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Françoise H. M. Le Saux, A Companion to Wace (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2005). viii + 305 pp. ISBN 1-84384-043-X. £45.00.
Does Wace need a companion? An easy question to answer, when we realize that the last book about this pioneer of vernacular history-writing is over fifty years old; scholarship in Old French historiography has moved on since then. Françoise Le Saux's admirable volume is everything its tide implies: a handbook, a summa, and a guidebook for anyone who is interested in getting to know Wace. Its three sections, covering respectively his early, hagiographical writings (seventy pages), his fantastically popular Roman de Brut (seventy pages), and his problematic Roman de Rou (125 pages), provide a wealth of...