The Lais of Marie De France (Penguin Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Courtly Love Critique
Review: Like The Romance of Tristan and Iseult, The Lais of Marie De France offer the reader more than the literal. There is high emphasis placed on the symbolism of animals. There are dead nightingales, weasels that know the secret to new life, a jilted werewolf, and others. The lais and Tristan and Iseult were written during the same time period, as evidenced by the lai entitled "Chevrefoil," which retells one of the closing scenes in The Romance of Tristan and Iseult.

Most of the lais follow the courtly love tradition, but often with a twist of the opposite, especially in "Eliduc." Courtly love challenges the institution of marriage and other social conventions. It examines the problems that arise when people fall in love: selfishness, disloyalty, and violence.

I do fear that there is a lot lost in the English translation. The lais were originally long French poems, but the translation is presented as prose. However, where the music of the language lacks, the consequences of the work remain.

Rating:
Summary: Unique and Insightful
Review: The Lais of Marie de France are some of the few poems written by a woman during the middle ages. Her account of King Arthur's court brings a new perspective on the King Arthur legends. Written from the perspective of a woman, Marie offers a unique interpretation on the King Arthur myths in her lais "Lanval". In this distinctly female poem, the action is all driven by the female characters, Queen Guinevere and the Maiden. Marie juxtaposes these two characters to comment on the social constructions of her time, most importantly courtly love. Marie also sets up a parallel world to Arthur's kingdom and court with the Maiden. Through the development of the Maiden and Arthur, Marie portrays the Arthur myth in an uncommon female light that offers to the reader a new perspective on the Arthurian love as well as the lives of medieval women.

Rating:
Summary: The Lais of Marie de France
Review: The Lais of Marie de France is an entertaining and educational read from the introduction through the end. In this collection, translated here from the original French poems to English prose, Marie de France captures many different facets of King Arthur's court. For example, the Lai of Lanval can be interpreted to be a criticism of King Arthur and his court. The King is compared to a fairy maiden of the Otherworld who is far superior to him both materially and morally. In fact, both Arthur and his Queen are portrayed very negatively, which is not often seen among Arthurian literature. This particular lai also portrays the ideal of courtly love from a very feminine perspective, which is also somewhat unusual among Arthurian literature.
Similarly unusual, the author of this collection is believed to have been a woman. The introduction does a good job of presenting the evidence to support this claim. It then moves on to show connections between the lais and other literature of that period and to try to characterize the lais to some extent. These aims are successfully reached, making the introduction a valuable addition to this edition.
The introduction is not necessary, however, if the lais are being read purely for pleasure. This is easily done, as they contain the ingredients required for a good read: drama, suspense, conflict, and love. Given their content, these lais are entertaining enough to be read purely for enjoyment. I highly recommend this volume to anyone who is interested in either Arthurian love or merely reading a good collection of engaging stories.

Rating:
Summary: Girl Power, Medieval Style
Review: The Lais of Marie de France, aside from being a landmark in the history of literature, are a collection of romantic stories that transcend time. I absolutely love the power and authority Marie de France assigns to her female characters. She juxtaposes the social superiority of men during the late twelfth century with abnormally strong women. The effect can be both compelling and saddening, while always poignant. In the Lai du Lanval, Marie de France creates a larger-than-life female character whose authority and affluence eclipse even King Arthur's grandeur. She essentially tells a love story in reverse, wherein the woman, as the figurative 'white knight',
rescues the man, who plays the role of the 'damsel in distress'. Also, in the Lai du Laustic, she tells the tale of a woman who falls in love with her neighbor and uses the chirping of a nightingale to justify her late night meetings with him. When her husband grows tired of her leaving the bed each
night, he has the nightingale killed so that his wife can sleep. Without the nightingale's chirping, she cannot talk to her love, thus, as an explanation of their bad fortune, she wraps the dead bird and sends it to her lover. This particular lai exposes the sad, immutable predicament of arranged marriages. Marie de France uses clever and subtle ways to describe the complications of love and marriage, which make her writing so uniquely profound.
More specifically, I believe the Penguin Classic's edition of The Lais of Marie de France is an excellent version to study. Compared to other translations I've read, this is the most readable. The translators, Glyn S. Burgess and Keith Busby make it clear in their Translator's note that their aim was to stay as close to the original written word as possible.
Their introduction is equally fascinating, as they explore the possibilities that Marie de France was not actually a woman and that she may not have written all of the lais. I think the introduction is wonderful: the translators examine much of the context surrounding the lais, which creates and entirely new level of depth for the reader.
The actual book, however, seems a little too expensive ($10.95) for the approximate 170 pages it provides (we're talking like 7 cents per page!). But, I must say, it's entirely worth the price.
I think that aside from being the earliest known French female poet, Marie de France gained and maintains so much popularity because she really hit the nail on the head when she described the underbelly of courtly love. The psychology of her characters is so accurate and moving that the fairy-
tale atmosphere can not conceal the messages embedded in the lais. And those messages have become a fixture of popular culture in the 21st century. Sitcoms, films and literature today readily embrace the power of woman. For the modern reader, Marie de France's lais are both a reminder of unhappier
times in social history and a tribute to 'girl-power'. And in my opinion as a college student, there couldn't be a better combination of messages to inspire and to empower a young woman in this day and age.

