Yvain; Or, the Knight with the Lion - Softcover

Cline's translation shows a remarkable appreciation of Chr tien's genius; she succeeds splendidly in capturing his witty style, irony, playfulness. --Book Exchange More than any previous translator, Cline succeeds in translating energetic exchanges between characters and the playful tone of the narrator. --Translation Review A narrative which progresses rapidly and freely, which is easily and pleasantly read. . . . It would be useful as a text for courses in literature in translation, comparative literature, and medieval culture. --Modern Language Journal Cline demonstrates impressive abilities as a translator. --Romance Philology Chretien, twelfth-century French poet, is one of the fountainheads of Arthurian romance. . . . Cline brings Yvain to glowing, entertaining life in a delightful, sprightly, colloquial rhyming version worthy of the best translations from the French by Richard Wilbur. . . . One hopes Cline will do the whole canon of Chretien--it would be a marvelous enrichment of accessible Arthurian literature. --Wall Street Journal

This verse translation of Yvain; or, The Knight with the Lion brings to life a fast-paced yet remarkably subtle work often considered to be the masterpiece of the twelfth-century French writer Chretien de Troyes. The creator of the Arthurian romance as a genre, Chretien is revealed in this work as a witty, versatile writer who mastered both the soaring flight of emotion and the devastating aside and was as skillful a debater of the finer points of love as he was a describer of battles.