"A set of bewitching medieval tapestries hangs today in a protected chamber in Paris. They appear to portray a woman's seduction of a unicorn, but ...
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Feb 10, 2012
Madeleine
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Fascinating subject matter, truly terrible writing! It read, at times, like a lousy bodice-ripper romance novel! There were passages that made me cringe and gag over the dialogue and the descriptions of the love scenes. For something written by a female author, I was startled at how shallow the explorations were into the possible thoughts and feelings of the female characters. It was just bad! However, I did enjoy the descriptions of how the tapestries were made, and I eventually got to the end
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Jun 08, 2011
Helvry
rated it: 
Sekumpulan permadani ditemukan pada tahun 1841 oleh Prosper Mérimée, seorang dramawan, sejarawan, dan arkeolog Prancis bersama dengan temannya, George Sand. Mereka menemukannya ketika menginap di Château de Boussac Prancis tengah. Ternyata permadani itu bukan sembarang permadani, itu adalah permadani dari abad pertengahan yang akhirnya membawa kontribusi besar pada sejarah abad pertengahan Prancis.
Siapa sebenarnya perancang atau pembuat permadani ini sebenarnya tidak diketahui. Trac More...
Siapa sebenarnya perancang atau pembuat permadani ini sebenarnya tidak diketahui. Trac More...
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Dec 17, 2009
katherine
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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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Apr 10, 2008
Julie
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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 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 More...
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(6 people liked it)
Dec 14, 2008
Yana
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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 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 More...
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May 05, 2008
Kelsey
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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, 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, More...
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Apr 19, 2008
Cenoura do Lado
rated it: 
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 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 More...
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Jan 18, 2008
Jackie
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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.
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(2 people liked it)
Feb 04, 2012
Ellie
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I was actually rather surprised at how much I enjoyed reading this since I'm not usually a fan of stories that try to recreate history. I thought this book was beautifully written. The descriptions were rich but easy to go through, and the plot moved along at a pretty good pace. I do agree with some of the reviews that the characters were not entirely original, but I ended up liking most of them anyway. I thought the characters had just enough depth without being overly complex.
I thi More...
I thi More...
Jan 09, 2012
Jacquelynn
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When I read Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, I felt that she was building up the story, as an artist adds paint to the canvas, and similarly The Lady and the Unicorn seemed crafted, each chapter created like the tapestries described in the story, and carefully joined together.
Each tapestry represents one of the senses, and (according to the story), each of the women who appears with a lion and a unicorn on either side of her is a different one that Nicolas, the artist, com More...
Each tapestry represents one of the senses, and (according to the story), each of the women who appears with a lion and a unicorn on either side of her is a different one that Nicolas, the artist, com More...
Nov 20, 2011
Trisha
rated it:
It used to be that once I started a book I felt compelled to finish it no matter what. Thank goodness I have since decided that life is too short to read bad books! Otherwise I would have suffered my way through to the end of this book knowing all the while that I would have been better off abandoning it early on. Granted, the subject matter is intriguing – the series of six tapestries that were woven in Flanders from designs created in Paris in the late 15th century. And to be fair, the book
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Sep 02, 2011
Yvonne
rated it: 
I have to say I was disappointed in The Lady and the Unicorn. I have read many of Tracy Chevalier's other books and loved them but this missed the mark for me, more due to character development rather then plot. The book is a fictional account of how the tapestries could have been created. In Paris we have Nicholas des Innocents who is commissioned to paint the design for six tapestries. He falls in lust with the oldest daughter is the family and tries to seduce her, this is after already gettin
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Jul 26, 2011
Laura
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In the late 15th century, a wealthy nobleman commissions a set of woven tapestries for his home. The designer, a portraitist known for his miniatures of court ladies and his seductions of the aforesaid ladies, creates designs of a lady seducing a unicorn. He also wreaks havoc among the female members of the household. Once the designs are approved, he moves north to supervise the weaving of the tapestries, where he also manages to wreak havoc of a different sort.
The book is well wri More...
The book is well wri More...
Jun 01, 2011
Alvi
rated it:
The inspiration behind this historical fiction novel is the very real set of medieval tapestries depicting the seduction of a unicorn currently on display in a Paris museum. This is my first novel by Tracy Chevalier and I was instantly captivated by the subject matter and wanted to know how the author would approach the subject, given there is little known about the creation of the magnificent tapestries.
