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The Lai of Bisclavret
Aug. 11th, 2013 11:59 pmThis afternoon I finished rereading The Wolf Hunt by Gillian Bradshaw, which is based on “The Lai of Bisclavret,” a medieval work by Marie de France, perhaps based on a Breton werewolf legend. I like that the werewolf is the protagonist. One thing struck me when reading it this time – the Duke and Duchess of Brittany reminded me a bit too much of Sir John Middleton and his mother-in-law in Sense and Sensibility.
Another thing that came to mind when reading it this time also struck me when I read it the last time, and that is a phenomenon that I remember reading about for my prelim paper – losing your immersion in the text because you’ve noticed an anachronism or some other flaw in the book. The heroine is wearing black for mourning, but I’m pretty sure that Anne of Brittany, who lived two or three centuries later, wore white for mourning and black for her wedding; the switch to the color associations we have didn’t happen until later. (And if I didn’t know that useless fact, I wouldn’t have had the mildly jarring experience, so in this context, ignorance is slightly better...)
Another thing that came to mind when reading it this time also struck me when I read it the last time, and that is a phenomenon that I remember reading about for my prelim paper – losing your immersion in the text because you’ve noticed an anachronism or some other flaw in the book. The heroine is wearing black for mourning, but I’m pretty sure that Anne of Brittany, who lived two or three centuries later, wore white for mourning and black for her wedding; the switch to the color associations we have didn’t happen until later. (And if I didn’t know that useless fact, I wouldn’t have had the mildly jarring experience, so in this context, ignorance is slightly better...)