THE ROMANCE OF TRISTAN AND ISEULT

One thinks of this as one of the great love stories of literature -- as well as opera -- and I had not realized, until confronted with this incontrovertible evidence -- that the story did not exist in integrated literary form. M. Bedier has done real service in coordinating the fragments of medieval poetry and legend into a single tale. In France it has gone into some 300 odd editions. Now, in translation, and with twenty full page illustrations by the artist in stained glass, Joep Nicolas, and a fine piece of book-making, the time-honored romance will reach a wider public. The illustrations -- even to their studied mannerisms seem appropriate to the flavor of the text.