Erec y Enide by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (2003) [review]

A review of "Erec y Enide" by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán published by Debolsillo 2003. ISBN 84-9759-445-2 (vol. 511/1). The use of myth to illustrate the malaise of present day society is neither new nor original in contemporary literature, but it is not often attended by analysis of such scholarly splendour as it is within this text. Vázquez Montalbán’s novel "Erec y Enide" is named after the work of the same name by Chrétien de Troyes (ca. 1175), in which the adventures of Geraint (Erec) are narrated as he drives his unfortunate wife, Enid (Enide) through innumerable dangers in order to prove his love for her as well as his valour as a knight of Arthur’s round table. In Vázquez Montalbán’s novel, Chrétien’s text is the most elaborately worked, but it is not the only Arthurian myth represented.