The practice of imitation that governs most of Renaissance production is the background of Le Labérynthe. Mireille Huchon focuses on Louise Labé's entrance into literature and into l’écriture féminine as it connected to the network of poets that orbited around her 1555 collection Œuvres de Louise Labé Lyonnaise, which included the “Escriz de divers Poëtes, à la louenge de Louïze Labé Lionnoize.” Huchon reconstructs the circle of poets active at the time of Labé's publication. By closely reading the twenty-five poems of “Escriz de divers Poëtes,” and by comparing them to works by the same or by different writers, Huchon seeks to establish their authorship and interconnections. The book's first chapter discusses at length the genesis of the different versions of Labé's name used in her publications and portrayals, including Loyse Labé, Louïze Labé, and Loise Labbé. Therefore, establishing Labé's identity, questioning her authorship, and distinguishing Labé as the poet and as the historical figure become Le Labérynthe's main preoccupation. Poetry, Huchon argues, is fiction; the object of desire is also fluid, and so at times it becomes unclear why it matters to the author's argument if these poems are about same-sex or opposite-sex desire.

The book's eight chapters show these complexities, in addition to those that have plagued l’écriture féminine since its first appearance. In the first chapters, Huchon closely follows the texts’ history and their meaning based on imitation, emulation, and experimentation. The author also explores Jean de Tournes's role, the Lyon printer who played a central role in this network. His main pursuit, Huchon states, was to edit and publish new and sensational material, with Labé's Œuvres acting as the ultimate example of this pursuit. The chapters that follow delve more closely into the poems that form the “Escriz de divers Poëtes” and into their creators, including Magny, Du Moulin, Scève, Fontaine, Tyard, Baïf, and Des Autels. Here, Huchon's analysis painstakingly constructs parallels with their other work in order to offer hypotheses on how the collection came together and how it relates to Labé's poems. Most noteworthy, perhaps, are the chapters that discuss gaiety, folâtries, and sexual ambiguities, including gender change and the appropriation of the female voice. Huchon argues that some of these texts are inspired by the male muse and challenge the readers to question gender- and sex-based assumptions.

Throughout these pages, Antoine Du Verdier's La Bibliothèque is deployed to provide biographical information about the writers, including Labé. The last chapter, which opens with a discussion on Labé's famous epistle to Clémence de Bourges, “A. M. C. D. L.,” also draws comparisons with other contemporary work while continuing to flirt with the same gender ambiguities that rule the “Escriz de divers Poëtes.” Le Labérynthe concludes with the reproduction of the 1555 edition facsimile of “Escriz de divers Poëtes.”

Throughout her close reading, however, Huchon avoids engaging with modern scholarship and seldom considers recent studies that would significantly enrich her arguments and analyses. Furthermore, it would have been fruitful to engage with gender and queer studies in order to explore the ramifications of the female ventriloquized voice in more depth. In fact, theoretical frameworks are, for the most part, absent. If this maze of poetry, as Huchon convincingly argues, is governed by imitation, then expanding the language and analysis to include other theoretical frameworks would have allowed the author to engage in a productive dialogue with other scholars. Moreover, when discussing individual poets, the author does not mention any studies that have been published in recent years, and that have significantly contributed to our understanding of these poets’ work and cultural circumstances. Indeed, while Huchon refers to her own 2006 book Louise Labé, une créature de papier, of which the present monograph is a continuation, if not its second part, thereby mirroring Labé's Œuvres and the “Escriz,” rarely does she refer to secondary sources. Even more rarely does she include divergent points of view, which would have undoubtedly complemented some of these assertions.

Le Labérynthe's exploration of Labé's network of poets broadens our knowledge of these texts and their role within Lyon's cultural and artistic sphere. Many of the comparisons and arguments deepen our understanding of how Labé and her poets crafted a web whose persuasive intertextuality offers new and exciting scholarly pursuits and lines of inquiry.