A comprehensive and witty guide to understanding "Piers Plowman" in all its versions, and a manifesto for the pure intellectual pleasure to be had from reading the text as it dynamically unfolds in each of the poet s reworkings. Sarah Wood, author of "Conscience and the Composition of "Piers Plowman
William Langland s allegorical poem "Piers Plowman" is becoming ever more popular in medieval English literature courses. But most current introductions focus primarily on the B text, leaving a gap in available resources for the poem s study. As "Piers Plowman" continues to gain academic attention in all its three versions (the A, B, and C texts), teachers and students need a new perspective and new approach to the poem as an evolving whole.
This first comprehensive introduction to Langland s masterful work covers all three iterations and outlines the various changes that occurred between each. Useful for individuals reading any version of "Piers Plowman," this engaging guide offers a much-needed navigational summary, a chronology of historic events relevant to the poem, biographical notes about Langland, and keys to characters and proper pronunciation. Calabrese s definitive and refreshingly lively volume allows readers to navigate this daunting poem and to contextualize it within the literary history of Western culture."