SOURCE: "The Medieval Context of John Fowles's The Ebony Tower" in Critique: Studies in Modern Fiction, Vol. XXV, No. 1, Fall, 1983, pp. 11-24.

In the essay below, Salys explains the allusions to medieval fiction and painting in The Ebony Tower, making connections between the modern and medieval contexts of the novella.

Allusions to medieval fiction and painting pervade John Fowles's novella The Ebony Tower. His heroes and heroines see themselves and others as Tristan and Yseult, Guildelüec and Guilliadun of Marie de France's Eliduc, and St. George, the princess, and even the dragon in Pisanello's famous fresco. Fowles as narrator introduces his story with an epigraph from Chrétien de Troyes's Yvain and himself suggests further relationships to medieval art and fiction—such as his hero's resemblance to Eliduc—which his characters do not remark. The setting of The Ebony Tower is also elaborately medieval. The story takes...