This peerless new edition of Chaucer's complete works is the fruit of many years' study, and replaces Robinson's famous edition, long regarded as the standard text. Freshly edited and annotated, the "Riverside Chaucer" is now the indispensable edition for students and readers of Chaucer.

The text presented here remains as faithful to the original Middle English as possible, without sounding archaic. Kempe's work is accompanied by an introduction, a map of medieval England, a Kempe lexicon, and explanatory annotations.

"Contexts" collects primary readings that illuminate The Book of Margery Kempe.  Included are excerpts from The Constitutions of Thomas Arundel, Meditations on the Life of Christ, The Shewings of Julian of Norwich, The Book of Saint Bride, and The Life of Marie d'Oignies by Jacques de Vitry.

"Criticism" includes nine varied interpretations of the autobiography, written by Clarissa W. Atkinson, Lynn Staley, Karma Lochrie, David Aers, Kathleen Ashley, Gail McMurray Gibson, Sarah Beckwith, Caroline Walker Bynum, and Nicholas Watson.

A Selected Bibliography is also included. .

After becoming popularized by the troubadours of southern France in the twelfth century, the social system of 'courtly love' soon spread. Evidence of the influence of courtly love in the culture and literature of most of western Europe spans centuries. This unabridged edition of codifies life at Queen Eleanor's court at Poitiers between 1170 and 1174 into 'one of those capital works which reflect the thought of a great epoch, which explain the secret of a civilization.' This translation of a work that may be viewed as didactic, mocking, or merely descriptive, preserves the attitudes and practices that were the foundation of a long and significant tradition in English literature.

The all -time bestselling of the sagas in Penguin Classics, The Vinland Sagas are published here in a vibrant new translation. Consisting of The Saga of the Greenlanders and Eirik the Red’s Saga, they chronicle the adventures of Eirik the Red and his son, Leif Eirikson, who explored North America 500 years before Columbus. Famous for being the first-ever descriptions of North America, and written down in the early thirteenth century, they recount the Icelandic settlement of Greenland by Eirik the Red, the chance discovery by seafaring adventurers of a mysterious new land, and Eirik’s son Leif the Lucky’s perilous voyages to explore it.

The first major poem in English literature, Beowulf tells the story of the life and death of the legendary hero Beowulf in his three great battles with supernatural monsters. The ideal Anglo-Saxon warrior-aristocrat, Beowulf is an example of the heroic spirit at its finest.

Leading Beowulf scholar Howell D. Chickering, Jr.’s, fresh and lively translation, featuring the Old English on facing pages, allows the reader to encounter Beowulf as poetry. This edition incorporates recent scholarship and provides historical and literary context for the modern reader. It includes the following:

an introduction
a guide to reading aloud
a chart of royal genealogies
notes on the background of the poem
critical commentary
glosses on the eight most famous passages, for the student who wishes to translate from the original
an extensive bibliography

C.S. Lewis' The Discarded Image paints a lucid picture of the medieval world view, as historical and cultural background to the literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. It describes the "image" discarded by later ages as "the medieval synthesis itself, the whole organization of their theology, science and history into a single, complex, harmonious mental model of the universe." This, Lewis' last book, was hailed as "the final memorial to the work of a great scholar and teacher and a wise and noble mind."

