French Literature Reviews - 2026
B. Wahlen, L'Écriture à rebours. Le Roman de Méliadus du XIIe au XVIIIe siècle
Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Review published in Acta Fabula: "When a reader of Arthurian romances sets out to write an Arthurian romance…" by Servane Michel.
Barbara Wahlen, L'Écriture à rebours. Le Roman de Méliadus du XIIe au XVIIIe siècle
Geneva: Droz, coll. "Publications romanes et françaises", 2010.
520 p.
Price: 56.05 EUR.
EAN: 9782600014366.
Publisher's overview:
An elliptical continuation of the Prose Tristan, situated in the gap between Tristan's birth and the remarriage of Méliadus to the daughter of King Hoël, the Roman de Méliadus (1235–1240) is a work that remained open-ended, both due to its incompleteness and the constant dialogue it establishes with other Arthurian romances. While claiming its lineage and embracing its status as a younger narrative, the reminiscences it displays also mask the distortions and shifts that allow it to make something new out of something old. It is this interplay—in both senses of the word—that Barbara Wahlen explores and demonstrates, not only within the Roman de Méliadus itself, but also across three of its reinterpretations, which deeply update and renew the romance's significance. The first is a continuation from the very end of the 13th or the early 14th century, preserved today solely in the Ferrell 5 manuscript. The second adaptation examined is that offered by Meliadus de Leonnoys, the printed edition published in 1528 by Galliot du Pré, the result of meticulous cutting and reassembling. Finally, the last is an excerpt published in 1776 in the Bibliothèque Universelle des Romans.
Arthurian romances composed during the medieval period frequently engaged in complex intertextual dialogues with preceding traditions, reworking established motifs to generate new narrative possibilities. These texts often survived through manuscripts that underwent various transformations, continuations, and printed adaptations over the centuries, reflecting changing literary tastes and editorial practices from the medieval era through the Enlightenment. Such works occupied a distinct place in the broader landscape of medieval narrative prose and its long reception history across early modern print culture.
Readers interested in medieval Arthurian literature, textual transmission, and the reception of Arthurian romance over the centuries may find this volume relevant. Barbara Wahlen explores the Roman de Méliadus and three of its reinterpretations, specifically a continuation from the very end of the 13th or the early 14th century preserved in the Ferrell 5 manuscript, the printed edition published in 1528 by Galliot du Pré, and an excerpt published in 1776 in the Bibliothèque Universelle des Romans.