Reading Piers Plowman (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780521687836)

Reading "Piers Plowman" is an indispensable scholarly guide to a magnificent - and notoriously difficult - medieval poem. With Piers Plowman, the fourteenth-century poet William Langland proved that English verse could be at once spiritually electrifying and intellectually rigorous, capable of imagining society in its totality while at the same time exploring heady ideas about language, theology and culture. In her study of Piers Plowman, Emily Steiner explores how Langland's ambitious poetics emerged in dialogue with contemporary ideas; for example, about political counsel and gender, the ethics of poverty, secular and pagan learning, lordship and servitude, and the long history of Christianity. Lucid and comprehensive, Steiner's study teaches us to stay alert to the poem's stunning effects while still making sense of its literary and historical contexts.

Author: Emily Steiner
ISBN-10: 0521687837
ISBN-13: 9780521687836
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 05/09/2013
Pages: 273
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.60d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 02/01/2014