The Lady and the Unicorn

The Cluny Museum in Paris is home to many treasured artifacts, but perhaps none so exquisite as The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. For centuries, these mesmerizing depictions of elegant ladies and unicorns surrounded by animals and flowers have bewitched and baffled art historians and enthusiasts alike. With customary panache, acclaimed novelist Tracy Chevalier transports readers back to the close of the fifteenth century and breathes life into the men who created them, as well as the wives, daughters, and servants who exercised subtle (and not so subtle) influences over their men. Like the many different strands of wool and silk that were woven together into one cloth, the lives and fates of these people intertwine in complex patterns as they seek desires sensual and spiritual, temporal and eternal.