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The Lady and the Unicorn

Tracy Chevalier (Goodreads Author)

3.69 · Rating details · 41,686 ratings · 2,022 reviews

A tour de force of history and imagination, The Lady and the Unicorn is Tracy Chevalier’s answer to the mystery behind one of the art world’s great masterpieces—a set of bewitching medieval tapestries that hangs today in the Cluny Museum in Paris. They appear to portray the seduction of a unicorn, but the story behind their making is unknown—until now.

Paris, 1490. A shrew ...more

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Paperback, 250 pages

Published December 1st 2004 by Penguin Group (first published 2003)

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· 41,686 ratings · 2,022 reviews

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Apr 18, 2008 CatarinaG rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Laura Ana T.

Shelves: favorites, ebook, english

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 task. One ...more

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Apr 10, 2008 Julie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: from-library, historical-fiction

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 stor ...more

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Jul 14, 2013 Janice rated it did not like it

Shelves: schlock

If I ever read the word maidenhead again in a novel, I will vomit from the flashback of reading this book.

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Nov 04, 2010 Morticia Adams rated it it was ok

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 a ...more

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Jul 24, 2007 katherine brown rated it did not like it

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. ...more

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Jan 14, 2010 Chrissie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: hf, bio, text-checked, 2012-read, kirkus, favorites, belgium, arts, france

I am impressed. I never thought this book would be as lovely as Girl with a Pearl Earring: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...! First let me just explain that this is a book of historical fiction. In the Museé National du Moyen-Age we can today see the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. They are six tapestries, each representing one of our five senses:
sight, sound, smell, touch, taste and the sixth, that one is known as Á Mon Seul Désir, for these words are found woven there. In English the I am impressed. I never thought this book would be as lovely as Girl with a Pearl Earring: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...! First let me just explain that this is a book of historical fiction. In the Museé National du Moyen-Age we can today see the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. They are six tapestries, each representing one of our five senses:
sight, sound, smell, touch, taste and the sixth, that one is known as Á Mon Seul Désir, for these words are found woven there. In English the translation would be: my one, sole desire. Think about those words in conjunction with the theme of the other tapestries and imagine what they might mean. In any case, the tapestries and this book must be about seduction. Or is it about forgoing sensual pleasures? One cannot see if the women is putting in or taking out the jewels.

Little is known of these wool and silk tapestries except that they were woven at the end of the 1400s, probably in Flanders. They were commissioned by the Le Visté family, since the banner is visible in all six of the tapestries. Tracy Chevalier weaves a credible story about these tapestries: Jean Le Visté, a fifteenth-century nobleman, close to the French King Charles VII, commissions Nicolas des Innocents, a talented miniaturist, tantalized by the charms of several beautiful women - maids, ladies-in-waiting and even Jean Le Visté’s daughter and wife, too. The tapestries are woven in Brussels by the renown weaver Georges de la Chapelle. The story captures the lives and times of noblemen and the guilds’ craftsmen living in Brussels and Paris at the end of the 1400s.

Tracy Chevalier, the author, has done her homework. She knows these cities, the craftsmen and these times – down to the smallest details. She knows that in Brussels it is the early summer sun that shines the hottest:

I sat back on my heels and raised my face to the sun. Early summer is good for sun, as it is directly overhead for longer during the day. I have always loved heat, though not from the fire. Fires scare me. I have singed my skirts too often by the fire.

‘Will you pick me a strawberry, Mademoiselle?’ Nicolas asked. ‘I have a thirst.’

