This fast-moving Modern English version of Chaucer's greatest tragic romance highlights the poem's rapid shifts in register and diction as well as its subtle and elusive characterizations, while preserving the enchanting rhyme-royal stanza of the Middle English original. Christine Chism's Introduction illuminates the work's historical context, poetic devices, first audiences, sources, and non-traditional re-conception of a traditional female protagonist "whose faults," as Criseyde says, "are rolled on every tongue."
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This fast-moving Modern English version of Chaucer's greatest tragic romance highlights the poem's rapid shifts in register and diction as well as its subtle and elusive characterizations, while preserving the enchanting rhyme-royal stanza of the Middle English original. Christine Chism's Introduction illuminates the work's historical context, poetic devices, first audiences, sources, and non-traditional re-conception of a traditional female protagonist "whose faults," as Criseyde says, "are rolled on every tongue."
Reviews:
"Clear, lively, and strikes a good balance between fidelity to Chaucer and the needs of modern readers who are not ready to jump into the refreshing pond of Middle English. Hopefully, Glaser's translation and his evident love for the poem will entice them to make that leap . . .
"Readers of Glaser's work will be pleased to find the translation preceded by Christine Chism's excellent 'introduction'. . . . One could not ask for a more succinct and cogent introduction to the poem."
–Robert Costomiris, Georgia Southern University, in The Medieval Review
About the Authors:
Joseph Glaser is Professor Emeritus of English, Western Kentucky University. His Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Canterbury Tales in Modern Verse and Middle English Poetry in Modern Verse are also published by Hackett.
Christine Chism is Associate Professor of English, University of California, Los Angeles.