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246 Reviews Parergon 20.1 (2003) sections is too long; it introduces both perennial scholarly debates and more recent ones; and its endnotes point readers to some of the standard scholars in each of the relevant areas. All of this means that a reader approaching the book with minimal knowledge of medieval towns can come away with a solid grasp of key debates (e.g., on origins of towns and on the ‘feudal presence’ in towns) and also with a handy reading list pointing to both classic authors (Hilton on England; Prawer on the crusader states) and more recent urban historians. Elizabeth Freeman School of History and Classics University of Tasmania Maddox, Donald, Fictions of Identity in Medieval France (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature 43), Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2000; cloth; pp. xx, 295; RRP AU$140.00; ISBN 0521781051. This book, which finds a place in the prestigious Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature series, is misnamed. As the word ‘encounter’ appears not only in the title of the Introduction but also in that of each of the four chapters, and as the phrase ‘specular encounter’ occurs on practically every page of the text, a less misleading title, one which would better reflect what is in store for the reader, would be: The Specular Encounter in Medieval French Literature. It is to be noted that a fair proportion of the book is derived from previous articles published by Maddox on the structure of Old French texts, and more specifically on the theme of the ‘specular encounter’. Maddox shows that specular encounters occur as important elements in the structure of a wide range of Old French texts and that they seem to be part of the tool-box of medieval storytellers. A ‘specular encounter’ occurs when the protagonist of a story is confronted with a dramatic account or evocation of some part of their own story, whether past or future. The author establishes in his Introduction a working notion of ‘the specular encounter as a schema comprised of a basic set of interrelated properties’, before continuing in the succeeding chapters to examine the poetic means as well as the cultural ends of this schema. In illustrating the occurence of specular encounters, Maddox ranges widely over many genres of Old and Middle French literature, discussing in turn the Vie de Saint Eustace, the Lais of Marie de France, Renaud de Beaujeu’s Le Bel Inconnu, Chrétien de Troyes’s romances, Béroul’s Tristan, La Châtelaine de Reviews 247 Parergon 20.1 (2003) Vergi, the Prose Lancelot, Mélusine and many others. One of the pleasures of reading the book is the constant need (and stimulation!) to refresh one’s memory of the incidents cited in the various medieval texts, a task facilitated by the excellent bibliography and notes accompanying Maddox’s monograph. The reader is left in no doubt of the excellent quality of the author’s research and is often grateful to him for his erudition. Furthermore, the work will be available to a wider public of medievalists, as quotations in Old and Middle French are systematically rendered (well) into English prose. In an Appendix is presented, with supporting brief commentary and triangular symbols, an analysis of the triadic structure of Marie de France’s Lais. This section highlights the importance of the concept ‘specular encounter’ as an unifying element in the structure of Marie’s celebrated collection of the Harley manuscript. An ‘Index’, full and detailed sufficiently to be of real use, brings Maddox’s volume to a close. This reader did, however, find it difficult to follow Maddox in some sections (for example, pp. 190-99) where frequent enthusiastic reference is made to Freudian interpretations of literature, and where Lacan is quoted profusely. And why was the author tempted by such chapter sub-headings as ‘The Morning After in Le Chevalier de la Charrete’ (p. 132) or ‘Flagrant Delights in Béroul’s Tristan’ (p. 136) which are so cute as to border on paronomasia? As well, sometimes Maddox’s sentences are inordinately long and complicated, replete with technical jargon, requiring a meticulous re-reading to make them yield their sense. For example: ‘In terms of...

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