The Lays of Marie De France - Softcover

De France, Marie

3.84

8,631 ratings by Goodreads

9781420941104: The Lays of Marie De France

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1420941100 ISBN 13: 9781420941104

Publisher: Digireads.Com, 2011

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Though little is known about Marie de France, her work changed romantic writing forever. "The Lays of Marie de France" challenged social norms and the views of the church during the twelfth century concerning both love and the role of women. She wrote within a court unknown to scholars, in a form of Anglo-Norman French. Inspired by the Greeks and Romans long before her, Marie de France sought to write something not only morally instructive, but memorable, leaving an indelible imprint on the reader's memory. In her "Lays", Marie de France confronts the issue of love as a topic of suffering and misery, fraught with infidelity. What was revolutionary about this, however, was the fact that the infidelity she addressed was committed by women, and in some circumstances condoned. This challenged the submissive role of women in her time, and illustrated them with a sense of power and free will. Her condensed yet powerful imagery remains timeless, still relevant and evocative to modern day readers.

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About the Author:

Edward J. Gallagher is Professor of French Studies, Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts.

Review:

With admirable sensitivity to the meaning and style of the originals, Edward J. Gallagher has skillfully rendered these charming Old French verse narratives from the late twelfth century into engaging and readable modern English prose. Gallagher includes a detailed commentary on each of the twelve lays, two useful glossaries, and a selection of lays in Old French. Readers will appreciate his substantial and informative introduction to the works of Marie de France and to the illustrious literary and cultural context within which these masterpieces in miniature took shape. --Donald Maddox, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Editions and translations of Marie de France's Lais have appeared at a steady rate since 1885, indeed in every decade since the 1940s. Edward Gallagher's prose translation (which also translates two anonymous lais, Melion and Tyolet) is the latest, a lively, readable version. . . . [T]his book is welcome: it should help introduce yet more students to these fascinating poems in a clear and energetic prose. --Modern Language Review

Professor Gallagher’s translation is a very timely one. It is produced in a handsome paperback and is highly accessible in price and in its level of critical language to undergraduates, graduates, and lay (no pun intended) readers alike. Students of medieval literature, French or European, will find it a congenial text, written in clear English prose, of Marie’s twelve Lays, along with two other lays not attributed to Marie. Each Lay is followed by an illuminative commentary. The body of the text is preceded by an excellent Introduction wherein Gallagher provides the chief facts about Marie, her oeuvre, and recent critical scholarship on Marie, without indulging in unneeded pedantry. --Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures

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