基本信息出版社：W. W. Norton & Co.
页码：672 页
出版日期：2006年03月
ISBN：0393975592
条形码：9780393975598
装帧：平装
正文语种：英语
丛书名：Norton Critical Editions
外文书名：皮尔斯普洛曼
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Piers Plowman is one of the most significant works of medieval literature. Astonishing in its cultural and theological scope, William Langland's iconoclastic masterpiece is at once a historical relic and a deeply spiritual vision, probing not only the social and religious aristocracy but also the day-to-day realities of a largely voiceless proletariat class.
E. Talbot Donaldson's translation of the text has been selected for this Norton Critical Edition because of its skillful emulation of the original poem's distinct alliterative verse. Selections of the authoritative Middle English text are also included for comparative analysis.
"Sources and Backgrounds" includes a large collection of contemporary religious and historical documents pertaining to the poem, including selections from the Douai Bible, accounts of the plague, and legal statutes.
"Criticism" includes twenty interpretive essays by leading medievalists, among them E. Talbot Donaldson, George Kane, Jill Mann, Derek Pearsall, C. David Benson, and Elizabeth D. Kirk.
A Glossary and Selected Bibliography are also included.
About the Series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide.
编辑推荐 Review
(in full The Vision of Piers Plowman) Middle English alliterative poem presumed to have been written by William Langland. Three versions of Piers Plowman are extant: A, the poem's short, early form, dating from the 1360s; B, a major revision and extension of A made in the late 1370s; and C, a less "literary" version of B dating from the 1380s and apparently intended to focus the work's doctrinal issues. Version C may not be entirely attributable to Langland. The poem takes the form of a series of dream visions dealing with the social and spiritual predicament of late 14th-century England. In general, the language is simple and colloquial, but some of the imagery is powerful and direct. Realistic and allegorical elements are mingled in a phantasmagoric way, and the writer frequently displays spiritual and didactic impulses. His bitter attacks on political and ecclesiastical corruption (especially among the friars) quickly struck chords with his contemporaries. In the 16th century Piers Plowman was issued as a printed book and was used for apologetic purposes by the early Protestants. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature --This text refers to the Paperback edition.