Chrétien de Troyes is justly considered to be the creator of Arthurian romance. Although important Arthurian texts and perhaps oral tales as well pre-dated his works, he used that material and his imagination to produce something entirely new. The episodic romance, as he developed it, was a composition centered on the Arthurian court but primarily focused on the adventures of one (or two) of Arthur's knights, generally over a limited period of time. Chrétien also emphasized the nature of adventure – its uses and abuses – and examined the efficacy of chivalry and of the Arthurian ethic. The problems treated in his romances range from the connections and often the conflicts between love and prowess, between private pleasures v. public duties, between the couple and society and, in his final romance, between spiritual and secular quests.

Owing to his artistry, his prestige and the interest held by his themes, Chrétien proved to be a remarkably influential author, as the final section of this book indicates. His influence did not by any means end with medieval authors, though, and the modern recognition of his importance has led to the publication of many dozens of scholarly books and many hundreds, indeed thousands, of articles. In fact, during recent decades, Chrétien has been the most extensively studied of all Arthurian authors, and the bibliography is vast.

Even Chrétien specialists surely find the volume of critical studies on Chrétien daunting, and students, however diligent, will find it virtually impossible to select the most useful scholarship and to read and master even a small part of it. That very difficulty is the compelling justification for the present volume. Although we hope and expect that even Chrétien scholars will find a good deal of useful information and provocative criticism here, we are directing our chapters in particular to advanced students – to those who may have read Chrétien but wish now to undertake more serious study of his methods and accomplishment – and even to scholars in other disciplines, such as English or German Arthurian literature, who may wish to re-examine their literature's Arthurian antecedents and the current state of Chrétien scholarship. For those readers we offer initial chapters devoted to important subjects preliminary to a study of his romances, and the volume concludes with considerations of his influence. The heart of the book, though, consists of six major chapters, treating the works themselves.