Perceval : the story of the grail /

Raffel (Univ. of Southwestern Louisiana) herewith completes his translation of the five 12th-century French Arthurian romances of Chretien de Troyes (Yvain, 1987; Erec and Enide, CH, Jul'97; Cliges and Lancelot, 1997). Though Raffel does not imitate the original's usually end-stopped rhymed octosyllabic couplets, this reviewer recommends his often enjambed, unrhymed, page-turning style for readers at all levels and considers it preferable to the prose of David Staines in his Complete Romances of Chretien de Troyes (CH, May'91). Because this first Grail romance is complex, enigmatic, and incomplete, readers may want to turn from the afterword to such works in the select bibliography as Roger Sherman Loomis's classic The Grail (1963; repr. 1991), which traces the Grail story from Celtic sources to its later versions with "real and lasting spiritual significance." Those concerned with unity in both Grail and Arthurian strands of Perceval will turn to Donald Maddox (The Arthurian Romances of Chretien de Troyes, CH, Dec'91) and Brigitte Cazelles (The Unholy Grail, 1996) for expanded social readings of the "crepuscular phase" of Arthurian history with tensions relevant to contemporaneous society. Recommended for public and academic collections at all levels. D. C. Homan Bethany College (KS)