Marie de France

Marie de France was a twelfth-century poet who wrote in Anglo-Norman French and is best known for the Lais of Marie de France, a collection of narratives about love, loyalty, marvels and social obligation. She also produced a collection of fables and a translation of the legend of Saint Patrick’s Purgatory. Her identity remains uncertain, although her work is closely associated with the literary culture of Angevin England.

Lauren Groff’s Matrix radically reimagines Marie as an illegitimate royal relation sent to govern an impoverished English abbey. The novel builds a forceful account of female community, administration and religious vision from the near absence of biographical evidence. It should be read as speculative historical fiction rather than a recoverable biography of the poet.