‘They’re not ripe yet,’ I snapped. I had meant to sound pleasant but he made me feel strange. And he was talking too loudly. People often do when they discover I am blind….. (pages 110-111: a short interchange of words between Nicolas and Aliénor de la Chapelle, the pretty, but blind daughter of Geroges de la Chapelle)

Already we know by 100 pages that Nicolas has impregnated a maid in Paris, been under a table doing naughty things with fourteen-year-old Claude, the daughter of Jean Le Visté, and flirted with her mother, Geneviève de Nanterre. What more mischief and indeed with whom will we find Nicolas? Each character has a clear identity. There is rivalry between mother and daughter; there is jealousy and love too. Each of the women came alive. There is Aliénor the blind girl. There is Christine du Sablon, the wife of Georges and mother of Aliénor. Each of the women and also the men relate the events. Different chapters relate different characters’ thoughts. Each of the individuals has a different perspective. Each has their own problems, personality and standing and thus they cannot have the same view. I loved the blind girl’s thoughts. I also appreciated the two different mother daughter relationships. For me, there was a lot to consider. I love the playful seduction scenes. I love the authenticity of the descriptions. I know Brussels and the author describes the city perfectly. The details are interwoven into the tale of families. There is a wife that has given birth to only three daughters, and that is quite a failing when it is a son that is needed to carry on the family name. This novel is about not only the tapestries but also about women, several very different women. So while we learn history about these tapestries and times we also delve into familiar family relationships. The book is about rivalry between mothers and daughters, lost love between a husband and wife and about the life of women as they age. What makes it wonderful to read is the author’s ability to evoke different places and characters convincingly.
...more

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May 04, 2019 Lavinia rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019, in-en, fiction

I suppose that's how you write historical fiction (looking at you, Simone van der Vlugt!)

The Brussels section is glorious, with all the weaving details and the particulars of the craft. I'm beyond amazed each time an author takes the hard way and engages in lots of research, such as tapestry techniques in the Middle Ages—setting up looms, threads, colours, dyeing methods and all that jazz—and manages to bring everything together in an enthralling narrative. Also, I'm constantly amazed at how inc ...more

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Apr 27, 2012 Lizzy rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-reads, reviews, historical-fiction, 15th-century

Was hoping to enjoy The Lady and the Unicorn after reading Burning Bright a few years earlier, which is, to be honest, far superior to this. After the action moves away from the Le Viste family, it kind of goes downhill from there. Nicholas is thoroughly unlikeable as a character (whether this was meant to be deliberate or not, I couldn't tell). The only interesting person was Genevieve de Nanterre. Also, what's the deal with Chevalier missing out on the chance to use Jean Le Viste's narrative v ...more

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Feb 22, 2017 Blodeuedd Finland rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction

Everyone was kind of an idiot in this one.

We have the stuck up nobleman who thinks he is all that.
We have the artist who thinks he is god's gift to women. Ugh, what an ass. I wanted to slap him.
The nobleman's stupid daughter, God, what an idiot.

Then we moved on to Brussels to see the tapestry being made. Ok, that family was better. The daughter was better, but still, oh girl.

I think the only sane person was the maid for the rich family. Sure she made mistakes too, but, I understood her.

But the b ...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Sarah B. rated it did not like it

Shelves: given-away

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I wanted to give this book 1½ stars, but rounded down to 1. I disliked the main character, the tapestry painter Nicolas des Innocents, by page 10, but I assumed that the author would have him grow and change as a person by the end of the book -- presumably through the process of creating the remarkable tapestries that inspired the novel. Sure, it's an obvious and almost cliché plot, but I don't need a crazy original plot in order to enjoy a book. Disappointed! He is still a pig at the end of the I wanted to give this book 1½ stars, but rounded down to 1. I disliked the main character, the tapestry painter Nicolas des Innocents, by page 10, but I assumed that the author would have him grow and change as a person by the end of the book -- presumably through the process of creating the remarkable tapestries that inspired the novel. Sure, it's an obvious and almost cliché plot, but I don't need a crazy original plot in order to enjoy a book. Disappointed! He is still a pig at the end of the story (that's my spoiler, btw).

