Joanot Martorell (1410–1465)

Tirant lo Blanc is a 15th century novel about a knight from Brittany who travels across Europe fighting the Moors. Because he is the best, most chivalrous, most pious knight in the world, the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire asks him to help defeat the Ottoman Turks as they invade Constantinople. Tirant, of course, not only defeats the invaders, but he convinces the majority of them to convert to Christianity. He also finds the time and energy to fall in love with and court the emperor’s show more daughter.

Apparently this book is considered important because of its influence on Cervantes. He may have loved it, but I had a hard time getting through it. I don’t know if I had a bad translation or what, but the story was disjointed. The worst part, however, was the characters’ (Tirant’s in particular) attitudes towards others. Most of the book consisted of Christians killing all of the Muslims they encountered. When he wasn’t ridding the earth of heathens, Tirant was trying to rape the emperor’s daughter with the help and approval of her closest friends. If he’s the most chivalrous and pious knight ever, I don’t want to know what the other knights got up to. show less

This is a very fun book. It's one of the few medieval romances to deal with masturbation, for instance. The translation produced a great reading experience, and justified the review by Cervantes in "Don Quixote". A knight has a great many adventures, and wins his true love. A great book to read while devouring the Penguin, two volume edition of "the Morte d' Arthur". As far as I know the triumph of Catalan medieval literature.

Very long (and winding) story about the ideals of knighthood. The story itself could be told in less pages, but then the writer always feels the need to write about the dress code of knights, kings and so on. The use of quote from ancient texts is also something that is done quite often in the book. And off course the book glorifies Catholicism... Not a book I will want to revisit in the near future.

Not bad but rather long. Seems based very loosely on the late medieval Mediterranean. Does not involve the fantasy elements of some romances; more or less straight military adventures.