An Introduction to Piers Plowman

“A comprehensive and witty guide to understanding Piers Plowman in all its versions, and a manifesto for the pure intellectual pleasure to be had from reading the text as it dynamically unfolds in each of the poet’s reworkings.”—Sarah Wood, author of Conscience and the Composition of Piers Plowman

“By innovatively working through all three of the poem’s versions, Calabrese makes Piers Plowman accessible without sacrificing complexity, guiding readers expertly through the poem’s much-debated development.”—Nicole R. Rice, author of Lay Piety and Religious Discipline in Middle English Literature

William Langland’s allegorical poem Piers Plowman has found new critical and pedagogic life in the twenty-first century. Engaging with culture, religion, community, work, and the histories of government and popular revolt, the poem exists in three versions: the earlier, shorter A text (c. 1367–70), the much longer B text (c. 1377–79), and the later revision, the C text (c. 1382–87). Studies have frequently focused on the B text, leaving a gap in available resources for students of the poem. This is the first comprehensive introduction to Langland’s masterful work, covering all three iterations and outlining the various changes that occurred between each. It thoroughly explores the versions in parallel study and offers new perspectives and approaches to the poem as an evolving whole.

Useful for individuals reading any version of Piers Plowman, this engaging guide offers a much-needed navigational summary, a chronology of historic events relevant to the poem, biographical information about Langland and his work in context with his contemporaries, and keys to characters and to proper pronunciation. Michael Calabrese’s definitive and refreshingly lively volume allows readers to navigate the three versions of this daunting poem and to contextualize it within the literary history of Western culture.

A volume in the series New Perspectives on Medieval Literature: Authors and Traditions, edited by R. Barton Palmer and Tison Pugh