Search Results

This edition presents 33 of the 100 tales, with at least two from each of the ten days of storytelling. Boccaccio’s general introduction and conclusion to the work are also included, as are the introduction and conclusion to the first day; the reader is thus provided with a real sense of the Decameron’s framing narrative.…

Geoffrey Chaucer’s most significant literary accomplishment may well be Troilus and Criseyde, a single, profoundly philosophical narrative of a tragic love affair. Set in ancient Troy and telling the story of the rise and fall, in love and war, of prince Troilus, Troilus and Criseyde is an archetypal medieval romance. The widowed Criseyde is a…

The two-volume Broadview Anthology of British Literature, Concise Edition provides an attractive alternative to the full six-volume anthology. Though much more compact, the concise edition nevertheless provides a thoughtful balance between well-established canonical authors and a diverse array of lesser-known works. Guided by the latest scholarship in British literary studies, the anthology is committed to…

The Distaff Gospels (Les Évangiles des Quenouilles), a fascinating fifteenth-century collection of more than 250 popular beliefs, constitutes a kind of encyclopedia of late medieval women’s wisdom. The women’s beliefs and experiences are recounted within the narrative frame of traditional gatherings where women meet with their spindles and distaffs to spin. They share advice on…

The Broadview Canterbury Tales is an edition of the complete tales in a text based on the famous Ellesmere Manuscript. Here one may read a Middle English text that is closer to what Chaucer’s scribe, Adam Pinkhurst, actually wrote than that in any other modern edition. Unlike most editions, which draw on a number of…

Drawing from the same text as the complete Broadview edition of the Tales, which is based on the famous Ellesmere Manuscript, this selected edition also features a critical introduction, marginal glosses in modern English of difficult words, and explanatory footnotes. The most widely taught appendix material from the complete edition is included, along with ten…

A Companion to Chaucer and his Contemporaries provides a detailed introduction to medieval culture, broadly considered. This sourcebook gives readers fuller access to Middle English literary works by situating these works within their sometimes alien historical and cultural contexts. Chapters open with an overview that suggests how contemporary debates and attitudes influence meaning in works…