Good easy read. Lots of fun without lots of meat. Blah blah blah. I am being diplomatic. The book was good and I enjoyed reading it, but I suppose I was missing more seriousness. Coming from me this sounds ludicrous, I know, but it can not be helped.
The famous tapestries of The Lady and The Unicorn are worthy of more. Tracy Chevalier does a wonderful job giving us an outline of a story to fit the pictures, but it lacks the majesty of the tapestries themselves.*
In her book, we see how the tapestry is commissioned, executed and used by its imagined original creators and owners.
Jean le Viste, a social climber who spares no expense painting himself (almost literally), as the blue-blooded aristocrat he wishes to be. He commissions a series of tapestries to be painted by Nicholas des Innocents and woven by a member of the renowned weavers guild in Belgium.
The story tells of passions won and lost; of loves scorned and discovered. Loves that almost were and almost weren’t. Gag. It is almost as predictable hokey as that sounds. You can tell who will do what and go where with whom and probably what low cut number they’ll have on. Danielle Steele in 1490.
The plot is certainly fluid and moves along nicely. The best parts, the parts that I found most palatable are the artistic bents of those involved. I would like to have heard more about the colors, the exact blues dyed by the rancid weaver Jacques Le Boeuf. The millefleurs woven secretly by Christine du Sablon. The florid gardens of Alienor de la Chapelle deserve more attentiveness and aroma. Pun intended.
There are interesting characters, the witless sexpot Marie- Celeste and the nasty steward, shine undeveloped as two.
As I write, I realize that what really would have helped is length. More detail about Claude’s imprisonment at the nunnery or why Nicholas turns to lust to unsuccessfully fill his emptiness. Tracy Chevalier is certainly a good historical fictionalist – maybe an editor had her trim this. An unfortunately scalping, as it would be very good with more.
* The Lady and The Unicorn is one of six tapestries made in Flanders in the late 15th century. They were commissioned by a nobleman of Charles VII named Le Viste. They do indeed bear his arms. They were rediscovered in poor condition in 1841 and their restoration was championed by the novelist George Sand. They are currently at the Cluny museum in Paris.