A true tour de force. . . . Cline gives us the best tool English has had to date for appreciating the earliest literary version of the well-born boor and habitual near-rapist who never knew when to speak and when to hold his peace and who, consequently, cannot get the Grail in his grasp.

—Capital Translator's Newsletter

An admirable, flowingly readable translation. It lilts gracefully along, most winningly, through all its lines. Cline's translation and excellent introduction to Perceval will reward either the scholar of the genre or one who reads it simply from delight in Arthurian lore.

—Edmund Fuller, Wall Street Journal

Cline deserves high praise for ingenuity and sheer courage . . . She is primarily interested in imparting a feeling for Chrétien as a master storyteller.

—Translation Review

The translation itself is a remarkable blend of accuracy and ingenuity and offers the reader a much more vivid sense of medieval verse narrative than do prose translations. Chevilles are no commoner than in the original and stylistic infelicities are mercifully few. In short, the translation is well worth reading.

—French Studies

Cline succeeds in bringing out the liveliness and subtlety of Chretien's final (and uncompleted work).

—Chronicles

Cline never sacrifices essential meaning for the demands of her poetic form.

—Speculum