Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature

This was the first full-scale history of medieval English literature for nearly a century. Thirty-three distinguished contributors offer a collaborative account of literature composed or transmitted in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland between the Norman conquest and the death of Henry VIII in 1547. The volume has five sections: 'After the Norman Conquest'; 'Writing in the British Isles'; 'Institutional Productions'; 'After the Black Death' and 'Before the Reformation'. It provides information on a vast range of literary texts and the conditions of their production and reception, which will serve both specialists and general readers, and also contains a chronology, full bibliography and a detailed index. This book offers an extensive and vibrant account of the medieval literatures so drastically reconfigured in Tudor England. It will thus prove essential reading for scholars of the Renaissance as well as medievalists, and for historians as well as literary specialists.

'Unlike many previous literary histories, this will be read … David Wallace's history is the work of many gifted contributors, a consummate editor, and a publishing house investing its resources as only a great press can.' James Simpson, ' … many of the contributors, have taken their opportunity to reorganise areas of the literacy of the British Isles with great originality and learning … a striking modernist project'. The Times Literary Supplement, 'The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature provides a formidable set of tools for the critic of medieval literature … The unobtrusive editorial presence that allows chapters with widely diverging approaches is a useful and mature reflection of the accommodation of plurality required for an intelligent reading of medieval literature … This is a scholarly and erudite publication.' The Times, 'Not only a veritably new history of medieval English literature but also an exemplary instance of literary history in the age of post-modernity.' Yasunari Takada, The University of Tokyo, Komaba, 'The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature is an excellent and long overdue reassessment, which completes a paradigm shift in the study of English medieval literature. It synthesises and responds to developments in the field over the last twenty years, and forges them into a coherent whole. A pioneering work in the field of medieval studies, it is also a fascinating and highly rewarding reading experience, that should be shared by everyone in the discipline.' Jörg Fichte, Eberhard-Karls-Universität, Tübingen

David Wallace is the Judith Rodin Professor of English Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. His books include Chaucerian Polity: Absolutist Lineages and Associational Forms in England and Italy (1997); Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron (1991); Chaucer and the early writings of Boccaccio (1985); Bodies and Disciplines: Intersections of Literature and History in Fifteenth-Century England (ed. with Barbara A Hanawalt).