The Lady and the Unicorn is a quick read, and very rich in period detail. The stor More...
The Lady and the Unicorn is a quick read, and very rich in period detail. The stor More...
Nov 04, 2010
Morticia
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I hope someone has pointed out to Tracy Chevalier that if you are going to have seven different narrators for your story, you really need to give each of them a distinctive voice. This is a major failing of this novel, which I found plodding and flat, and lacking in any genuine exploration of character or motivation. The harsh working lives of the weavers are described in some detail but the description doesn't connect with the characters. And also, if you are going to use the first person in
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Aug 21, 2010
Jean Marie
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Sometimes it's those little books that you find on the discount shelf for $2 that are the best. I really didn't know what I was getting myself into with this book, I had never heard of these tapestries before I read the book.
The books mixes the fiction and the history incredibly well so well that I found myself looking up the names to see if they were purely fiction or had actually lived. The main character, aside from the tapestries themselves, Nicolas de Innocents is the painter of the More...
The books mixes the fiction and the history incredibly well so well that I found myself looking up the names to see if they were purely fiction or had actually lived. The main character, aside from the tapestries themselves, Nicolas de Innocents is the painter of the More...
Nov 14, 2009
Aimee
rated it:
The Lady and the Unicorn is the second book I've borrowed for a test drive from author Tracy Chevalier, after seeing her give a fantastic, comfortable yet commanding talk on the inspiration behind her novels at the Brisbane Writer's Festival earlier this year (the first book I delved into was Remarkable Creatures - you can find my review HERE).
The Lady and the Unicorn, despite my initial reservations cultivated by some earlier disappointed reviewers, did not disappoint me.
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The Lady and the Unicorn, despite my initial reservations cultivated by some earlier disappointed reviewers, did not disappoint me.
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Oct 29, 2009
Alayne
rated it:
My initial assessment of The Lady and the Unicorn remained true throughout the rest of the book. It was alright, but not the good piece of historical fiction I was expecting. The best parts were when we’re taken to Brussels (home of the lissier and his family) and get inside the heads of the people who live there. Alienor was my favorite character, she’s charming, stubborn, sympathetic, and independant. She makes her own future to save herself from a dismal life with a man she cannot stand. She
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May 20, 2009
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Dec 30, 2008
Lindsey
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I actually liked this one better than Girl With A Pearl Earring. This book was so detailed and beautiful...it tells the story of how the tapestry depicting The Lady and the Unicorn came to be. I didn't know anything about tapestry making, and this book really goes into detail about it, although not in a boring way.
It's a very romantic book full of sex and corruption and love that cannot be. It looks at the lives of the upper-class in the Middle Ages, but more importantly it looks at More...
It's a very romantic book full of sex and corruption and love that cannot be. It looks at the lives of the upper-class in the Middle Ages, but more importantly it looks at More...
Nov 22, 2011
lamesalmon
rated it:
This book reminded me of why I typically try to have as few preconceptions about novels as possible -- I avoid the summaries on the inside flap/back cover, rarely read reviews past the first few lines, and never examine cover art too closely. Otherwise, I start forming expectations of plot lines, style, and tone for the book, and usually end up (perhaps unfairly) disappointed when the book doesn't measure up.
All that to say, I've seen the tapestries on which this book is based, and I More...
All that to say, I've seen the tapestries on which this book is based, and I More...
Apr 22, 2011
Mia Queen
rated it:
Ini yang disebut dengan a great historical romance novel!
Buku dengan latar belakang Perancis tahun 1490 bercerita tentang Nicholas yang ditugaskan bangsawan kaya untuk membuat permadani demi merayakan kenaikan pangkatnya. Tidak hanya itu novel ini juga menceritakan sepak terjang pelukis berbakat namun genitnya yang tidak ketulungan dengan berbagai wanita yang ia temui. Mulai dari anak bangsawan yang menyewanya sampai anak gadis tukang tenun permadani.
Uniknya, Lady dan Uni More...
Buku dengan latar belakang Perancis tahun 1490 bercerita tentang Nicholas yang ditugaskan bangsawan kaya untuk membuat permadani demi merayakan kenaikan pangkatnya. Tidak hanya itu novel ini juga menceritakan sepak terjang pelukis berbakat namun genitnya yang tidak ketulungan dengan berbagai wanita yang ia temui. Mulai dari anak bangsawan yang menyewanya sampai anak gadis tukang tenun permadani.