There are two young women in the book: Claude, who is the daughter of the nobleman who commissioned the titular tapestries, and who is grumpy and horny and apparently would rather fool around with the slimy Nicolas des Innocents than have any worthwhile future; and Aliénor, the blind weaver's daughter, who is going to be married off to a disgusting brute whose smell literally makes her gag. Both of them have fathers who don't care about them or undervalue them, and mothers who basically care more about their virginity than their happiness.

I know life was very bad for women in the 15th century. But when I pick up a book set in that time, I expect the author to have worked around that problem and given me some way to live with the disgusting attitudes and expectations that the characters face. Again, I was disappointed here. This passage, in which the Claude's mother Geneviève de Nanterre has just discovered that Claude has been fooling around with the despicable Nicolas, gives you all you need to know about the inner life of the women in this book:

I gritted my teeth. Claude knows only too well how valuable her maidenhead is to the Le Vistes -- she must be intact for a worthy man to marry her. Her husband will inherit the Le Viste wealth one day, if not the name. The house on the rue du Four, the Château d'Arcy, the furniture, the jewels, even the tapestries Jean is having made -- all will go to Claude's husband. Jean will have chosen him carefully, and the husband in turn will expect Claude to be pious, respectful, admired, and a virgin, of course. If her father had caught her...I shivered.

Of course it would be anachronistic for Chevalier to have written women who could be self-aware or expect anything other than the treatment they got, but to reduce the whole plot to the worst aspects of their lives -- not just their subjugation to men or the reduction of their value to just whether or not they are pure, but also the ruination of unwanted pregnancy and complete lack of education other than religious study -- was just depressing. And it wasn't enlightening-depressing, like My Jim: A Novel, because it was bodice-rippy enough that I think we were supposed to be titillated and amused by all the bawdiness even as it ruined or threatened to ruin almost every female character in the novel. And contrasting the oppressive atmosphere that controlled literally every moment of Claude's life was the gallingly self-centred Nicolas, who waltzed through the novel with complete liberty, consuming women for his own pleasure and then leaving them (and their children) behind once they have served his purpose. Wow, I really hated this book! Forget the half star, this was just a 1. ...more

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Mar 13, 2018 H.A. Leuschel rated it really liked it

I've always wondered about the intricate process of creating a tapestry and in this book I felt like the author had taken me by the hand and patiently brought the creation of six tapestries to life for me, drawing me into the world of fifteen's century Paris and Brussels. Artists, cartoonists, dyers, weavers, seamstresses and financiers were all involved in the creation, months of preparations and planning were followed by months of weaving. In among this interesting setting, we're introduced to ...more

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Feb 06, 2018 Ana rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: bookcrossing

3.5 stars. I really liked the description of the weaving process of the Flemish tapestries, starting with the drawings, the daily lives of artisans and nobles, and to imagine life in Brussels at that time. I kept this book so I could read it while visiting the city and it was great to visit some of the places described in it. This being said, I would have liked the book to have more historical information and less romance, which at times even seemed a bit cheesy...

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Nov 19, 2011 Emma rated it it was ok

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 was really ...more

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Apr 18, 2008 Laura rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Recommended to Laura by: CatarinaG

Shelves: hf-medieval-europe, read-2010, bookmooch, art-fiction

The story of The Lady and the Unicorn is quite interesting: according to the author they were rediscovered by Prosper Merimee in 1841 and he found them in poor condition. Georges Sand became their champion, writing about them in articles, novels and her journal. In 1992 the French government bought the tapestries for the Musee de Cluny in Paris - where they still hang, restored and in a specially appointed room.
I didn't enjoy this book as much as The Girl with a Pearl Earring. And certainly Chri ...more

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Aug 30, 2016 Sotiris Karaiskos rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

