that she should marry a Saracen king. She avoids this by disguising herself as a minstrel. She then sets sail for Beaucaire to rejoin her beloved Aucassin. There, before Aucassin who does not immediately recognize her, she sings of her own adventures and the love between them. Finally, in due time she makes herself known to him, and the two marry. The story ends by saying that now the two have found (lasting) happiness the narrator has nothing left to say. Major themes Critics have seen the story as a parody of such genres as the epic, the romance, and the saint's life. "Few Old French genres escape parody in this concise literary encyclopedia." For example, the theme of distant love (amor de lonh), common in Provençal poetry, is reversed: the lady dresses up as a troubadour and seeks out her beloved man. Many of the scenes which seem outwardly comedic, such as the pregnant King (more gender reversal) or wars fought with cheese and apple projectiles (wars are usually fought over food, not with food), are further examples of flipping traditional literary tropes on their heads. Aucassin's speech that he would prefer hell to heaven because hell's inmates are likely to be more entertaining is a play on Saints Lives. Even the names are at odds, "Aucassin" (al-Kassim (a person who shares)/al-Ghassan (youth)?) sounds more Saracen than the very Christian "Nicolette". The story and manuscript derive from the bourgeois Arras region in Picardy, not from the aristocratic and courtly Isle de France of Paris. It satirizes courtly love, turning it upside down. The story was included in Mortimer J. Adler's Gateway to the Great Books (1962) collection, which called it one of the freshest and most delightful "springtime flowers of literature." Later mentions Dealt with in Walter Pater's work on "The Renaissance". The story is mentioned in the Simone de Beauvoir short story "The Age of Discretion". Scholarship points out that the medieval chantefable was reworked as the plot of Starlight or Starlet, (French: Étoilette) a French literary fairy tale penned by Marie-Madeleine de Lubert and included in her revised edition, published in 1753, of Henriette-Julie de Murat's last novel, Les Lutins du château de Kernosy (The Sprites of Kernosy Castle, 1710). References External links Aucassin and Nicolette, downloadable new English translation by Katharine Margot Toohey (2017). Aucassin and Nicolette, translation and introduction by Andrew Lang (1887). An unauthorized