The Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure
A Translation
- Description
- Contents
- Author
- Reviews
First English translation of an important twelfth-century romance, giving an account of the Trojan war and its consequences.
Winner of the 2018 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award
Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie, dating to around 1165, is, along with the Roman de Thèbes and the Roman d'Eneas, one of the three"romances of antiquity" (romans d'antiquité). These romances launched the plots, themes and structures of the genre, then blossoming in the hands of authors such as Chrétien de Troyes. As an account of the Trojan War, Benoît's work is of necessity a poem about war and its causes, how it was fought and what its consequences were for the combatants. But the author's choice of the octosyllabic rhyming couplet, his fondness for description, his abilityto recount the intensity of personal struggles, and above all his fascination with the trials and tribulations of Love, which affect some of the work's most prominent warriors (among them Paris and his love for Helen, and Troilusand his love for Briseida), all combine to fashion this romance - in which events from long ago are presented as a reflection of the poet's own feudal and courtly worlds.
This translation, the first into English, aims to bring the poem and the author to a wider audience. It is accompanied by an introduction and notes.
Glyn S. Burgess is Emeritus Professor of French at the University of Liverpool; Douglas Kelly is Emeritus Professor of French and Medieval Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Winner of the 2018 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award
Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie, dating to around 1165, is, along with the Roman de Thèbes and the Roman d'Eneas, one of the three"romances of antiquity" (romans d'antiquité). These romances launched the plots, themes and structures of the genre, then blossoming in the hands of authors such as Chrétien de Troyes. As an account of the Trojan War, Benoît's work is of necessity a poem about war and its causes, how it was fought and what its consequences were for the combatants. But the author's choice of the octosyllabic rhyming couplet, his fondness for description, his abilityto recount the intensity of personal struggles, and above all his fascination with the trials and tribulations of Love, which affect some of the work's most prominent warriors (among them Paris and his love for Helen, and Troilusand his love for Briseida), all combine to fashion this romance - in which events from long ago are presented as a reflection of the poet's own feudal and courtly worlds.
This translation, the first into English, aims to bring the poem and the author to a wider audience. It is accompanied by an introduction and notes.
Glyn S. Burgess is Emeritus Professor of French at the University of Liverpool; Douglas Kelly is Emeritus Professor of French and Medieval Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Introduction
A Note on the Translation
Outline of the Roman de Troie
Prologue
Part One: Causes and Effects
Part Two: The Trojan War
Part Three: Settling Scores and Surviving
Appendix I: Notes on Some Commons Words in the Roman de Troie
Appendix II: Manuscripts of the Roman de Troie
Bibliography
A Note on the Translation
Outline of the Roman de Troie
Prologue
Part One: Causes and Effects
Part Two: The Trojan War
Part Three: Settling Scores and Surviving
Appendix I: Notes on Some Commons Words in the Roman de Troie
Appendix II: Manuscripts of the Roman de Troie
Bibliography
"Winner of the 2018 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award" .
"[A] clear and accessible translation of Benoît's twelfth-century Roman de Troie that will serve as the standard English-language version of the medieval French text for the foreseeable future." THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW
"The translators, eminent medievalists both, have crafted a compelling narrative that is scrupulously faithful to the original and perhaps even more vivid and powerful . . . The translators' expertise is evident in every component of the book-not only their translation, but also the dense introduction. Essential." CHOICE
"The work of G. S. Burgess and D. Kelly deserves to be praised, as much for its remarkable quality as for the immense work required to translate a novel about thirty thousand words long!" CAHIERS DE CIVILISATION MÉDIÉVALE
"In this first-ever English translation, Glyn Burgess and Douglas Kelly expertly summarize what Benoît did with his originals [...] and offer a helpful overview and outline of the narrative [...] along with an appendix discussing key narrative terms, and indexes to names and places." PARERGON
Hardcover
9781843844693
June 2017
£80.00 / $115.00
Paperback
9781843845430
February 2020
$36.95 / £24.99
Ebook (EPDF)
9781787440258
June 2017
$29.95 / £24.99
- Related Titles
- More by Author
- More in Series
