"L'homme tout nu" by Catulle Mendès is a novel written in the late 19th century. It is a playful, satirical medieval romance centered on the impulsive young knight Pierre de Pierrefeu, with his bibulous brother Marcabrus and his austerely devout brother Aymeril, set against the famed Court of Love at Romanin where desire and decorum collide. Expect bawdy misadventures, lyrical pastiche of troubadour culture, and witty judicial debates on love.
The opening of this novel places us in a stylized twelfth-century Provence, where three sons of a dissipated lord part ways: Marcabrus heads to Toulouse to pour wine, Aymeril to the Crusade in pious zeal, and Pierre—left only with a superb horse and splendid clothes—rides off to seek amorous glory. A legend explains Romanin’s new tower: lovers Doulce and Antiphanor perish in a fire rather than end their embrace, establishing the castle as a stage for annual “Courts of Love.” In these sessions, the comtesse Phanette and notable ladies adjudicate cases—from a childhood promise reduced to a kiss on a sleeve, to a peeping Templar’s exile, to a diacre’s right to love, and a dispute over whether a lady must leave a lamp lit for her lover. Proceedings pause when the famed paragon of chastity, Clermonde des Iles-d’Or, bursts in to protest that she has been kissed in the woods by a naked man. The narrative then shows how Pierre, after rescuing the inn-servant Mariotte from a jealous tavernkeeper, is ambushed by routiers who spare him but steal his horse and finery, even gifting his fine shirt to Mariotte—leaving him completely bare and fleeing into the forest, abashed and alone. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
