| Cliges Revised Edition Contributor(s): Chretien De Troyes (Author), De Troyes, Chretien (Author), Chretien (Author) |
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ISBN: 0300070217 ISBN-13: 9780300070217 Publisher: Yale University Press OUR PRICE: $33.66 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: July 1997 Annotation: In this extraordinarily fine translation of Cliges, the second of five surviving Arthurian poems by twelfth-century French poet Chretien de Troyes, Burton Raffel captures the liveliness, innovative spirit, and subtle intentions of the original work. In this poem, Chretien creates his most artful plot and paints the most starkly medieval portraits of any of his romances. The world he describes has few of the safeguards and protections of civilization: battles are brutal and merciless, love is anguished and desperate. Cliges tells the story of the unhappy Fenice, trapped in a marriage of constraint to the emperor of Constantinople. Fenice feigns death, then awakens to a new, happy life with her lover. Enormously popular in their own time, each of Chretien's great verse romances is a fast-paced psychologically oriented narrative. In a rational and realistic manner, Chretien probes the inner workings of his characters and the world they live in, evoking the people, their customs, and their values in clear, emotionally charged verse. Cliges is filled with Chretien's barbs and bawdiness, his humor and his pleasure, his affection and his contempt. It is the unmistakable work of a brilliantly individualistic poet, brought to modern English readers by Raffel's poetic translation in a metric form invented specifically to reflect Chretien's narrative speed and tone. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Poetry | European - General - Literary Criticism | Medieval |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 96052694 |
| Series: Chretien de Troyes Romances S |
| Physical Information: 0.65" H x 5.49" W x 8.41" (0.64 lbs) 248 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In this extraordinarily fine translation of Clig s, the second of five surviving Arthurian poems by twelfth-century French poet Chr tien de Troyes, Burton Raffel captures the liveliness, innovative spirit, and subtle intentions of the original work. In this poem, Chr tien creates his most artful plot and paints the most starkly medieval portraits of any of his romances. The world he describes has few of the safeguards and protections of civilization: battles are brutal and merciless, love is anguished and desperate. Clig s tells the story of the unhappy Fenice, trapped in a marriage of constraint to the emperor of Constantinople. Fenice feigns death, then awakens to a new, happy life with her lover. Enormously popular in their own time, each of Chr tien's great verse romances is a fast-paced psychologically oriented narrative. In a rational and realistic manner, Chr tien probes the inner workings of his characters and the world they live in, evoking the people, their customs, and their values in clear, emotionally charged verse. Clig s is filled with Chr tien's barbs and bawdiness, his humor and his pleasure, his affection and his contempt. It is the unmistakable work of a brilliantly individualistic poet, brought to modern English readers by Raffel's poetic translation in a metric form invented specifically to reflect Chr tien's narrative speed and tone. |