43 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Prefer the unexpurgated translation, March 22, 2005
Nothing wrong with this edition. Just thought that people might want to know that there is another translation out there that is easier to read AND more fun. It's the translation in blank verse published in unabridged and unexpurgated form by Meridian (0452010837), and edited by Charles W. Dunn, one of the finest modernizations of a medieval classic ever published. The translation was the life's work of Professor Harry W. Robbins.
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35 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Allegory continued, March 18, 2000
The Romance of the Rose is the famous and much discussed 13th century allegorical romance. It consists of two parts of unequal length-- the first shorter part by Guillaume de Lorris and the second longer part continued 40 years after de Lorris' death by Jean de Meun. Throughout the medieval period, this was one of the most widely read book in the French language.
Scholars have rather endlessly debated how unified the allegory really is, and the trend recently seems to have shifted to seeing the two authors as less in opposition, and more composing a complete treatment of courtly Love.
For the casual (non-academic) reader like myself, the experience is rather less unified. The de Lorris section is quite lyrical and fits more with what I imagine an allegorical dream poem to be. When Idleness leads the dreamer into the garden of Diversion and when Love shoots him with the five deadly arrows that bind him to the Rose, the imagery is compelling and lovely.
On the other hand, the second part, while often *very* funny is much more obviously satirical with long digressions that focus more on social mores than on the world of the Dreamer as established in the first half. The effect is sort of like a serious and literary Spike Jones song-- which is not at all a bad thing.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Strange Romance, July 18, 2011
"The Romance of the Rose" is an intriguing example of medieval literature, an allegorical poem composed by two different authors with very different intentions. It is the tale of a Dreamer who finds himself in a vast dream filled with the embodiments/personifications of all types of social expectations, states of being, and human emotion who falls in love with a Rose and tries to win her heart. Begun by Guillaume de Lorris and finished by Jean de Meun, "The Romance of the Rose" is a unique example of courtly love literature, allegory, and even satire.
As Guillaume de Lorris began it, the poem begins with the Dreamer finding himself outside a walled garden, the outside of which depicts very negative aspects of humanity, while the inside seems filled with all sorts of delight. Once he gains entrance and falls in love with the Rose, he learns from the God of Love what he should do to win her forever, even though he is thwarted along the way. De Lorris did not finish his poem, although a short, anonymous ending was added to it after his death. Forty years later, Jean de Meun expanded greatly upon the work of de Lorris, changing the tone completely from straightforward allegory to often wry, sometimes funny, satire about courtly love and its expectations and contradictions. The Dreamer continues his quest, meeting many allegorical figures who propound to speak about love, only to confuse and contradict each other so that no one seems to know what love is or have anything authoritative to say. Jean de Meun is almost too obvious in his descriptions of what love is understood to be, especially in the end when the Dreamer wins his Rose, and the poem ends all too abruptly. It will leave readers with more questions than answers.
As is typical of medieval literature, "The Romance of the Rose" abounds with digressions into explanations of classical literature. These digressions can become tiresome, especially in de Meun's section where character after character seems to repeat the same story (if only from a slightly different viewpoint). Yet de Meun did successfully contrast the direction that de Lorris seemed intent to follow in his beginning. It would be interesting to know what de Lorris thought of the author's addendum to his writing, for they are extremely different in subject and execution. This prose version is an excellent translation, one that will cause fewer headaches for any nonscholar who attempts to read it (unlike some earlier translations that kept it as a poem). Dahlberg does a commendable job in keeping the imagery and irony vivid, a hard task when translating poetry into prose.
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