The Lais of Marie de France

These charming stories (and their author, whose dry amusement carries clearly across time and languages) should be better known than they are these days. ( )

Originally published (without Burgess's updated introduction and bibliography) Oxford : Basil Blackwell, 1944. ( )

1966 reprint with title Lays ... ; Tom Stillinger's copy. Bears original title French mediaeval romances ... ( )

An accessible translation by Eugene Mason, which is eminently readable: no cod-medieval language, although the syntax tends to the archaic. Various tales of love, both courtly and profane set mostly in Brittany. Enjoyable.

Marie de France... a woman writer 14th c. -- an automatic must read, and well worth it. Short stories about knights and ladies, evil queens and knavery, originally in a poetic format, easily as entertaining as Bocaccio's Decameron. Fun to read and to re-read. ( )