In this book the writer returns to the very successful recipe of Girl with a Pearl Earring and writes a fantastic story about the creation of a well-known artwork. The execution of the recipe is quite different, as many different situations are woven in the story and the narrative is from different angles, but the result is just as positive, although I certainly prefer the first. The book is distinguished for the same virtues, with the author showing us in a very nice way the life at that era an In this book the writer returns to the very successful recipe of Girl with a Pearl Earring and writes a fantastic story about the creation of a well-known artwork. The execution of the recipe is quite different, as many different situations are woven in the story and the narrative is from different angles, but the result is just as positive, although I certainly prefer the first. The book is distinguished for the same virtues, with the author showing us in a very nice way the life at that era and puts us in the textile world, in the same way he put us before in the world of painting. Love plays a particularly important role in a quite different way, however, with sensuality being more intense, which also gives the writer the opportunity to talk about the sexual morals of the time. With these elements, we have an interesting history that has humour and sensitivity and is full of the joy of creation and the optimism that the very existence of art can bring.

Σε αυτό το βιβλίο η συγγραφέας επιστρέφει στη συνταγή του πολύ επιτυχημένου Girl with a Pearl Earring και γράφει μία φανταστική ιστορία γύρω από τη δημιουργία ενός γνωστού έργου τέχνης. Η εκτέλεση της συνταγής είναι βέβαια αρκετά διαφορετική καθώς μέσα στην ιστορία υφαίνονται πολλές διαφορετικές καταστάσεις και η αφήγηση γίνεται μέσα από διαφορετικές οπτικές γωνίες, το αποτέλεσμα, όμως, είναι εξίσου θετικό αν και σίγουρα προτιμώ πολύ περισσότερο το πρώτο. Το βιβλίο διακρίνεται για τις ίδιες αρετές, με τη συγγραφέα να μας δείχνει με έναν πολύ ωραίο τρόπο τη ζωή σε εκείνη την εποχή και μας βάζει στον κόσμο της υφαντουργίας, με τον ίδιο τρόπο που μας έβαλε πριν στον κόσμο της ζωγραφικής. Ο έρωτας παίζει ιδιαίτερα σημαντικό ρόλο με έναν αρκετά διαφορετικό τρόπο, όμως, με τον αισθησιασμό να είναι περισσότερο έντονος, κάτι που δίνει και την ευκαιρία στη συγγραφέα να μιλήσει για τα σεξουαλικά ήθη της εποχής. Με αυτά τα στοιχεία έχουμε μπροστά μας μία ενδιαφέρουσα ιστορία που διαθέτει χιούμορ μα και ευαισθησία και είναι γεμάτη από τη χαρά της δημιουργίας και την αισιοδοξία που μπορεί να φέρει η ίδια η ύπαρξη της τέχνης. ...more

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Apr 03, 2012 Emma rated it it was amazing

Shelves: medieval, historical-fiction, re-read

This was a reread from many years ago- apart from remembering it was about weavers I didn’t remember much else. I listened to this on audible this time and the narrator was fantastic with a wide range of great voices. It was a 5 star read before and now again with 5 stars for the narrator too.

The story is set both in Paris and Brussels where the weaving takes place. The artist commissioned is a regular lothario and sees himself as the rampant unicorn. In part we learn about his love life but wh ...more

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Apr 06, 2013 Ceilidh rated it it was ok

Incredibly clunky and just flat-out dull. If you've read Girl With a Pearl Earring you can pretty much track where this story's going to go. It's very predictable and the sexual subplots were laughable in places. Sorry, Ms Chevalier, but this was just not worth my time, even for the really lovely scenes describing the tapestries (and those tapestries are amazing. Seriously, google them). ...more

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Apr 20, 2008 Kelsey rated it really liked it

