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Title: The Riverside Chaucer by Geoffrey Chaucer, Larry Benson, Robert Pratt, F.N. Robinson ISBN: 0-395-29031-7 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 01 January, 1900 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $78.36 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.54 (13 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Essential Reading
Comment: Riverside 3 has all of Chaucer's major poems and two major prose works, a translation of Boethius and the Treatise on the Astrolabe, in Middle English. In addition to these, it includes several (relatively) short lyrics, some of doubtful authorship, and a Middle English translation of the (French) Romance of the Rose, done partly by Chaucer.
Spelling and punctuation have been regularized throughout, to make the poems more accessible. The insertion of commas is often dubious (for instance, in the Envoy to the Clerk's Tale, "lat him care and wepe and wrynge and waille" becomes "lat hym care, and wepe, and wrynge, and waille" for no evident reason) but maybe that's inevitable. If one is very particular one can always look up the textual notes.
The bottom-of-page glosses and explanatory notes could be better; there are several passages that an inexperienced reader of Middle English might find difficult but that are not explained in either place. The notes on mythological references etc. are more consistently helpful. The Introduction is all right with grammar/pronunciation, but could be more thorough. The glossary takes a little getting used to, because not all variants are considered (esp. i and vowel y are treated as the same letter), but is pretty good once you get used to it. You don't need to use it very often because the obviously difficult words are glossed at the bottom of the page.
The poetry, of course, is as good as it gets, and also very entertaining. Chaucer's range of styles is particularly amazing.
And as in winter leves been biraft,
Eche after other, til the tree be bare,
So that ther nis but bark and braunche y-laft,
Lyth Troilus, biraft of ech wel-fare,
Y-bounden in the blake bark of care.
-- Troilus and Criseyde Bk IV
He stoupeth doun, and on his bak she stood,
And caughte hire by a twiste, and up she gooth -
Ladyes, I prey yow that ye be nat wrooth;
I kan nat glose, I am a rude man -
And sodeynly anon this Damyan
Gan pullen up the smok, and in he throng.
-- The Merchant's Tale
"What is this world? What asketh men to have?
Now with his love, now in his colde grave,
Allone, withouten any compaignye."
-- The Knight's Tale
Rating: 3
Summary: You get less than you pay for
Comment: That Chaucer was a brilliant author should not be disputed, and this text, produced from studious examination of the Ellesmere and Hengwrt manuscripts, reflects that brilliance. But one is expected to buy this particular edition for the sake of, or, at least, one pays for, the editorial comments. These are consistently, and rather annoyingly, poor. Many of the annotations are trite and obvious, but some are, which is much worse, misleading or even incorrect. Each work has a different editor, but I have found this problem amongst each editor's work I have seen. Alternate views of the text from those of the editor, however widely held, are ignored or the suggestion is made that they have been proven invalid. Too often, as well, one finds no commentary on the lines that need it and paragraphs on the lines before and after them. Similar problems may be found in the glosses of the text. Though sometimes useful, more often the page is filled with explanations -- and not always especially good ones -- of the obvious words, while one must go to the back or to a Middle English dictionary to find the words with which one needs help. If you're looking for a good text of Chaucer, you may be paying for more than you'll get with this edition.
Rating: 5
Summary: forget the canterbury tales
Comment: If it hadn't bee for this book, I wouldn't have been introduced to the awesome shorter works of Chaucer. I would have only associated him with the tired Tales of which he is so renowned.
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Title: Chaucer Glossary by Norman Davis, Douglas Gray, Patricia Ingham ISBN: 0198111711 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: August, 1979 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Consolation of Philosophy (PENGUIN CLASSICS) by Boethius, Victor Watts ISBN: 0140447806 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: May, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Medieval England, 1000-1500: A Reader (Readings in Medieval Civilizations and Cultures , 6) by Emilie Amt ISBN: 1551112442 Publisher: Broadview Press Pub. Date: October, 2000 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Woman Defamed and Woman Defended: An Anthology of Medieval Texts by Alcuin Blamires, C. W. Marx, Karen Pratt ISBN: 0198710399 Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr on Demand Pub. Date: November, 1992 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Chaucer: Sources and Backgrounds by Robert P. Miller ISBN: 0195021673 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: June, 1977 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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