Piers Plowman edition by William Langland Literature Fiction eBooks
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Written by a fourteenth-century cleric, this spiritual allegory explores man in relation to his ultimate destiny against the background of teeming, colorful medieval life.
Piers Plowman edition by William Langland Literature Fiction eBooks
Piers Plowman by William Langland. Edited by Elizabeth Robertson and Stephen H. A. Shepherd. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2006. Paperback, 644 pages. ISBN 0393975592The Norton Critical Edition of Piers Plowman is, without doubt, one of the best editions of the poem that have ever appeared for readers who are new to Langland.
It's great value lies in the fact that, besides giving the complete Middle English text of the B-version of this wonderful poem, it also provides, on facing pages, the excellent Modern English translation of E. Talbot Donaldson. In this way, the poem is made available even to readers who may know little or no Middle English.
Langland's English can be difficult and his allusions obscure, but most difficulties and obscurities are here easily resolved either by glancing across at the translation on the facing page or down at the useful footnotes which have been placed where they should be at the bottom of each page.
Langland wrote his poem - and it was in his time an enormously popular poem - not for scholars or students (in which case it would have been written entirely in Latin) but for ordinary people like you and me. And the present edition has, with its Middle English text plus Modern English translation, provided us with everything the general reader really needs.
But besides the actual texts of the poem, the publishers have generously provided almost 300 pages of supplementary material that the more studious will find useful: Sources and Backgrounds, Critical Essays, Selected Bibliography, etc.
The book is well-printed (though the typeface might have been a tad larger) on a good quality paper (and not on the near-newsprint that publishers such as Penguin have no shame in inflicting on their readers today). The binding is a flexible thermoplastic that should hold up to use. And the paper cover (which might have been a bit sturdier) features a beautiful color facsimile of a page from a medieval manuscript of the poem. This illustration of Lady Mede (money power) being borne about will come to have a very deep meaning as you move into the poem.
All in all, then, the Norton Critical Edition of Piers Plowman is an edition I have no hesitation in recommending. Readers who are new to the poem and who acquire this amazingly full and reasonably-priced edition are in for a very special treat.
William Langland's voice is a unique voice, a powerful yet compassionate voice that brings the whole of Medieval England in all it's color and bustle and excitement and joys and sorrows alive before our eyes.
Although the poem was written over six hundred years ago, new readers will find that many of Langland's concerns are still very much our own; the trappings or outer forms of society may have changed since the fourteenth century, but human nature itself certainly hasn't changed and life's sorrows are still very much with us. But so, happily, are its joys!
I think you will find that Piers Plowman provides us with a full and rich measure of both.
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Piers Plowman edition by William Langland Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
A fine translation by the best editor of the poem, and the best of all critics of medieval English literature.
Fabulous edition! To any medievalist or person wanting to study the literature of the time period, this is a very good read, especially since it is a more interesting alternative to Pilgrim's Progress.
This is a great copy as it has a modern English translation for we the pedantic fools who do not speak Middle English.
This is one of the best poems ever written. It describes another world than the one we live in-there is nothing in their society that modern society believes in. But the people in the world of this poem are the same as modern people are-and all future people will be. This poem is great because it describes in detail the world of 1400 England in a way that shows us ourselves too. This poem is not as polished as the Cantubery Tales are- but they are as important as this great poem is and as educational as Chaucer's poem is.. This edition of the poem is part of the Norton Critical Edition series- with much critical additions after the end of the poem. A big plus. If you love great poetry this book is a must have.
I'm a Piers Plowman scholar, and in my proselytizing for Langland, this is the book I give to all my friends and family for Christmas, birthdays, etc. (lucky them). I don't think any of them have attempted to read it yet, but when they do, they will find the facing-page translation to be accessible, the Middle English to be a fun puzzle, the introduction and accompanying essays to be quite helpful.
For advanced English majors who have read Chaucer in Middle English and want the next step up--or for grad students reading PP for a class or comprehensive exams--the best edition is Derek Pearsall's revised ed. of the C-text from Exeter UP. It has great notes and a nice user interface. A. V. C. Schmidt's Everyman ed. of the B-text is also good, but not very user-friendly.
For quotation in books and articles, people tend use the Athlone editions of the A, B, and C texts. Though if I were starting over as a grad student now, I would use Schmidt's parallel-text edition from Medieval Institute Press. It was not available when I started, and it's too late to change (until the next book project), but it is what I actually use when working with the text (and then hop over to Athlone to quote, which is a good exercise, anyhow).
The kindle edition does not contain the modern language version for comparison as other evaluations might lead you to believe. The material may be very good, but it will take much effort to find any meaning.
This is an essential edition of Piers Plowman; the original version edited specifically for the volume along with Donaldson's excellent facing page translation make it indispensable for anyone wanting to study or just enjoy this remarkable and remarkably strange poem. The only drawback for me was the selection of critical essays some have dated and others were just simply not illuminating. Perhaps a future version could rectify this. However the selection of source and background material is superb. Another reviewer commented that some annotation for the original middle english would be a bonus ; I agree, but I guess these Norton editions can really only go so far in terms of scholarly apparatus without getting completely out of control in terms of length and cost. But one can wish... Heartily recommended.
Piers Plowman by William Langland. Edited by Elizabeth Robertson and Stephen H. A. Shepherd. New York W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2006. Paperback, 644 pages. ISBN 0393975592
The Norton Critical Edition of Piers Plowman is, without doubt, one of the best editions of the poem that have ever appeared for readers who are new to Langland.
It's great value lies in the fact that, besides giving the complete Middle English text of the B-version of this wonderful poem, it also provides, on facing pages, the excellent Modern English translation of E. Talbot Donaldson. In this way, the poem is made available even to readers who may know little or no Middle English.
Langland's English can be difficult and his allusions obscure, but most difficulties and obscurities are here easily resolved either by glancing across at the translation on the facing page or down at the useful footnotes which have been placed where they should be at the bottom of each page.
Langland wrote his poem - and it was in his time an enormously popular poem - not for scholars or students (in which case it would have been written entirely in Latin) but for ordinary people like you and me. And the present edition has, with its Middle English text plus Modern English translation, provided us with everything the general reader really needs.
But besides the actual texts of the poem, the publishers have generously provided almost 300 pages of supplementary material that the more studious will find useful Sources and Backgrounds, Critical Essays, Selected Bibliography, etc.
The book is well-printed (though the typeface might have been a tad larger) on a good quality paper (and not on the near-newsprint that publishers such as Penguin have no shame in inflicting on their readers today). The binding is a flexible thermoplastic that should hold up to use. And the paper cover (which might have been a bit sturdier) features a beautiful color facsimile of a page from a medieval manuscript of the poem. This illustration of Lady Mede (money power) being borne about will come to have a very deep meaning as you move into the poem.
All in all, then, the Norton Critical Edition of Piers Plowman is an edition I have no hesitation in recommending. Readers who are new to the poem and who acquire this amazingly full and reasonably-priced edition are in for a very special treat.
William Langland's voice is a unique voice, a powerful yet compassionate voice that brings the whole of Medieval England in all it's color and bustle and excitement and joys and sorrows alive before our eyes.
Although the poem was written over six hundred years ago, new readers will find that many of Langland's concerns are still very much our own; the trappings or outer forms of society may have changed since the fourteenth century, but human nature itself certainly hasn't changed and life's sorrows are still very much with us. But so, happily, are its joys!
I think you will find that Piers Plowman provides us with a full and rich measure of both.
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