This retelling of Reynard (who I'd never encountered in any incarnation before) was an absolute delight. I came to discover her through her Old Fox stories on Twitter, and I only hope she writes more longer books. Her prose is a song, lyric and gliding, sensuous and honeyed. Emotional and deep-religion, politics, and philosophy merge with an incredibly fun, fast-paced narrative about one dashing fox outfoxing everyone in a medieval Flanders court.Īnn Louise Avery is an incredible writer. Reynard the Fox is beguiling and enchanting, a hymn to human nature in all its different shades. I've never read anything like this, and I'm not sure if I'll read anything like it again. I can only aspire to write a fraction as well as her.Īll in all, a real joy. Anne Louise Avery has a beautiful turn of phrase which is bewitching and breathtaking. The best thing for me is the use of language. I particularly liked the female characters - Gente, who would have made a much better ruler than Noble Hermeline, who keeps Reyanrd from his worst excesses and Rukenawe, who is the wisest of all and reminded me of a cross between Margaret Rutherford and Alistair Simm in the St Trinian films! The descriptions of food were magnificent, my mouth watered and I could almost taste the soft white bread and the thick cream. I was drawn into the world of Reynard's Flanders, I felt the sun on my back and the dust under my feet as I joined the characters on their travels. This is a brilliant story, told by a real scholar. That's not to say that it is dull and worthy, far from it. Anne Louise Avery certainly knows her subject and their world, it is a tour de force. Light a candle, brew some tea, and immerse yourself in a little magic. The book is beautifully produced by that same Bodleian Library press, with a ribbon bookmark. 1300)." Understanding, perfectly, an ancient word that you the reader never heard before is what makes the climax of this charming, quaint story laugh out loud funny.Avery did her homework in the Bodleian Library assiduously. A scholarly glossary, attributed to Reynards's erudite wife Hermeline, defines such words as "Bourd: to jest (F 1303)" and "Bowse: to drink to excess for goodfellowship (E/D c. Avery uses a lot of antiquated vocabulary, that both sounds funny and makes sense even if you have never heard the words before.
Above all it is the language that is the most remarkable thing about the book. (There really is a city named Kriekeputte, I checked on Google.) She has clearly studied the countryside up close. How the fox escapes the enormous bear with promises of honey, and fox next distracts the vicious cat from arresting him with irrisistible descriptions of crispy mice fritters.ancient anthropomorphic stories that are still amusing on one level, and all too true about people's weaknesses today.beyond that, Avery's vivid descriptions of Flanders make the book worth reading just for the evocative landscapes alone, with enchanting place names like Kriekeputte, Rupelmonde and Maleperduys, often a mashup of Old French and Old Dutch. I want everyone to read Avery's retelling, largely based on Caxton's English translation from the Old Dutch in 1481. And it was the truth of how power corrupts that prompted Goethe in 1792 to draft a retelling. I thought it might be a bit twee, which is OK with me, but underneath the thousand year old story with all the cute and comic animal stuff, the bouncy sentences, there is a lot of hard-earned, tough-learned truth about human weakness. "Reynard the Fox" is by far my favorite book of 2020.
With its themes of protest, resistance and duplicity fronted by a personable, anti-heroic Fox making his way in a dangerous and cruel world, this gripping tale is as relevant and controversial today as it was in the fifteenth century. His character spoke eloquently for the unvoiced and disenfranchised, but also amused and delighted the elite, capturing hearts and minds across borders and societal classes for centuries.īased on William Caxton's bestselling 1481 English translation of the Middle Dutch, but expanded with new interpretations, innovative language and characterisation, this edition is an imaginative retelling of the Reynard story. Reynard was once the most popular and beloved character in European folklore, as familiar as Robin Hood, King Arthur or Cinderella. How will he pit his wits against his accusers - greedy Bruin the Bear, pretentious Courtoys the Hound or dark and dangerous Isengrim the Wolf - to escape the gallows? He has been summoned to the court of King Noble the Lion, charged with all manner of crimes and misdemeanours. Reynard - a subversive, dashing, anarchic, aristocratic, witty fox from the watery lowlands of medieval East Flanders - is in trouble.
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