Book of the Mutability of Fortune

Geri L. Smith, Professor of French and Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Central Florida, is author of The Medieval French Pastourelle Tradition: Poetic Motivations and Generic Transformations (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2009), among other works on late medieval poetry and theater.

• Acknowledgments xvIntroduction 1The Book of the Mutability of Fortune 29Appendix 245Bibliography 259Index 283

Geri Smith’s full English version of Christine de Pizan’s monumental universal history, the Mutacion de Fortune, is a feat of Herculean proportions. This prose translation of the great majority of this mostly verse composition, completed with an elegant summary of the less prominent passages, makes the work available to English-language readers. Smith follows the original Middle French with precision and delightfully captures the often piquant quality of Christine’s turns of phrase. The division of the text into short segments facilitates reference to Suzanne Solente’s critical edition. Footnotes summarize Solente’s key findings while providing a valuable repertory of subsequent studies related to specific passages. Smith’s translation is an impressive milestone in the dissemination of Christine de Pizan’s works. Christine RenoVassar College, Emerita, French and Francophone Studies