The Lady and the Unicorn

The Lady and the Unicorn
Tracy Chevalier

From the bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring comes a historical tale of love, sex and revenge.Keen to demonstrate his new-found favour with the King, rising nobleman Jean Le Viste commissions six tapestries to adorn the walls of his château. He expects soldiers and bloody battlefields. But artist Nicolas des Innocents instead designs a seductive world of women, unicorns and flowers, using as his muses Le Viste’s wife Geneviève and ripe young daughter Claude. In Belgium, as his designs spring to lifeunder the weavers’ fingers, Nicolas is inspired once more – by the master weaver’s daughter Aliénor and her mother Christine. They too will be captured in his threads.

THE TAPESTRIES

Little is known about the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. They were woven in c.1500, probably in Flanders. In 1841, they were rediscovered in very poor condition in Boussac. They were purchased and restored in 1882 by the French government for the Musée de Cluny in Paris (now the Musée National du Moyen Âge), where they still hang today. Among other things, the tapestries represent the five senses. Each tapestry is usually referred to by the sense it depicts: Taste, Touch, Smell, Sound and Sight. The sixth – which either introduces or concludes the series – is known as À Mon Seul Désir (To My One Desire), for the words woven into it.

Copyright (#u5d44e193-de3d-5e0d-9f81-d3dccb947954)

The Borough Press

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First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2003

Copyright © Tracy Chevalier 2003

Tracy Chevalier asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

The verse quoted here (#litres_trial_promo) and here (#litres_trial_promo) is from the motet ‘Joliement, en douce desirree/Quant voi la florete/Je sui joliete/Aptatur’ published in The Montpellier Codex, edited by Hans Tischler, Recent Researches in the Music of the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance, Vols. 2–8 (Madison, Wisconsin: A–R Editions, Inc., 1978). The passage is reprinted from Part 4 (vol. 8): Texts and Translations, p. 11. Translations by Susan Stakel and Joel C. Relihan. Used with permission.

Chapter head motifs © Neil Gower

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2014. Cover illustrations © Neil Gower

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007172313

Ebook Edition © 2014 ISBN: 9780007324330

Version: 2014-08-13

Table of Contents

Cover (#u174a019b-88fb-5a6f-9d50-7f0e8a579769)

Title Page (#ufa7aeb85-4985-5d38-82c6-130cea2eae09)

Copyright

1. Paris

Nicolas Des Innocents

Claude Le Viste

Geneviève De Nanterre

2. Brussels

Georges De La Chapelle

Philippe De La Tour

Aliénor De La Chapelle

Christine Du Sablon

3. Paris and Chelles

Nicolas Des Innocents

Geneviève De Nanterre

Claude Le Viste

4. Brussels

Georges De La Chapelle

Aliénor De La Chapelle

Christine Du Sablon

Philippe De La Tour

5. Paris

Nicolas Des Innocents

Epilogue

Notes and Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by Tracy Chevalier