Uniknya, Lady dan Uni More...
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Mar 18, 2009
Cara
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Dec 26, 2008
Kornela
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This book has been sitting on my bookshelf unread for years. I'm glad that I finally took the plunge and read it. It turned out to be a pleasant surprise.
The Lady and the Unicorn is a historical novel, set in 15th century France. The title of the novel refers to a series of mysterious tapestries currently on display at the Musee de National du Moyen Age in Paris. The tapestries depict a noblewoman in a series of different scenarios--putting on or taking off her jewels, feeding a parake More...
The Lady and the Unicorn is a historical novel, set in 15th century France. The title of the novel refers to a series of mysterious tapestries currently on display at the Musee de National du Moyen Age in Paris. The tapestries depict a noblewoman in a series of different scenarios--putting on or taking off her jewels, feeding a parake More...
Aug 21, 2010
Ningerbil
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The author weaves together a story about the creation of the famous tapestries, depicting noble women and the unicorn. Nicolas des Innocents (the name is ironic in this story) is commissioned by a wealthy lord to paint designs for a set of tapestries. Nicolas is very talented, but he has a roving eye and soon falls for Claude. She returns the affections but there is a problem: she's the oldest daughter of the nobleman Jean Le Viste, Nicolas' current employer. The story goes from the painting of
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Jul 26, 2011
2004- After reading ""Girl with a Pearl Earring"" last year and loving it, I decided I should check out more of the author's vivid writing style. This novel did not disappoint. Much like ""Girl..."" the book revolves around the creation of a great work of art, this time the famous Lady and the Unicorn cycle tapestries. (Which my copy of the book only had small cutouts in the front cover in which to view tapestries.) The rotating viewpoints (which I loved a
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Dec 22, 2011
Chandra
rated it:
This lies in the middle of my field of Chevalier, as it were. If I'd read it first, I don't know that I'd go running out to see what else she'd written (as I did with Virgin Blue), but it has a lot going for it. For one, the plot is engrossing enough to keep the pages turning almost of their own accord; and the style of shifting the "main" character works well. The downside is that, at least in my case, you don't end up "siding" with a character, but somehow this works, too.
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Jul 27, 2011
My first Chevalier, and I thought it was wonderful. I found the story thoroughly engaging and read the whole thing over a weekend. I knew nothing of the Tapestries prior to reading this, and for the first time in a long while, this was a book that made me research the true story behind the tale.
With each chapter coming from the perspecitive of a different character, you really feel you get to know them, and also the story is told on so many levels - from the nobles who commission the works to More...
With each chapter coming from the perspecitive of a different character, you really feel you get to know them, and also the story is told on so many levels - from the nobles who commission the works to More...
Oct 16, 2009
Ruth
rated it:
Tracy Chevalier
The Lady and the Unicorn
New York: Plume, 2004
288 pp. $9.99
0-525-94767-1
Six enigmatic tapestries currently hang in the Musee de Cluny in Paris depicting six ladies and a unicorn in each. Tracy Chevalier gives vivid new life to the story behind these French tapestries, named The Lady and the Unicorn, which were commissioned by a French nobleman called Jean Le Viste. Chevalier changes the speaker every chapter, bringing into perspective the particu More...
The Lady and the Unicorn
New York: Plume, 2004
288 pp. $9.99
0-525-94767-1
Six enigmatic tapestries currently hang in the Musee de Cluny in Paris depicting six ladies and a unicorn in each. Tracy Chevalier gives vivid new life to the story behind these French tapestries, named The Lady and the Unicorn, which were commissioned by a French nobleman called Jean Le Viste. Chevalier changes the speaker every chapter, bringing into perspective the particu More...
Mar 27, 2009
DeAnna
rated it:
I really enjoyed this book. I wasn't quite sure of giving it a 5, but it was something fresh for me (and I read it in about 2 or 3 days) so that pushed it to a 5. I've always loved looking at art and interpreting the story it tells and it was very fun to read about the story possibly told by this piece of art, and also imagine a back story about its creation. A while back I'd seen the movie 'The Girl with the Pearl Earring' and enjoyed it. Now I wish I'd read the book, but probably won't sin
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