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Tuesday, October 05, 2004

The Lady and the Unicorn

"Do you see, Madame? When the Lady holds her jewels as she does, we don't know if she is putting them on or taking them off. It can be either. That is the secret I've made for you in the tapestries." from The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier.

Again, I have had the good fortune of borrowing another great book. It's amazing how a work of art can spin such a tale as this. The details are rich, intimate, plausible even. And of course, the characters are what pull you into the story. Though you know it is fiction... Chevalier suspends your disbelief so charmingly that you follow the Lady and the Unicorn into the woods. I, myself, have no love for either Nicolas des Innocents, whose mission in life seems to be knocking up as many women as he can, or Claude le Viste who is vain and reckless. But I did come to love Christine, the weaver's wife and her blind daughter, Alienor. I think, at one point in my life, I must have felt exactly like Alienor in her helplessness and her refusal to give in to despair.

"To my soul's one desire." That, indeed, would inspire a whole novel.

Anyway, again, here is a book I recommend.

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