Product Description

This is a new translation of The Romance of the Rose, an allegorical account of the progress of a courtly love affair which became the most popular and influential of all medieval romances. In the hands of Jean de Meun, who continued de Lorris's work, it assumed vast proportions and embraced almost every aspect of medieval life from predestination and optics, to the Franciscan controversy and the right way to deal with premature hair-loss.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #408767 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From Publishers Weekly
De Lorris and de Meun's 13th-century allegorical romance was, as Horgan notes in the introduction to her new translation, a bestseller in its day.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
This is a readable and reliable line-by-line translation of the Roman de la Rose, based on Ernest Langlois's 1914-24 edition. The first in modern English prose, it is particularly valuable for its faithful rendering of the imagery of the original on which . . . so much of the poem's irony depends. -- Review

Review
This is a readable and reliable line-by-line translation of the Roman de la Rose, based on Ernest Langlois's 1914-24 edition. The first in modern English prose, it is particularly valuable for its faithful rendering of the imagery of the original on which . . . so much of the poem's irony depends.
(The Times Literary Supplement )

Customer Reviews

Prefer the unexpurgated translation
Nothing wrong with this edition. Just thought that people might want to know that there is another translation out there that is easier to read AND more fun. It's the translation in blank verse published in unabridged and unexpurgated form by Meridian (0452010837), and edited by Charles W. Dunn, one of the finest modernizations of a medieval classic ever published. The translation was the life's work of Professor Harry W. Robbins.

Allegory continued
The Romance of the Rose is the famous and much discussed 13th century allegorical romance. It consists of two parts of unequal length-- the first shorter part by Guillaume de Lorris and the second longer part continued 40 years after de Lorris' death by Jean de Meun. Throughout the medieval period, this was one of the most widely read book in the French language.

Scholars have rather endlessly debated how unified the allegory really is, and the trend recently seems to have shifted to seeing the two authors as less in opposition, and more composing a complete treatment of courtly Love.

For the casual (non-academic) reader like myself, the experience is rather less unified. The de Lorris section is quite lyrical and fits more with what I imagine an allegorical dream poem to be. When Idleness leads the dreamer into the garden of Diversion and when Love shoots him with the five deadly arrows that bind him to the Rose, the imagery is compelling and lovely.

On the other hand, the second part, while often *very* funny is much more obviously satirical with long digressions that focus more on social mores than on the world of the Dreamer as established in the first half. The effect is sort of like a serious and literary Spike Jones song-- which is not at all a bad thing.

Chivalry and Medieval Romance at it's Best
This is a very relaxing yet thought-provoking allegory of life and love, but primarily love. I first heard of it in the film "Shadowlands", about the great C.S. Lewis. After having bought it and read it after hearing Anthony Hopkins describe it to his character's Oxford students in the film, I see it's significance in both that particular film and as a remarkable work of literature which, in it's day, seemed to have been far more popular than even the "Canterbury Tales"; more than twice as many original manuscripts of RotR exist today than of "Canterbury". The Romance of the Rose is fluid, metaphorical, philosophical, lyric and, of course, very romantic. An exquisite illustration of courtly love.