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reasie's review against another edition
4.0
Hi-LAR-i-ous. I had a great time reading this. Parts of Quixote make SOOOO Much more sense now. I've read English and French chivalric romances (Marie de France, Cretian de Troyes, Mallory) and some German, too... but this story had a unique flavor. A large cast of characters, multiple heroes, multiple heroines, and every hero has a squire and every lady a damsel!
Speaking of damsels, I found the terrain remarkably female. Everywhere our heroes ride, they encounter the Damsel Messaging Service. (I kid!) In real medieval Europe, women would not travel so freely on their own for fear of abduction, and certainly our heroes interrupt a fairly high number of attempted rapes, but also do they end up in the clutches of damsels who wish to bed them against their will!
Women are powerful in the book, too. Queens and lovers rule their knights unconditionally, and the sorceress Urganda la Desconocida definitely gives Merlin a run for his money as a magical prophet to the heroes. Also it seems that every time a knight is wounded (and they get wounded a LOT) the best cure is the nearest lady who knows much of healing arts - and pretty much every lady they encounter knows much of healing arts.
Dudes... this is SUCH a girl book. Or maybe it's just a "me" book because it combines the rule of females with lots and lots of gore and violence. Battles are described with care and imagination. Our heroes don't just pass each other with lances and then strike blows - swords are lodged in noses, cheeks, helmets, shields, arms, thighs - lances pierce throats and shoulders and nail legs to horses. Pommel strikes and grappling are described. For a medieval combat buff, it's tasty reading!
I suspect it is the gore that made the priest in Quixote declare the book too good for burning. "Realism" always has its fans. ;)
OH. The book also has some interesting and amusing evidence for prior versions (now lost) when Montalvo quite prissily says (I paraphrase) "There was a sex scene here but I'm leaving it out! For shame, earlier authors!" and then later, our re-teller shouts all over a chapter ending because he ships Amadis/Oriana and refuses to acknowledge any prior version that has Amadis sleep with another princess. He blames one version on a Portuguese prince and this might have to do with the tradition that Amadis was first written in Portugal.
Anyway - great fun. I'll see if I can find the rest of the books in translation as well.
Speaking of damsels, I found the terrain remarkably female. Everywhere our heroes ride, they encounter the Damsel Messaging Service. (I kid!) In real medieval Europe, women would not travel so freely on their own for fear of abduction, and certainly our heroes interrupt a fairly high number of attempted rapes, but also do they end up in the clutches of damsels who wish to bed them against their will!
Women are powerful in the book, too. Queens and lovers rule their knights unconditionally, and the sorceress Urganda la Desconocida definitely gives Merlin a run for his money as a magical prophet to the heroes. Also it seems that every time a knight is wounded (and they get wounded a LOT) the best cure is the nearest lady who knows much of healing arts - and pretty much every lady they encounter knows much of healing arts.
Dudes... this is SUCH a girl book. Or maybe it's just a "me" book because it combines the rule of females with lots and lots of gore and violence. Battles are described with care and imagination. Our heroes don't just pass each other with lances and then strike blows - swords are lodged in noses, cheeks, helmets, shields, arms, thighs - lances pierce throats and shoulders and nail legs to horses. Pommel strikes and grappling are described. For a medieval combat buff, it's tasty reading!
I suspect it is the gore that made the priest in Quixote declare the book too good for burning. "Realism" always has its fans. ;)
OH. The book also has some interesting and amusing evidence for prior versions (now lost) when Montalvo quite prissily says (I paraphrase) "There was a sex scene here but I'm leaving it out! For shame, earlier authors!" and then later, our re-teller shouts all over a chapter ending because he ships Amadis/Oriana and refuses to acknowledge any prior version that has Amadis sleep with another princess. He blames one version on a Portuguese prince and this might have to do with the tradition that Amadis was first written in Portugal.
Anyway - great fun. I'll see if I can find the rest of the books in translation as well.
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