Book dossier

Piers the Plowman

by William Langland, E. Talbot Donaldson

This is one of the masterpieces of medieval literature. This new complete edition of the orginal text of the B-version answers every need of both the student and the interested lay reader. Marginal glosses, footnote translations, and a commentary providing textual, lexical, historycal and literary annotation facilitate the understanding, appreciation and, above all, the enjoyment of this great poem. The textual variants are given at the foot of the appropriate page for easy reference and comparison, and an extremely helpful index of proper names is provided, together with an extensive bibliography. The introduction discusses the literary traditions of the poem, and its structure and themes, and analyzes the poetic art of William Langland.