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Arthurian Romances (Penguin Classics) Paperback – June 4, 1991

by Chrétien de Troyes (Author), William W. Kibler (Translator), Carleton W. Carroll (Translator)
4 out of 5 stars 28 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Series: Penguin Classics
  • Paperback: 528 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; Revised ed. edition (June 4, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0140445218
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140445213
  • Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.9 x 7.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #102,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsEarly Arthur
By FrKurt Messick HALL OF FAMEVINE VOICE on October 8, 2005
Format: Paperback
Chretien de Troyes is an early French romantic writing, who wrote the first known story about the Holy Grail. De Troyes lived in the Champagne region of France during the latter twelfth century. Peripherally attached to courts including that of the famous Eleanor of Acquitaine, de Troyes stories of the Arthurian legends provides a foundation for almost all future Arthurian stories.

Chretien's major works include four poems included in this collection: Erec and Enide, Cliges, The Knight of the Cart (Lancelot), and The Knight of the Lion (Yvain). For Grail seekers, the story of most interest will be the unfinished Perceval: The Story of the Grail. Although the tale exists in finished form (in fact, several variations of finished forms), de Troyes in fact only wrote the first 9000 lines of the approximately 32,000 line text. (De Troyes also was embellished or supplemented by later additions to the tale of Lancelot, perhaps because de Troyes did not want to include an adulterous affair).

The story of Erec and Enide is a love story between one of Arthur's knights, Erec, who while out with Guinevere encounters a mean-spirited knight Yder; Erec's pursuit of Yder leads to his meeting Enide, and the two have a stormy relationship (by medieval romantic standards) but ultimately are able to reconcile their love and relationship with public duty.

The story of Cliges is one of tricky and forbidden relationships. Cliges, a native of Greece, falls in love with Fenice, his uncle's wife (Cliges' uncle happens to be the emperor). Their love is discovered, but with the aid of King Arthur, their relationship continues in Cliges' home country of Greece.Read more ›
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3.0 out of 5 starsOkay for a prose translation
By J. Marlin on March 18, 2014
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
I've been through this text now several times for private reading and for teaching classes on Arthur specifically and medieval studies generally.

This book affords very good prose translations of Chretien's romances, from which both I and my students profited. The notes and introduction are quite sound. But something is clearly lost when verse is lost. I understand full well that there are serious complications when translating from the verse of another language into English (which has its own maddening complications, starting with its bizarre irregularities), but I sense something is lost, terribly lost, when the stories are not presented in verse.

While they will cost you a good bit more than this volume, there are very fine verse translations available both from the U.Ga. press and from the Yale U. press.

So a sensible strategy for the Arthurian seeker or scholar would be to start with this modestly priced volume and then move on to the verse translations.
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5.0 out of 5 starsA fascinating book
By A Customer on February 1, 1999
Format: Paperback
I found the book to be fascinating, even for a person without a background in the classics. I felt the translation was fine, overall a very smooth read. I would highly recomend it to anyone with an interest in Arthurian legends.
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3.0 out of 5 starsOdd translation, but moving stories
By A Customer on July 29, 1998
Format: Paperback
This book was translated from the old French oddly, perhaps too literally, and the result is that sometimes the fact that it used to be in verse form gets in the way of the story. Most of the time, though, the stories are the fun and gripping legends Arthur-enthusiasts will love.
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4.0 out of 5 starsDrawing legends from legends, conventions from myths
By Robert Fripp on October 7, 2007
Format: Paperback
D.D.R. Owen, late professor emeritus of French in the University of St. Andrews, states of his translation that he kept "the needs of students" in mind. For that reason, Owen tells us, his "renderings...incline towards the literal." In other words Owen's translation of Chrétien of Troyes's "Arthurian Romances" shuns poetic and literary licence. Decide what you want. This is a scholar's book, a dry literal translation from twelfth century French of original tales that were too long to start with. General readers may find it dull.

Near the end of his substantive Introduction (which itself makes a useful essay for students of Chrétien's times) Owen comments that "Chrétien has bequeathed to us a brilliant portrait of the society that gave him his livelihood." That's true, but these romances set up portraits that will seem "brilliant" only from a scholar's perspective.

Chrétien's productive years spanned 1170 to 1182, the very pinnacle of chivalry -- and of chivalry's unlikely twin, courtly love. Chrétien was an eye-witness, working in the halls of noble patrons, observing and recording the highest values of the culture of his time. He wrote "Lancelot" around 1177, dedicating it to Marie of Champagne (Eleanor of Aquitaine's eldest child), and bringing the world the first mention of Camelot. By 1182, Chrétien was introducing the Holy Grail in "Perceval: the Story of the Grail." Before he won fame under Marie's sponsorship, one wonders if Chrétien had made his observations about the conventions of courtly love and chivalry earlier, at Eleanor's Court of Ladies in Poitiers (1168-'73). Owen was too much the perfect scholar to speculate, but we can.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsEssential Arthur Stories
By EllisScottPollard on November 10, 2015
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This collection is one of the most important primary texts that informs Arthurian lore. The translation feels more contemporary but doesn't sacrifice essential material that makes the original text so important to Arthurian studies. One also gets very unique judgments of round table figures. Chretien's account of Lancelot is probably the most damning retelling of Arthur's most famous knight's fall from his king's favor. The book is worth it for the chronicling of the Lancelot/Guinevere episode, perhaps the most intricate detailing and morally focussed interpretation of the legend, whose judgmental tone continues to inform new incarnations of the affair portion of Arthurian mythos.

In addition to the important Lancelot story, Chretien's stories provide a very lucid glimpse of both artistic and broadly cultural views of these staple romances, along with a crucial view into the changing nature of written accounts of legendary material that was in flux soon after the tales were put to paper. The writing is particularly subtle, in the spirit of Sir Gawain's romance. On a personal note, I used to be quite involved in tales about Arthur but felt I lost my fire for the subject. Chretien de Troyes reignited that fire for me.
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