XIIth century writer Chrétien de Troyes

[Francine Bernier <f_bernier@videotron.ca>]

Greetings to all,
As winter and cold nights approach, I may have some suggestions of books to
read. Last summer, as I was in the South of France, I bought a copy (in
Avignon) of the very first French novel ever written: « Le chevalier de la
charette ou le roman de Lancelot » by Chrétien de Troyes (ISBN
2-253-05401-1) republished  in  Livre de poche, Lettres Gothiques,  1992),
and originally written between 1177 and 1179. It is about the legend of
Tristan and the secrets of the Grail. It was adapted to modern French by
Charles Méla, professor of medieval studies at Université de Genève, and
awarded an  Académie française prize in 1985 for a study he did on de
Troyes.  Méla was smart enough to print the original text (old French) on
the left pages, and the modern French one on the right pages.
Chrétien de Troyes later wrote « Le conte du Graal» (The Story of the Grail)
and « le Chevalier au Lion » (The Lion Knight, or Knight with a Lion). It is
good to know that Troyes was the appointed writer of Comtess Marie de
Champagne, daughter born in 1145 of Aliénor d'Aquitaine and Louis VII, and
wife of Henri I le Libéral. (Mother Aliénor remarried in 1152 with Henri
Plantagenet Count of Anjou and future King of England). If I mention this
today it is because I moved last spring and just found this book in a box.
Never read it. But as I begin to, I realize how important it is. And how
stupid of me to have forgottent all about it.
Francine 
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