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This is a collection of previously published essays on late medieval and early modern literature, designed to act as a companion to Chaucer to Spenser: An Anthology of Writings in English 1375 -1575, edited by Derek Pearsall (1999). The object of the accompanying anthology is to provide representation of a variety of kinds of prose and verse, including some not traditionally regarded as canonically literary , and also to tresp*s* beyond the boundaries of the conventional medieval/early modern divide. This new volume provides some of the critical backing for those decisions about the canon and about periodization, and also give evidence of the vigor of opinion and debate in the field in general. Most of the essays are from the last 20 years, and some are very recent, though space is also found for some earlier cl*s*ics. The collection pays particular attention to those critics who have had the most powerful recent impact on our reading of the texts of the period: they are selected for their excellence and importance, whether in themselves or as representatives of an influential critical approach, and not for their adherence to any one school of interpretation. They will provide a companion to the texts in the anthology, a commentary and counterpoint to the views expressed in the editor's headnotes and explanatory notes, and a perspective on the best that has been thought and said about the writing of these two extraordinary centuries of creativity, consolidation and seed-sowing. --This text refers to the Paperback edition. Synopsis In this key anthology Derek Pearsall offers a radically new approach to those teaching and studying English writing from Geoffrey Chaucer to the early work of Edmund Spenser. Ignoring the traditional barrier between medieval, or Middle English, and Tudor, Elizabethan or early modern writing, he sets out to emphasize continuities and so counter the distorting view that English literature begins with Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey. Extensive coverage is given to key figures such as Chaucer and Langland, but this is not an anthology of English literature, but of writing. All forms of discursive writing - literary, political, legal, personal, polemic, spiritual, practical - are represented in an attempt to demonstrate the close mesh between writing, of all kinds, and the political, social and cultural practice of the time. The *s*umption of the collection is that written texts, though they may be analyzed from many points of view, including some that are legitimately ahistorical, are never better understood than when studied in their historical context. All texts are newly edited from the best sources and presented in their original spelling (apart from the substitution of obsolete letter-forms). On-the-page glossaries throughout give help with harder words. Headnotes and explanatory notes are provided for each text. See all Reviews 
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