This original collection assembles 86 of Doré's best depictions of knights and their adventures from Idylls of the King, Don Quixote, Orlando Furioso, Michaud's History of the Crusades, Rabelais, and other sources.

The exuberant art of Gustave Doré (1832-83) has influenced romantics and realists around the world. A self-taught child prodigy who met with early and resounding success, Doré ranks among the most prolific and popular illustrators of all time. Known as "the master of the fantastic," he excelled in conveying dramatic action in memorable settings. This original collection assembles for the first time Doré's best work depicting knights and their adventures. It features eighty-six captivating scenes of battles, damsels, dragons, and other images from the Age of Chivalry. Advances in science and technology introduced irrevocable changes to the society of Doré and his contemporaries and aroused a nostalgia for simpler times. The moral certitude and stability embodied in Arthurian myths and other medieval romances proved as appealing to Victorians as they do to modern audiences. This collection features highlights from eight volumes that span more than two decades of Doré's career, including scenes from Tennyson's Idylls of the King. Other sources include Don Quixote, Orlando Furioso, Rabelais' The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel, and Michaud's History of the Crusades.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a world-known late 14th-century Middle English chivalric romance. The author is unknown, as the story was passed by minstrels and city poets for decades. It received its title centuries later. It is one of the best-known Arthurian stories. The plot combines two types of folk motifs: the beheading game and the exchange of winnings.

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This study traces how medieval audiences judge bodies from Doomsday visions to beauty contests. Employing cultural and formalist approaches, this study breaks new ground on the historical obsession about ends and changes, reflected in different genres spanning several hundred years.

A brave mouse, a covetous rat, a wishful serving girl, and a princess named Pea come together in Kate DiCamillo's Newbery Medal–winning tale. Welcome to the story of Despereaux Tilling, a mouse who is in love with music, stories, and a princess named Pea. It is also the story of a rat called Roscuro, who lives in the darkness and covets a world filled with light. And it is the story of Miggery Sow, a slow-witted serving girl who harbors a simple, impossible wish. These three characters are about to embark on a journey that will lead them down into a horrible dungeon, up into a glittering castle, and, ultimately, into each other's lives. What happens then? As Kate DiCamillo would say: Reader, it is your destiny to find out. With black-and-white illustrations and a refreshed cover by Timothy Basil Ering.

These three pictures, the author suggests, set behind the archetypal knight-errant in the foreground of Malory's chivalric narrative, illuminate not only Malorian chivalry, but also the mentality of the late medieval aristocracy."--BOOK JACKET.