Rating:
Summary: The Lais of Marie de France
Review: The version of The Lais of Marie de France, translated by Glyn Burgess and Keith Busby, is a substantial collection of lays by Marie de France. Though little is known about the writer, Burgess and Busby provide a thorough presentation of the literary evidence relevant to the question of authorship. Furthermore, they discuss the literary history of previous compilations of Marie's lays, laying a broad foundation for even the amateur reader of medieval literature.

The lays in this collection are themselves rich and thematically diverse. Through the literature, Marie makes sharp criticism of medieval gender roles, examines the character and dynamics of Arthur's court, and challenges the modern view of marriage and love. In the story "Lanval," Marie even makes a start towards defining a woman's beauty. To credit of the translators, her stories are both straightforward and accessible to the modern reader. This collection is highly recommended, and well worth the price.

Rating:
Summary: Girl Power, Medieval Style
Review: This collection of lais is truly an incredible gem in the world of medieval literature. While almost all of the literature from that time period is credited to male authors, this collection of short stories seems to prove the contrary. Marie's lais paint a different portrayal of the classic Arthurian world to Geoffrey of Monmouth's or Malory's ideal world. In the lais titled "Lanval," there is an obvious feminine twist to the traditional Celtic tale. The role of the Fairy Princess is crucial to understanding this tale as well as understanding the motives behind this piece. Two aspects about this character should be kept in mind when reading this story: her role in her relationship with Lanval and her power struggle with Arthur.

As the story goes, the Fairy Princess chooses Lanval as her lover and rewards him with unimaginable amounts of wealth and prosperity. She is the one who sets conditions and clauses to their relationship and Lanval has no problems with that. Because Lanval rejects Guinevere's advances, Lanval is put on trial. The Fairy Princess comes to Lanval's rescue - a twist on the traditional image of a knight in shining armor - and frees him from Arthur's court. This tale is full of feminine overtones - the reversal of roles in Lanvals' relationship with the Fairy Princess as well as the power struggle between Arthur and the Fairy Princess - that put a new twist on the Arthurian tales. I recommend this book to any medieval literature enthusiast or even to a person who loves to read about King Arthur.

Rating:
Summary: charming old romances
Review: This is a wonderful collection of old old Breton tales written into poems by Marie de France in the 12th century. Who exactly Marie was is a bit of an enigma, as the introduction to the book explains. But she was unquestionably a gifted writer: her lais, written to entertain courtly audiences, vary colourfully one from another, and positively sparkle with romance, passion, and wit. Mostly they tell of grand loves between courtly young men and comely noble maidens, and there is some great obstacle to overcome. Some endings are happy, others tragic; there is always a great test of the spirit, with notions of loyalty, honesty, honour, and true love playing into the mix. The scenes when lovers get together can be downright ... (in a subtle medieval sort of way). The translation puts the poems into prose, though the language remains poetic. Altogether, you can see why these gems of stories have lasted 800+ years.