The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier is a beautiful book, a story that weaves itself around the famous medieval Lady
and the Unicorn
tapestries. Unlike most authors of historical novels that tell the story from the point of view of an individual, Chevalier does something unique by telling the individual stories of several people involved in the creation of the tapestries. Using this method she gives us glimpses into the private lives of people who lived in Medieval Brussels and Paris. Though the characters and their lives are
fictional, details of private life for nobles, weavers, artists, and others involved are well researched, lending definite credibility to this story. Chevalier does an exquisite job in imparting these details to the reader in a way that makes the story come to life.
From the well rounded characters, Nicholas des innocents, the somewhat roguish Parisian artist; Genevieve, the overly pious unhappy noble woman; Claude her daughter (who should have been a son) blossoming into womanhood; and the quiet practical weaver family of Brussels, the reader can get a sense of what medieval life must have been like for individuals whose lives were certainly similar to those of the fictional characters. In reading this novel, one can see the stark stone walls of the Le Viste palace before the arrival of the tapestries, and sense the serious, but slightly insecure nature of Jean Le Viste, or pick up the nauseating stench of the woad dyer, and feel the sad reluctance of Aleinor, his prospective bride.
As readers, we get glimpses of medieval life from perspectives ranging from a nobleman, friend to the king to the lowly servant woman who, finding herself pregnant by a heartless man, gives up her child to a nunnery because she can’t afford to keep her. We also get an understanding as to how a community, from the highest to the least of its members is interwoven into a whole fabric that makes up medieval society, and that makes the book worth reading for any lover of historical fiction.