Guinevere is a story similar to “Romeo and Juliet”, a story about love, grief, loss and despair. Guinevere was the wife (queen) to King Arthur the legendary ruler of Great Britain, Guinevere was a very beautiful and noble queen, but her life changed greatly after she fell in love with one of King Arthur’s greatest nights, Sir Lancelot. This relationship between Sir Lancelot and Guinevere destroyed the fellowship of the nights in the Round Table, this relationship was not perfect at all either. Their ways of communicating with each other was through anger and despair, but that did not really matter to them as they believed that they were truly in love.
I really enjoyed this story, there was not a single boring part throughout, it really keeps you interested the whole time even though it was written 4000 years ago. It also kind of seems like it is made up of two separate stories, the story of Gunivere and Sir Lancelelot’s affair and
the legendary story of King Arthur which really keeps you engaged the whole time.
I feel that the story was very well written, in all aspects of literature it pretty much hits every checkbox. Written by Matteo Boiardo who was an Italian poet, he really is not that well known for any other pieces of work, but composed a very great kind of behind the scenes to King Arthur’s story.
The genre of this piece would be considered a historical novel because of how many times it has been rewritten and translated, so it would be considered a novel that has a setting in history.
Another group of legends concerning Guinevere show the queen in a more loyal role. In these tales, King Arthur left his nephew Mordred in charge of the kingdom during a military campaign. Mordred began to plot against Arthur, planning to marry Guinevere and take over as ruler of Britain. The queen refused to cooperate with Mordred and locked herself in the Tower of London to avoid marrying him. When Arthur returned to reclaim his throne, the two men fought. Arthur killed Mordred but was fatally wounded.
Following the death of Arthur, Guinevere entered a convent, where she spent the rest of her life praying and helping the poor. Filled with remorse for the trouble she and her lover had caused, she vowed never to see Lancelot again. When Guinevere died, she was buried beside King Arthur.
Overall I would recommend this to read but probably for and older audience because some adult topics come up in it such as nudity, adultery and rape, which can also be sensitive topics to some people. Guinevere also uses these topics to symbolize what she represents in the book which is loyalty and betrayal, as she is seen by the people of Camelot, a devoted supporter and queen to King Arthur, but at the same time they are thinking that she is having an affair with Sir Lancelot. Again I would really recommend this read.
