa dalam sebuah proyek seni dapat terjadi banyak intrik saat pembuatannya.
Dimulai dari seorang pelukis yang notabene seorang womanizer, bernama Nicolas de Innocents, menerima sebuah proyek yang belum pernah ia tangani sebelumnya, yaitu membuat desain permadani. Apalagi proyek ini adalah permintaan seorang Jean Le Viste, Bangsawan kaku yang sangat mementingkan statusnya melebihi apapun. Dan kemudi...more
Dimulai dari seorang pelukis yang notabene seorang womanizer, bernama Nicolas de Innocents, menerima sebuah proyek yang belum pernah ia tangani sebelumnya, yaitu membuat desain permadani. Apalagi proyek ini adalah permintaan seorang Jean Le Viste, Bangsawan kaku yang sangat mementingkan statusnya melebihi apapun. Dan kemudi...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
1400's time period; facinating!
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 commissione...more
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Read in July, 2006
Oh! What a Tale She Weaves
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 vai...more
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 vai...more
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Read in October, 2008
recommends it for:
people who like novels based on historical facts
Again a great book from Tracy Chevalier. I cannot say I am surprised as I enjoyed all her books and I barely wait to read the next one. But it is still wonderful to find a book that captures you in such a way that you don't want to stop reading it and you can't wait to get home to pick up where you left of. This kind of book is Tracy Chevalier's "The Lady and the Unicorn". Also, after finishing it I had a feeling that I only have after reading one of her books: although the story has e...more
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Chevalier seldom disappoints with her lush novels based on beautiful and somewhat mysterious works of art. This one is built around the series of six "lady and the unicorn" tapestries in the Museum of the Middle Ages in Paris. Little is know about them other than that they were likely commissioned by French noble Jean le Viste and produced in Brussels in the late 15th century. Chevalier focuses on the designer of the artworks, Nicholas des Innocents, and the peasant craftsmen who ultim...more
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Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
fans of historical fiction
Like she did with Girl with a Pearl Earring, Chevalier once again takes a real work of art (this time a series of tapestries) and creates a story about their creation that shows how it MIGHT have happened.
Nicholas des Innocents is a handsome womanizer and the artist who is commissioned to design a series of tapestries for the thoroughly unlikable nobleman, Jean Le Viste. Le Viste cares nothing for art or love and is only concerned with raising his social status.
Nicholas meets the Le V...more
Nicholas des Innocents is a handsome womanizer and the artist who is commissioned to design a series of tapestries for the thoroughly unlikable nobleman, Jean Le Viste. Le Viste cares nothing for art or love and is only concerned with raising his social status.
Nicholas meets the Le V...more
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Read in January, 2007
Näitä historiallisia herkullisia romaaneja, jotka ovat saaneet alkunsa kirjailijan inspiroiduttua jostain tietystä taideteoksesta.
Tällä kertaa ollaan 1400 -luvun Pariisissa ja Brysselissä. Polyfonisesti kirjoitettu kirja toimii erinomaisesti ja pirtää henkilöhahmot sellaisella intensiivisyydellä mieleen, että ne löytyvät sieltä vielä vuosienkin kuluttua. Mmm.
Tällä kertaa ollaan 1400 -luvun Pariisissa ja Brysselissä. Polyfonisesti kirjoitettu kirja toimii erinomaisesti ja pirtää henkilöhahmot sellaisella intensiivisyydellä mieleen, että ne löytyvät sieltä vielä vuosienkin kuluttua. Mmm.
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Read in June, 2008
Hmm... I'm torn between saying I liked this one and it was just okay. I can say that I did not enjoy this one nearly as much as Falling Angels or The Virgin Blue. What I loved most about those books was the level of historical detail Chevalier incorporated. I felt as if there was another layer to those stories because of those details, and I came out of them feeling as if I learned a lot about the time periods. Though the narrative style is very different, this book reminded me a ...more
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