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 of six tapestri 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 of six tapestries. Set in France, the story travels between Paris and Brussels, where the tapestries are being weaved. Meanwhile Nicolas becomes caught between three women, yet the one he loves most is Claude, the daughter of Jean Le Viste. However they are separated by society, prohibited to even walk on the same side of the street together. Because of pressures from family, Claude undergoes an emotional transformation throughout the novel.
Being the first born, Claude plays a crucial role in securing the Le Viste name around the Court. Jean Le Viste was not born to noble status, rather he earned his way in. To maintain the family name Claude must marry into another royal family, causing her parents to shelter her from ineligible men. Nicolas des Innocents is popular with the ladies and becomes very fond of Claude during several encounters at the Le Viste household. When Jean Le Viste’s wife, Genevieve De Nanterre, sees that Claude has fallen in love with Nicolas, she does everything in her power to isolate them from each other. She states, “Claude knows only too well how valuable her maidenhead is to the Le Vistes-she must be intact for a worthy man to marry her” (Chevalier 56). But to ensure Claude will not lose her maidenhead, Genevieve De Nanterre banishes Claude to the convent until she is to become betrothed.
While at the convent Claude spends numerous months in solidarity, reflecting on her love for Nicolas. There she lives modestly, sleeping on a straw mattress surely not fit for a queen. Though joining the convent is truly her mother’s dream, not Claude’s. Genevieve De Nanterre thinks, “It would be a mercy to let me enter a convent” (51). Genevieve dreams of entering the convent someday, and to be free from her loveless marriage. When Claude is welcomed back home for her engagement party, she stubbles upon Nicolas. Nonetheless he has already noticed she is not the same person she used to be, recalling, “Her eyes were still like quinces but they were not as lively as they had been” (239). Claude’s stay at the convent had mellowed her soul and all enthusiasm had been lost.
“The Lady and the Unicorn” is an exciting tale of secret love. Chevalier does an exceptional job combining French vocabulary, French culture, and imagery to portray a reliable account of what might have been during the time period. The emotional changes Claude faces during the story sheds light on pressures felt from family and society and the different standards noblewomen are held to.
...more

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Oct 18, 2018 Pamela rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction

Here is another cleverly written historical novel about a great piece of art by the author of Girl With a Pearl Earring. This time it's the making of the famous Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. Not much is known about them in reality. They appear to have been made sometime at the end of the 15th century in Flanders and are thought to have been commissioned by a member of the La Viste family. There are six in all and they tell a story of taming the unicorn by a series of noblewomen. They also rep ...more

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Jan 18, 2008 Jackie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, adult-fiction

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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Oct 31, 2008 Yana rated it really liked it

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 the work and ...more

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Aug 21, 2010 Jean Marie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: early-modern-europe

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 origin ...more

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Jul 18, 2018 Miriam Cihodariu rated it really liked it

Shelves: usa, france, belgium

You can tell from the first few pages that the author really did her homework on the history of tapestries. Everything is very well-documented, from how exactly a tapestry was made to the usual way a Belgian workshop was organized and run. (The best medieval workshops for tapestries were in Belgium).

It's lovely that Tracy Chevalier thought of a way to explain the famous unicorn tapestries in Cluny and how they came to be. Her knowledge of the art world in Paris and how everything was commissione ...more

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Aug 01, 2015 Deborah Pickstone rated it liked it

Shelves: geocaching, history-of-all-things, allegorical, medieval, myth-and-legend

I have never quite clicked with Tracy Chevalier. Her subject matter is always attractive to me but the writing I find stiff; it's as if I can't quite get close enough to 'see'....whatever I am missing. So I never quite get involved in her story. My experience of this book followed the same pattern. ...more

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Jun 02, 2020 Amy rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, france, art

This book has been on my TBR for a while and the synopsis intrigued me. But I actually chose to read it, due to Decades Bingo, as it is a 2003 publish. I give it about 3.5 stars, and I enjoyed it. It had an interesting structure, as the story moves through 7 or 8 points of view as it is being told. I found that interesting. The story of course is of a series of six tapestries in the house of Jean Le Viste, that depict the story of The Lady and the Unicorn, which is a story of seduction. This boo ...more

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Jun 20, 2007 Michele rated it it was amazing

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 vain, yet his char ...more

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Apr 16, 2014 Sandra rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 1400s-1500s-1600s-setting

4.5 stars

Loved it, good light reading. Its been a while since I read this but the birth of this tapestry (I am sure there is a lot of fiction woven in there as well) is fascinating. The characters came to life as did the times. Which I always look for in a good book. So I can certainly recommend this.

