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Chaucer and ‹i›The Legend of Good Women‹/i› / Robert Worth Frank, Jr.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2013]Copyright date: ©1972Edition: Reprint 2014Description: 1 online resource (219 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780674331983
  • 9780674331990
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 821/.1
LOC classification:
  • PR1882
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- I Chaucer in 1386 -- II The Prologue -- III Cleopatra -- IV Thisbe -- V Dido -- VI Hypsipyle and Medea -- VII Lucrece -- VIII Ariadne -- IX Philomela -- X Phyllis -- XI Hypermnestra -- XII The Lessons Learned -- Excursus. The Legend of Chaucer's Boredom -- Index
Summary: Designed to fill a gap in Chaucerian studies, this book offers new insight into the development of Chaucer's artistry at a critical point in his career, after he had completed the Troilus and just before he embarked on The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer and "The Legend of Good Women" rejects the usual critical assessment of the Legend, setting it forth instead as a serious and experimental work, an important and necessary prelude to the achievement of The Canterbury Tales. Robert Worth Frank, Jr., begins his analysis of the Legend with a careful consideration of Chaucer's situation in 1386, the year he presumably began the Legend. It was, he suggests, a moment in his career propitious for change--change in subject and in art as well. The Legend reveals this change in the process of its accomplishment. Frank stresses that the road to The Canterbury Tales runs through the Legend. In tracing the route he shows how Chaucer broke away from the limited tradition of courtly love and experimented with a variety of tones and styles and an expanded range of subject matter, with a new verse form, the pentameter couplet, and with new techniques of compression which led to a greater dedication to the short narrative form. The individual legends, though not Chaucer's greatest creations, have merits of their own. The general uniformity of theme proves misleading. The legends provide Chaucer with a broader canvas than he had ever used before, making possible a wide variety in tone and dramatic incident. Above all, this study, enlivened by the author's supple and spirited prose, depicts Chaucer boldly committing himself to the great world of story and thereby drawing on some of the most enduring classical myths for material and moving toward a new art and a new and richer realm of human experience.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780674331990

Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- I Chaucer in 1386 -- II The Prologue -- III Cleopatra -- IV Thisbe -- V Dido -- VI Hypsipyle and Medea -- VII Lucrece -- VIII Ariadne -- IX Philomela -- X Phyllis -- XI Hypermnestra -- XII The Lessons Learned -- Excursus. The Legend of Chaucer's Boredom -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Designed to fill a gap in Chaucerian studies, this book offers new insight into the development of Chaucer's artistry at a critical point in his career, after he had completed the Troilus and just before he embarked on The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer and "The Legend of Good Women" rejects the usual critical assessment of the Legend, setting it forth instead as a serious and experimental work, an important and necessary prelude to the achievement of The Canterbury Tales. Robert Worth Frank, Jr., begins his analysis of the Legend with a careful consideration of Chaucer's situation in 1386, the year he presumably began the Legend. It was, he suggests, a moment in his career propitious for change--change in subject and in art as well. The Legend reveals this change in the process of its accomplishment. Frank stresses that the road to The Canterbury Tales runs through the Legend. In tracing the route he shows how Chaucer broke away from the limited tradition of courtly love and experimented with a variety of tones and styles and an expanded range of subject matter, with a new verse form, the pentameter couplet, and with new techniques of compression which led to a greater dedication to the short narrative form. The individual legends, though not Chaucer's greatest creations, have merits of their own. The general uniformity of theme proves misleading. The legends provide Chaucer with a broader canvas than he had ever used before, making possible a wide variety in tone and dramatic incident. Above all, this study, enlivened by the author's supple and spirited prose, depicts Chaucer boldly committing himself to the great world of story and thereby drawing on some of the most enduring classical myths for material and moving toward a new art and a new and richer realm of human experience.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 29. Nov 2021)