Melusine of Lusignan

<p>This volume of original essays is the first collection devoted to the monumental <em>Roman de Melusine</em> (1393) by Jean d'Arras. A masterwork of late fourteenth-century French prose fiction Melusine tells of the powerful medieval dynasty of Lusignan from its founding as a city by the legendary Melusine an enigmatic fairy-figure subject to periodic monstrous transformations through its expansion in Europe and the Near East to its ultimate evanescence.</p><p>Melusine offers a singular blend of history and fiction as it upholds the proprietary claims to Lusignan of the work's illustrious patron Jean Duc de Berry. The great deeds of Melusine her forebears and her progeny unfold in a narrative that blends elements of myth folklore and popular traditions with epic Crusade narrative romance and theological doctrine.</p><p>Advancing a wealth of new material and fresh insight the essays in this volume address the complex interplay of the conventions of medieval fictional historical and genealogical writing from a wide variety of critical perspectives. Together they offer a new more balanced and comprehensive understanding of one of the most significant literary works of late medieval European culture.</p>