Reading Middle English Literature

Turville-Petre, Thorlac
Date published: 
August 2006

Reading Middle English Literature is a study of English literature written in the four centuries following the Norman Conquest. Written by the well-known medievalist Thorlac Turville-Petre, it demonstrates that Middle English literature is much more accessible than is often supposed and provides the guidance that modern readers need to come to an informed appreciation of the writings of medieval England. The introduction focuses on the representative selection of texts in A Book of Middle English (Third Edition, Blackwell, 2005), ensuring that readers have easy access to the primary material under discussion. It offers new and detailed readings of these texts in light of attitudes to the language, the means of book-production, the society for which the texts were written, concepts of history and romance, the religious practices of the age, and ideals of love and marriage.