The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier: book review

The Lady and theUnicorn (2005) is set in Paris, France, and Brussels, Belgium, from 1490 to 1492 – the two years of the painting, design, and weaving of the series of six wool and silk tapestries for Jean Le Viste, a nobleman of King Charles VII.

Artist Nicolas des Innocents has been commissioned to design the concept pictures for the large tapestries to be hung in Jean Le Viste’s Grande Salle (Great Hall) in his residence at the rue du Four in the suburb of Saint-Germain-des-Pres in Paris.

Nicolas is entranced by Jean Le Viste’s young daughter, Claude. But Nicolas is a womanizer and has already impregnated Marie-Celeste, a servant working at the Le Viste household. Claude also, mischievously, has eyes for Nicolas. So do most the of women he comes in contact with – both in Paris and in Brussels at the home of the weavers who are employed to turn Nicolas’s painting into the tapestries.

This is a work of fiction. Little was known of these famous tapestries that now hang in the Cluny Museum in Paris. Using references and a vivid imagination Chevalier recreates what could have occured throughout the creation of this masterpiece – the time series of the seduction of the unicorn – drawing it next to and closer and closer to a lady until it rests in her lap. In fact it is more than one lady and more than one unicorn for they are in each of the six tapestries.

The novel imagines how the concept of the unicorn and the senses originated for each tapestry: Sound (the unicorn is facing away from the lady), Taste (the unicorn is near the lady but not looking at her), Smell (the unicorn is next to the lady and looking at her), Sight (the unicorn rests its front legs on the lady's lap), Touch (the lady touches the unicorn's horn), and A Mon Seul Desir (My Sole Desire). The order of the series has never been conclusively determined.

Master weaver – the lissier Georges de la Chapelle – has been a weaver for 30 years. With his son, Georges Le Jeune, his family and hired weavers, they work tirelessly on the task, including Le Jeune’s blind daughter, Alienor, who tends a garden and is the flower advisor for the background of millefleurs (thousand flowers). Two years of hard work has given the master weaver ‘a head of gray hair, a stoop, and a squint.’

Nicolas makes subtle changes in the design to reflect the relationships he has with women during the two years – such as Claude and Alienor. So why, when it’s finished and hung does he feel that he had ‘got all the Ladies wrong?’ The unveiling of the tapestries is during the party celebrations for The Feast of St. Valentine – and the announcement of Claude’s engagement.

The novel has multiple narrators, such as Nicolas des Innocents, Claude Le Viste, Genevieve de Nanterre (Claude’s mother), Georges de la Chapelle (master weaver), Philippe de la Tour (artist working for the weaving family), Alienor de la Chapelle, and Christine du Sablon (Georges Le Jeune’s wife). The novel is interesting for its creative assumptions, the work of a commissioned painter and designer, the life of a weaving family, and the expectations of the tapestry owner – all woven together to culminate in a series of scenes, rather than a total masterpiece.

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass

The Beggars' Strike by Aminata Sow Fall: book review

The Beggar’sStrike (1979 in French and 1981 in English) is set in an unstated country in West Africa in a city known only as The Capital. Undoubtedly, Senegalese author Sow Fall writes of her own experiences. It was also encapsulated in the 2000 film, Battu , directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko from Mali. Mour Ndiaye is the Director of the Department of Public Health and Hygiene, with the opportunity of a distinguished and coveted promotion to Vice-President of the Republic. Tourism has declined and the government blames the local beggars in The Capital. Ndiaye must rid the streets of beggars, according to a decree from the Minister. Ndiaye instructs his department to carry out weekly raids. One of the raids leads to the death of lame beggar, Madiabel, who ran into an oncoming vehicle as he tried to escape, leaving two wives and eight children. Soon after, another raid resulted in the death of the old well-loved, comic beggar Papa Gorgui Diop. Enough is enou

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