Books: Medieval Mummery

Medieval Mummery THE FOOL OF VENUS—George Cronyn —Covici, Friede ($3). Of the ten long years that went to the making of The Fool of Venus, eight were spent on research and the other two were wasted. In spite of all the pomp and panoply of a conscientiously historical novel, this lengthy (438 pp.) tale of a 12th Century troubadour rarely makes sense as a story about human beings. By dint of piling on medieval facts and such medieval words as bliaut, destrier, devinalh, joc-partitz, tenson, Author Cronyn has built a massive keep whose outlines...

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