The Romance of Tristan and Isolde with Illustrations by Denis Gordeev

A free prose reconstruction of the medieval poem about the tragic love of the knight Tristan for Isolde, the wife of the King of Cornwall, and the conflict between feeling and feudal loyalty. A novel about love that is stronger than death. Thirteen centuries ago, this story turned into a beautiful legend, the storytellers changed, but one thing remained unchanged — the love that united the princess from the far northern island and the first warrior of Scotland. The myth of Tristan and Isolde is a narrative about the eternal return of Tristan and the bittersweet happiness of Isolde, about the nobility and cruelty of King Mark. The French philologist Joseph Bédier (1864–1938) searched for and studied texts related to the legend of Tristan and Isolde for many years, and based on a number of ancient texts, he reconstructed a possible prototype — a French prose chivalric romance of the mid-12th century, the source of all subsequent adaptations. The fact that the legend is known to this day is owed not only to the Celts of the 7th century but also to Joseph Bédier. The plot of the novel has influenced modern culture — from the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites, Richard Wagner's operas, and to the works of Salvador Dalí. The novel is published in the classic translation by A. A. Veselevsky and is fully illustrated by artist D. Gordeev.