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Loading... The Poetry of Chaucerby John Gardner
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.  baswood | Jan 9, 2011 |  no reviews | add a review
"The Poetry of Chaucer "offers a reading of his poetry harmonious with the character of Chaucer as his own age knew and understood him. This new work by John Gardner is designed to complement his biography of Chaucer being published by Alfred A. Knopf."""The Poetry of Chaucer "is not simply one more sensitive reading of the poet s work, nor is it, simply, a modern writer s comment on the work of one of his two greatest English predecessors. Gardner s reading of the poetry of Chaucer provides a persuasive synthesis of virtually the whole body of scholarly work done on Chaucer in the past twenty yearsthe period of the critical revolution in Chaucerian studies. It may well be considered, for years to come, the definitive statement on how and why Chaucer wrote verse.One purpose of Gardner s "The Poetry of Chaucer "is to make the new evidence available to the nonspecialist. But Gardner s larger purpose is to show how the various kinds of new evidence fit together, to demonstrate how, for the reader willing to look down from the mountaintop, " "seemingly conflicting readings of Chaucer s poetry can be recognized as parts of a harmonious whole. Gathering and assessing the results of the past twenty years of Chaucer studies, adding striking new evidence derived from his own close analysis of Chaucer s poetry, and for the first time emphasizing the importance, throughout Chaucer s work, of the most significant philosophical movement of Chaucer s age, so-called Nominalism, Gardner creates a coherent image of Chaucer and Chaucer s art." No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)821.1Literature English English poetry 1066-1400 Early English period, medieval periodLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (4.67)
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Wikipedia in English
1
"Because we can never be sure of ourselves, we should listen patiently to other's opinions, recognize that we are all clowns, that the world, alas, contains no longer any bareback riders, lion tamers or acrobats, just us clowns. And having made that discovery, we should settle our restless hearts and get on with the circus."
Gardner's admiration and love of the works of Geoffrey Chaucer pour out from his book. He states that the Canterbury Tales were a culmination of a lifetime of reflection, doubt, faith and brilliant meticulous writing. 120 pages are taken up with criticism of The Canterbury Tales but 215 pages are taken up by criticism of the other works. This is a turn-around from other books of criticism that I have read which tend to focus on the Canterbury tales to the exclusion of the other poems. Gardner's major theme therefore is the development of Chaucer's art and therefore he takes us through the works chronologically. Starting with The Book of the Duchess and continuing through chapter by chapter; The Parliament of Fowles, Anelida and Arcite and the shorter poems, Troilus and Criseyde, The House of Fame, and The Legend of Good Women. Gardner is well grounded in 14th century thought and so their is some excellent commentary on the effects of the philosophies of Boethius, Thomas of Ockham and Paganism on Chaucer's works. I found the whole book a delight with many insights and for me who has just read the Riverside Chaucer it was unputdownable.
John Gardner himself is interesting. I could find no reference to his work in my Riverside Chaucer and I have since discovered that a previous book of his The life and times of Chaucer was attacked by the academic community on grounds of plagiarism. I have recently read his life and times and it is excellent.
I was wondering therefore if the reason for his Poetry of Chaucer not being so well known is because of this fall out with the academics. If this is so then it is a pity because his writing on Chaucer is very fine indeed.
I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in Chaucer (