![]() 1) The Historical FrameĢ Victorian medievalism recreated the Middle Ages as a legendary period of feats and courtly love. Though meant for entertainment, the playful transposition creates an interesting historical background, while reinventing the detective as healer and monk. ![]() From 1977 to 1994, Ellis Peters (whose real name was Edith Pargeter) chose to transpose detective fiction (a genre which was born in the nineteenth century with writers like Wilkie Collins and Conan Doyle), back in the Middle Ages. Thus the reader may have the pleasure of holding a book which is somewhat reminiscent of a beautifully illuminated manuscript once copied by monks. The Warner Futura edition of the books uses Gothic characters on the cover, a gold band for the author’s name, and an illuminated letter to open Cadfael’s name, a simplified version of which opens each chapter the Futura edition also opts for the spelling “mediaeval”. 1 Ellis Peters’s Cadfael Chronicles tap into the exotic appeal of medievalism. ![]()
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