“To teach, to delight, and to change”: Didactic Narration in The Book of the Knight of La Tour-Landry

Written in French towards the end of the fourteenth century and translated into English by William Caxton in 1484, The Book of the Knight of the Tower is a conduct book for girls. It is composed of numerous short narratives through which the Knight of la Tour Landry, after the loss of his wife, instructs his daughters on their duties. The purpose of this paper is to examine various pedagogic strategies used by the father-narrator to engage his young daughters, to hold their attention, and to make his lessons memorable. Attention will also be paid to the tone and formal markers of the work, which has been classified as an example of medieval children’s literature.