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Yvain; or, The Knight with the Lion

Chrétien de Troyes author Ruth Harwood Cline translator Ruth Harwood Cline editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of Georgia Press

Published:1st Dec '84

Should be back in stock very soon

Yvain; or, The Knight with the Lion cover

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 Chrétien de Troyes. The creator of the Arthurian romance as a genre, Chrétien 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.

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.


Cline demonstrates impressive abilities as a translator.


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.


More than any previous translator, Cline succeeds in translating energetic exchanges between characters and the playful tone of the narrator.


Cline's translation shows a remarkable appreciation of Chrétien's genius; she succeeds splendidly in capturing his witty style, irony, playfulness.

ISBN: 9780820307589

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

224 pages