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The Knight's Courtship
by Joanne
Rock
Brilliant tribute to the troubabour
tradition in a medieval historical romance
Publisher:
Harlequin (Harlequin Historical August 2006)
ISBN: 0373294123
Joanne Rock's The Knight's Courtship is a truly
inspired Medieval
historical romance that recasts the troubadour traditions into a new
genre, revitalizing a highly stylized and conventional genre to modern
readers. A truly clever romance!
The
heroine Lady Ivy Rutherford in this romance is a woman troubadour
in Eleanor of Aquitaine's court. Eleanor led a rebellion against her
husband Henry, the king of England. Eleanor was a patron of the arts.
Her court (and Eleanor!) was a trailbrazer, known for its art,
sophistication, luxury and the wonderful troubadour poetry which sang
the praises of love. Rumor has it that she and her women held mock
trials, judging men on their refinement and manners. Henry seeks to
rein in his queen and sends Roger Stancliff to spy on Eleanor's court
and report proof of her treason. As a troubadour, Lady Ivy Rutherford
sets about to educate the knave Roger and teach this womanizer the ways
of courtly love....will she tame this scoundrel and teach him the ways
of courtly love or will he teach this idealistic dreamer poet the real
earthly pleasures of love? Political intrigue threatens to put an end
to the games of love and their education. Despite Lady Ivy's noble
spirit and her mother's noble birth, her father belongs to the lower
merchant class. The different social and economic classes between the
two make a love match no easy thing in a time when marriage was often
an economic and political institution. All these external complications
threaten to intrude upon the lessons of love, but the dark secrets the
hero and heroine have kept from one another may be more menacing yet.
Can a Medieval intellectual woman poet find true love or does love
exist only in poetry? Will she discover her heart? Will the infamous
knave Roger put aside his past? Can earthly real love also ennoble the
heart and spirit?
Troubadour poetry and Joanne Rock's
historical romance
In
the original Old Provençal
language, troubadour poetry works on
homophonic puns in the original, one level lofty and platonic and
another quite erotic and sometimes bawdy. You can imagine how it might
work when the word for heart and body sound like the same word and the
poets sing the praises of one but also the other---in detail. The puns
in the entire Old Provençal
language abound, creating double, triple
and quadruple entendres! Joanne Rock's romance itself is neither erotic
nor bawdy. Instead, she plays with those poles in her creation of the
hero and heroine characters, two people who represent the two poles of
troubadour poetry. Lady Ivy is a troubadour who lacks experience in
real world love and envisions love as a dreamy romantic idealistic
image. Roger Stancliff has a reputation as a womanizer, well versed in
seducing women for more earthly experiences of love. The author even
touches on the Latin religious satire of courtly love in defense of
marriage in the creation of her hero, but in an inspired manner and
true to the romance genre, she transforms this satirical literary
tradition into a facet of her characterization of the hero, a man who
understands ins and outs of love in a more earthly lived manner and who
values marriage. The question is who is going to educate whom. How can
these two characters and these two poles discover true love?
I
just absolutely adored this book! I cannot imagine how an author
could have been more attuned to all the nuances of troubadour poetry.
Joanne Rock added more by casting it all within the romance genre and
adding another entire understanding to the idea of love. At times, I
could easily imagine I was reading a translation of a Medieval work...
and yet this romance adds something new and much appreciated by this
reader to the highly stylized Medieval literary tradition.
Personal notes
When
I find all my books of Provençal
poetry in our unpacked moving
boxes, I am going to place this romance right next to them on my
bookshelves. I have also not read a lot of romances where the heroine
is virginal, especially not in contemporary romance, but it works
really, really well in this context. On the steaminess level, Joanne
Rock's romance is a sweet romance. That is the genius of how she turned
historical literary styles into characterization and made the whole
troubadour tradition accessible to a modern readership, creating
something new and unique in her romance. Bravo! Hats off to both Joanne
Rock and Harlequin for publishing such an exquisite Medieval romance.
Further Reading recommendations
For
more on the troubadours, see The Woman Troubadours by Meg
Bodin. For the Medieval Latin tradition (translated into English), see The
Art of Courtly Love by Andreas Capellanus.
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