Chaucer from Prentice to Poet
Chaucer from Prentice to Poet
The Metaphor of Love in Dream Visions and Troilus and Criseyde
A comprehensive reevaluation of Chaucer’s early poetry, from the "dream visions" to Troilus and Criseyde
While covering all the major work produced by Geoffrey Chaucer in his pre-Canterbury Tales career, Chaucer from Prentice to Poet seeks to correct the traditional interpretations of these poems. Edward Condren provides new and provocative interpretations of the three "dream visions"—Book of the Duchess, Parliament of Fowls, and House of Fame—as well as Chaucer’s early masterwork Troilus and Criseyde. Condren draws an arresting series of portraits of Chaucer as glimpsed in his work: the fledgling poet seeking to master the artificial style of French love poetry; the passionate author attempting to rebut critics of his work; and, finally, the master of a naturalistic style entirely his own. This book is one of the few works written in the past century that reevaluates Chaucer’s early poetry and the only one that examines the Dream Visions in conjunction with the Troilus.It should frame the discourse of Chaucer scholarship for many generations to come.
“A fine challenge to some long-held assumptions about the poems. Recommended.”—Choice
“A study that makes the reader think anew, and that probes in such an insistent fashion into many puzzling aspects of Chaucer’s texts and demonstrates so fervent a belief in the profundity of Chaucer’s dream poems and Troilus and Criseyde.”—H-Net
“Combines insight into literature’s human reality with sensitivity to linguistic detail and deep understanding of Chaucer’s use of ‘tectonic’ patterning. . . . This brilliant book [numbers] among the Chaucer studies one must reread many times, simply because they will alter one’s whole way of approaching the poet.”—Medium Aevum
“This is a loving study, in complete concord with Condren’s conviction that Chaucer himself felt that ‘poetic creation is an act of love.’”—Arthuriana
"A very challenging work, the product of intense study, deep insight, and considerable daring; its conclusions will spark wide debate in Chaucer studies."—J. Stephen Russell, Hofstra University"By treating the Dream Vision poems along with the Troilus, Condren is able to shed new light on Chaucer’s growth as a man and as an artist. Each poem is analyzed rewardingly."—Chauncey Wood, McMaster University
Edward I. Condren (1934‒2020) was professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles.
