Review
“A stimulating study of medieval French Arthurian romance. . . . Convincingly rebuts critical responses to romance as a dangerous form of self-delusion distracting readers from the truths of the world.” ― Times Higher Education
“Karen Sullivan vividly shows why the stories of King Arthur and Camelot have lost none of their old power. . . . One of the top books of 2018.” ― American Interest
“Thanks to her careful exploration of these sources, Sullivan is convincing in arguing that reality can exist in the realm of the imagination as well as in experience. . . . Highly recommended.” ― CHOICE
“Sullivan shifts the terms of the debate in arguing that fiction is not about the suspension of disbelief but an exercise of belief. In her masterful and airtight defense of literature, the Middle Ages come off as the true Age of the Enlightenment compared to our own Age of the Internet.” -- Zrinka Stahuljak, University of California, Los Angeles
"An in-depth survey of Arthurian romance’s relation to truth, fantasy, and historicity. Sullivan resists essentialist defenses of romance in favor of a nuanced approach to truth claims and escapism in the Arthurian canon. In shifting the focus away from historicity (while nevertheless keeping it in mind), she explores the mechanisms by which romance makes possible different forms of pleasure, narrative, and experience. . . . The Danger of Romance’s greatest strength is in interrogating how truth is framed in fantasy, and what we learn in the process of marveling, wondering, and witnessing fantasy, from Chrétien de Troyes to J. K. Rowling. . . . Its method is sure to provoke interest in romance as a genre and stimulate debate on the role of romance, from the imagined to the political, the literary to the literal." ― Modern Philology
“The Danger of Romance is written with beautiful clarity and the elegant erudition one associates with Sullivan’s work. I do not know of any other book that moves among so many medieval writers to detail theological and moral understandings of the nature of the marvelous and the miraculous, the relationship between truth and imagination, and the value of exemplarity. Sullivan’s book shows that such questions are part of medieval literary history and that they can articulate broad understandings of literary culture and of what literature does and can do. The range of this book is truly impressive.” -- Peggy McCracken, University of Michigan
“Zeroing in with philosophical precision on the bond between truth and trust, Sullivan offers a spirited defense of romance against ‘realists’ who spurn its vain fictions and ‘romantics’ who may love it too blindly. The Danger of Romance achieves its finest insights by following Merlin, Arthur, Lancelot, and the Grail to reveal how Arthurian romance contains its own critique even as it exuberantly represents the power of imagination.” -- Matilda Bruckner, Boston College
"It is clear that this book is a stimulating defense of the novel and of romance, which, according to the author, teaches us to read, but also how to live and love." ― Cahiers de civilisation médiévale (Translated from French)
About the Author
Karen Sullivan is the Irma Brandeis Professor of Romance Culture and Literature at Bard College. She is the author of many books, including The Danger of Romance: Truth, Fantasy, and Arthurian Fictions, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
