Paperback
The Lady and the Unicorn
By Tracy Chevalier
‘Enormously enjoyable’ Evening Standard
‘Charming’ The Times
‘What would you have me paint instead of a battle, Madame?’
Geneviève de Nanterre’s eyes gleamed.
‘A unicorn.’
Keen to demonstrate his new-found favour with the King, rising nobleman Jean le Viste commissions six tapestries to adorn the walls of his château. He expects soldiers and bloody battlefields. But artist Nicolas des Innocents instead designs a seductive world of women, unicorns and flowers, using as his muses Le Viste’s wife Geneviève and ripe young daughter Claude.
In Belgium, as his designs spring to life under the weavers’ fingers, Nicolas is inspired once more – by the master weaver’s daughter Aliénor and her mother Christine. They too will be captured by his threads.
‘Beautifully written, I could not put it down… a tale of ambition, lust, betrayal and heartbreak…a compelling and enormously enjoyable work' Evening Standard -
”'On the academic front, here is the old Chevalier, exact and guarded, accurate and self-contained…On the erotic front, she positively explodes, the shy smiles of Pearl Earring replaced by a terrific torrent of carnal imagery, every sense invoked and appetite exploited” - Guardian
'Tracy Chevalier gives the kiss of life to the historical novel' Independent -
”'With great insight, invention and a remarkable eye for detail, Chevalier breathes life into artists and artisans, their subjects and surroundings and, most important, their magnificent creations” - Washington Post
”'The story she weaves is as lush as the tapestries she describes, and her colorful characters leap off the page. A romantic, beautiful book” - Booklist