Boydell Press Chaucer and the City

Literature of the city and the city in literature are topics of major contemporary interest. This volume enhances our understanding of Chaucer's iconic role as a London poet, defining the modern sense of London as a city in history, steeped in its medieval past. Building on recent work by historians on medieval London, as well as modern urban theory, the essays address the centrality of the city in Chaucer's work, and of Chaucer to a literature and a language of the city. Contributors explore the spatial extent of the city, imaginatively and geographically; the diverse and sometimes violent relationships between communities, and the use of language to identify and speak for communities; the worlds of commerce, the aristocracy, law, and public order. A final section considers the longer history and memory of the medieval city beyond the devastations of the Great Fire and into the Victorian period. Dr ARDIS BUTTERFIELD is Reader in English at University College London. Contributors: ARDIS BUTTERFIELD, MARION TURNER, RUTH EVANS, BARBARA NOLAN, CHRISTOPHER CANNON, DEREK PEARSALL, HELEN COOPER, C. DAVID BENSON, ELLIOTKENDALL, JOHN SCATTERGOOD, PAUL DAVIS, HELEN PHILLIPS Review The dozen essays of this attractive collection offer scholarship of critical substance and originality that deserves to be considered and responded to by students of Chaucer and his times. ― JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND GERMAN PHILOLOGY A significant contribution to the present and future state of Chaucerian scholarship. ― STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE TEACHING Offers twelve richly informative essays. [...] Required reading for anyone interested in London history, Chaucer's social context, or medieval urban culture. ― SPECULUM Review The dozen essays of this attractive collection offer scholarship of critical substance and originality that deserves to be considered and responded to by students of Chaucer and his times. About the Author The late Derek Pearsall was Emeritus Gurney Professor of Middle English Literature at Harvard University; he wrote extensively on Chaucer, Gower, Langland and Lydgate, including biographies of Chaucer and Lydgate, an edition of the C-text of Langland's Piers Plowman.