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Aug 20, 2018 Lisa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book is a mesmerizing magic trick! It's like you're watching a shell game and trying to track all of the cups in rotation. Except the cups are couplings.

Also, you find out very early that 'unicorn' is a euphemism for penis. Saucy! ...more

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Aug 03, 2016 Tina rated it really liked it

Shelves: francais, histoire, baradine-bookworms

Threads of history and fiction interestingly woven together, creating colourful symbolism and story telling.
I have always admired this tapestry and will surely revisit it with new eyes and wonder.

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Jan 21, 2017 Anna rated it it was ok

Shelves: finished-but-did-not-enjoy, 2017-reading-challenge

I read one Tracy Chevalier book before this one, "Remarkable Creatures", and liked it well enough. I enjoyed reading it, although it did not make my list of favorite reads of 2016. It was simple, clear, and not a huge time commitment, and I expected something similar from "The Lady and the Unicorn".

Unfortunately, I was hugely disappointed. Almost every character in this book is a big jerk. I like complex characters and not every character has to be likable, but when every character is unlikeable I read one Tracy Chevalier book before this one, "Remarkable Creatures", and liked it well enough. I enjoyed reading it, although it did not make my list of favorite reads of 2016. It was simple, clear, and not a huge time commitment, and I expected something similar from "The Lady and the Unicorn".

Unfortunately, I was hugely disappointed. Almost every character in this book is a big jerk. I like complex characters and not every character has to be likable, but when every character is unlikeable it becomes very hard to connect to any of them or root for any of them within their stories. If I am going to hate the character, I'd usually like it to be within a villain context; when the characters who are supposed to be the heroes are petty and awful, it's much harder for me to grasp. The "main" character, Nicolas des Innocents, is a jerkwad womanizer who sleeps with basically every main character female and never gets the comeuppance he deserves. I can't even sympathize with his main love interest, Claude, because she is petulant and selfish. Reading about the star-crossed lovers relationship between two terrible people was excruciating. Every other character who may have had redeeming qualities initially is eventually tainted in my mind by their association with or support of Nicolas. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

The only characters I liked were the mothers. I liked Genevieve, Claude's mother, but that was mostly because she didn't like Nicolas and she works to punish Claude for her association with him, which I darkly enjoyed. Most of her thoughts are about her desires to enter a nunnery though, which ain't all that exciting to read about. I also thought the weaver's wife Christine was fine, but mostly because she didn't really do much of anything and so didn't have many opportunities to annoy me.

The POV chapters of the weaver Georges and the weaver's associate, Philippe, were basically all about weaving, which again, exciting. It's a bit interesting to learn about medieval weaving in the beginning, but when it goes on for most of the book, even a short book like this, it gets very tedious.

I had Tracy Chevalier's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" on my to-read list but took it off after finishing "The Lady and the Unicorn" - if this is an example of what Chevalier's fictional interpretations of famous artwork turn out to be like, I'll take a hard pass. ...more

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About Tracy Chevalier

Tracy Chevalier

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Born:
19 October 1962 in Washington, DC. Youngest of 3 children. Father was a photographer for The Washington Post.

Childhood:
Nerdy. Spent a lot of time lying on my bed reading. Favorite authors back then: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Madeleine L’Engle, Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Joan Aiken, Susan Cooper, Lloyd Alexander. Book I would have taken to a desert island: Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery.

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“I didn't move. I've learned from years of experience that dogs and falcons and ladies come back to you if you stay where you are.” — 12 likes

“Warp threads are thicker than the weft, and made of a coarser wool as well. I think of them as like wives. Their work is not obvious - all you can see are the ridges they make under the colorful weft threads. But if they weren't there, there would be no tapestry. Georges would unravel without me.” — 7 likes

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