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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good introduction to the OTHER genius of the 14th century,
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This review is from: Confessio Amantis, Vol. 1: Prologue, Book 1, Book 8 (Paperback)
John Gower has been almost forgotten outside the confines of medieval studies, having been, in the modern mind, thoroughly eclipsed by his good friend Geoffrey Chaucer. Despite scurrilous accusations of pedantic morality, Gower is quite an entertaining author to read if one accepts that one cannot read all of the Confessio Amantis (Confession of the Lover) in a single sitting. The Confessio, like Boccaccio's Decameron and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales consists of a series of tales told within a frame narrative, which in this case is the dream vision experienced by the lover Amans. Amans dreams that he comes into the presence of Venus, the goddess of love, and begs her to grant him his lady's love. Venus declares that he must first be shriven, and lends her own confessor, Genius, for this purpose. Genius in turn not only puts Amans through confession, but gives a tutorial on love and self-governance in terms of the Vices and Virtues. Following this pattern, each book of the Confessio focuses on one Vice and its countering Virtue, giving illustrative stories which provide context and examples of "real-life" application. Many of the stories are drawn from classical and Biblical materials, and despite the mild difficulty of a Middle English presentation will be familiar to the modern reader. Even those that are not are often entertaining and illuminating, though readers should be warned that Book 7 contains voluminous catalogs of knowledge which can be very tedious.
The Confessio contains a total of eight books plus a Prologue; this particular volume (Vol. 1 of three) of the TEAMS edition contains the Prologue, Book 1, and Book 8. Volume 2 (Books 2, 3, and 4) is currently available, and Volume 3 (Books 5, 6, and 7) should be published sometime during 2005. The TEAMS editions are quite useful for all ranges of readers, whether one has a casual interest in Medieval literature or a more focused academic interest in the material. The extensive introduction to the Confessio provides both an introduction to Gower himself and Russell Peck's explanation of the three books of the Confessio covered by the volume. Within the text itself, side glosses help the inexperienced reader of Middle English understand the language, and (see note) annotations direct the reader to explanatory notes that might help to illuminate confusing textual references. In addition, the volume contains textual notes which reveal both the editor's emendations and variants from other MS (Fairfax 3 is the base text; Bodley 902 and 294 were checked for variants) and another edition (that of G. C. Macaulay) of the Confessio.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gower,
By
This review is from: Confessio Amantis, Vol. 1: Prologue, Book 1, Book 8 (Paperback)
Don't be fooled by gower's reputation as a stern moralist, the Confessio is an entertaining collection of mini tales (exempla) told to illuminate the seven deadly sins. While Gower's not as humorous as Chaucer or Bocaccio, it's not a dreary sermon. Accessible, glossed text with good into. Note this is vol 1 of 2(?) only, & it's arranged rather oddly, with the prologue, book 1 and book 8 included in this volume, but for my money, book 8's Tale of Apollonius is the best of the lot in any case.
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