Here are some of the most important works of medieval Arthurian literature in fresh, new translations that convey the development of King Arthur from Latin chronicles and Celtic mythology into the romantic king of late-medieval literature.
Covering almost a thousand years, The Romance of Arthur: New Expanded Edition covers a broad range of genres, from the early chronicles and Welsh verse through Sir Thomas Malory. A section on lyrics is a new addition. The translations, from Latin, French, German, Spanish, Welsh, Middle English, and Italian, were freshly done for the original anthologies and have now been updated. Complete texts have been presented wherever possible.
Partial list of contents: James J. Wilhelm, "Arthur in the Latin Chronicles"; John K. Bollard, "Arthur in the Early Welsh Tradition"; Richard M. Loomis, "Culhwch and Olwen"; Richard M. Loomis, "Arthur in Geoffrey of Monmouth"; William W. Kibler, "Chr tien de Troyes: Lancelot, or The Knight of the Cart";James J. Wilhelm, "Selected Lyrics"; Marianne E. Kalinke, "The Sage of the Mantle"; Norris J. Lacy, B roul: The Romance of Tristan"; Russell Weingartner, "Marie de France: Lay of the Chievrefueil (Honeysuckle)"; James J. Wilhelm, "Thomas of Britain: Tristan ('The Death Scene')"; Mildred Leake Day, "The Rise of Gawain, Nephew of Arthur"; James J. Wilhelm, ,"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"; James J. Wilhelm, "The Wedding of Sir Gawain Dame Ragnell."Index. Bibliography.

Providing a comprehensive and accessible orientation to the field of medieval manuscript studies, this lavishly illustrated book by Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham is unique among handbooks on paleography, codicology, and manuscript illumination in its scope and level of detail. It will be of immeasurable help to students in history, art history, literature, and religious studies who are encountering medieval manuscripts for the first time, while also appealing to advanced scholars and general readers interested in the history of the book before the age of print.

Introduction to Manuscript Studies features three sections:

o Part 1, "Making the Medieval Manuscript," offers an in-depth examination of the process of manuscript production, from the preparation of the writing surface through the stages of copying the text, rubrication, decoration, glossing, and annotation to the binding and storage of the completed codex.

o Part 2, "Reading the Medieval Manuscript," focuses on the skills necessary for the successful study of manuscripts, with chapters on transcribing and editing; reading texts damaged by fire, water, insects, and other factors; assessing evidence for origin and provenance; and describing and cataloguing manuscripts.

o Part 3, "Some Manuscript Genres," provides an analysis of several of the most frequently encountered types of medieval manuscripts, including Bibles and biblical concordances, liturgical service books, Books of Hours, charters and cartularies, maps, and scrolls.

The book concludes with an extensive glossary, a guide to dictionaries of medieval Latin, and a bibliography subdivided and keyed to the subsections of the volume's chapters. Every chapter in this magisterial guidebook features numerous color plates that exemplify each aspect described in the text and are drawn primarily from the collections of the Newberry Library in Chicago and the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

Euripides was one of the most popular and controversial of all Greek tragedians, and his plays are marked by an independence of thought, ingenious dramatic devices, and a subtle variety of register and mood. He is also remarkable for the prominence he gave to female characters, whether heroines of virtue or vice. This new translation does full justice to Euripides's range of tone and gift of narrative. A lucid introduction provides substantial analysis of each play, complete with vital explanations of the traditions and background to Euripides's world.
Contains: Medea; Hippolytus; Electra; Helen

The two-volume Broadview Anthology of British Literature: Concise Edition provides an attractive alternative to the full six-volume anthology. Though much more compact, the Concise Edition nevertheless provides instructors with substantial choice, offering both a strong selection of canonical authors and a sampling of lesser-known works. With an unparalleled number of illustrations and contextual materials, accessible and engaging introductions, and full explanatory annotations, this edition of the acclaimed Broadview Anthology provides concise yet wide-ranging coverage for British literature survey courses.

Highlights of Volume A include: R.M. Liuzza's acclaimed translation of Beowulf, along with new translations by Liuzza of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People and the Exeter Book Elegies; translations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Marie de France's Lanval, set in parallel-column format with the original texts; a section on "The Elizabethan Sonnet and Lyric" showing the development of the sonnet both in England and across various countries in continental Europe; a new approach to King Lear, in which the full Folio version is printed along with three key scenes from the Quarto version (presented in parallel-column format); a section on "Laboring Class Poets" that includes poems by Mary Collier, Stephen Duck, and Mary Leapor; and the complete text of William Wycherley's key eighteenth-century drama The Country Wife.