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The Lady and the Unicorn: Summary and book reviews of The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier, plus links to an excerpt from The Lady and the Unicorn and a biography of Tracy Chevalier.
The Lady and the Unicorn
by
Tracy Chevalier
Hardcover: Jan 2004,
256 pages.
Paperback: Jan 2005,
256 pages.
Bewitching art experts and enthusiasts alike for centuries, the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries hang today in the Cluny Museum in Paris.
In each, an elegant lady and a unicorn stand or sit on an island of grass surrounded by a rich background of animals and flowers. Little is known about them except that they were woven toward the end of the fifteenth century and bear the coat of arms of a wealthy family from Lyons.
Tracy Chevalier takes readers back to the tapestries' creation, giving life to the men who designed and made them, as well as the wives, daughters, and servants who exercised subtle (and not so subtle) influences over their men. Like the many different strands of wool and silk that were woven together into one cloth, the lives and fates of these people entwine in complex patterns, crisscrossing as they seek desires sensual and spiritual, temporal and eternal.
An extraordinary story exquisitely told, Tracy Chevalier's The Lady and the Unicorn weaves history and fiction into a beautiful, timeless, and intriguing literary tapestry that rivals in grace and grandeur the masterpiece that inspired it.
Book Reviews
Publishers Weekly
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....If any of Chevalier's novels has a chance to match the success of Girl with a Pearl Earring, it's this one.
Booklist - Kristine Huntley
... a luminous tale about a set of medieval tapestries known as the Lady and the Unicorn sequence.... Chevalier meticulously describes the complex process of creating a tapestry, from its conception to the moment it is pulled off the loom. The story she weaves is as lush as the tapestries she describes, and her colorful characters leap off the page. A romantic, beautiful book.
Kirkus Reviews
Marvelously imagined and sharply constructed, with a good feel for the people and the era a fascinating portrait of the intersection of life and art.
The New York Times Book Review - Wendy Smith
Although the premise of ''The Lady and the Unicorn'' superficially resembles that of 'Girl With a Pearl Earring', the more important similarity lies in their author's ability to populate a period setting with subtly rendered, surprisingly complex characters.
The New York Times - Janet Maslin
Tracy Chevalier's approach to fiction is so methodical that she threatens to turn writing about art into a science. Her latest novel, like her Girl With a Pearl Earring, selects a masterpiece and then weaves a story to describe its provenance
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The Lady and the Unicorn
The New York Times Book Review - Wendy Smith
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