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readingthroughthelists's review against another edition
emotional
informative
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I have become strangely obsessed with the Tristan-Iseut legend in the past few months. Not because I think it’s a good story, but because I find it so maddening and frustrating that I can’t. stop. wanting. to. fix. it.
Bédier’s classic retelling/reconstruction of the various French source-texts preserves many of the elements that make medieval romances fun--namely, the propensity for the wildest stuff to happen out of nowhere with no explanation or follow-up. (A stick signaling system! A pack of roving lepers! A magic depression-curing dog! A prognosticating dwarf and adulterous flour!) Tristan and Iseut certainly have their share of wacky and wild adventures; unfortunately, they happen to be two of the most unlikeable people on earth, which rather ruins the effect.
You can blame the potion all you like, but this doesn’t change the fact that Tristan and Iseut may be two of the dumbest people alive--they will get themselves out of problems only to fall back into them 5 seconds later because they are just too horny to live, apparently.
But what is worse--the really unforgivable crime, in my opinion--is how selfish they both are. At least in the Morte D’Arthur, Mark is an unchivalrous cad, so the adultery feels at least a little more excusable. But here, Mark is a noble man (apart from trying to burn Iseut at the stake and selling her to a pack of roving lepers, of course). He is a man who loves both his wife and his nephew deeply, who really does get his heart broken at discovering their affair. And all the while both of these beloveds lie and lie to him, with no remorse and no honesty, not even in the moments when their lives depend on it.
There are other victims of their cruelty: Branguin forced to lie and then sexually assault a man(!) at Iseut’s behest; Iseut of the White Hands discovering she has been played for a fool by Tristan. No one is left better by this “love story,” even the lovers.
At the end of the day, Tristan and Iseut are not just adulterers, they are liars--they lie to everyone around them, they lie to each other, and they lie to themselves. To me they are tragic figures, not because of their ill-fated desire, but because of their fundamental cowardice and selfishness. They do not deserve--and cannot ever be--truly happy.
3 stars, bonk go to horny jail.
Bédier’s classic retelling/reconstruction of the various French source-texts preserves many of the elements that make medieval romances fun--namely, the propensity for the wildest stuff to happen out of nowhere with no explanation or follow-up. (A stick signaling system! A pack of roving lepers! A magic depression-curing dog! A prognosticating dwarf and adulterous flour!) Tristan and Iseut certainly have their share of wacky and wild adventures; unfortunately, they happen to be two of the most unlikeable people on earth, which rather ruins the effect.
You can blame the potion all you like, but this doesn’t change the fact that Tristan and Iseut may be two of the dumbest people alive--they will get themselves out of problems only to fall back into them 5 seconds later because they are just too horny to live, apparently.
But what is worse--the really unforgivable crime, in my opinion--is how selfish they both are. At least in the Morte D’Arthur, Mark is an unchivalrous cad, so the adultery feels at least a little more excusable. But here, Mark is a noble man (apart from trying to burn Iseut at the stake and selling her to a pack of roving lepers, of course). He is a man who loves both his wife and his nephew deeply, who really does get his heart broken at discovering their affair. And all the while both of these beloveds lie and lie to him, with no remorse and no honesty, not even in the moments when their lives depend on it.
There are other victims of their cruelty: Branguin forced to lie and then sexually assault a man(!) at Iseut’s behest; Iseut of the White Hands discovering she has been played for a fool by Tristan. No one is left better by this “love story,” even the lovers.
At the end of the day, Tristan and Iseut are not just adulterers, they are liars--they lie to everyone around them, they lie to each other, and they lie to themselves. To me they are tragic figures, not because of their ill-fated desire, but because of their fundamental cowardice and selfishness. They do not deserve--and cannot ever be--truly happy.
3 stars, bonk go to horny jail.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual assault