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Piers Plowman: A Norton Critical Edition (Norton Critical Editions) Paperback – Illustrated, March 7, 2006

4.7 out of 5 stars 61 ratings
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Piers Plowman is one of the most significant works of medieval literature.

Astonishing in its cultural and theological scope, William Langland’s iconoclastic masterpiece is at once a historical relic and a deeply spiritual vision, probing not only the social and religious aristocracy but also the day-to-day realities of a largely voiceless proletariat class. E. Talbot Donaldson’s translation of the text has been selected for this Norton Critical Edition because of its skillful emulation of the original poem’s distinct alliterative verse. Selections of the authoritative Middle English text are also included for comparative analysis. "Sources and Backgrounds" includes a large collection of contemporary religious and historical documents pertaining to the poem, including selections from the Douai Bible, accounts of the plague, and legal statutes. "Criticism" includes twenty interpretive essays by leading medievalists, among them E. Talbot Donaldson, George Kane, Jill Mann, Derek Pearsall, C. David Benson, and Elizabeth D. Kirk. A Glossary and Selected Bibliography are also included.
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  1. Print length
    672 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  4. Publication date
    March 7, 2006
  5. Dimensions
    5.6 x 0.7 x 9.3 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0393975592
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0393975598
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Elizabeth Robertson is Professor of English at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is the author of Early English Devotional Prose and The Female Audience and Chaucerian Consent. She is co-author of Chaucer’s Religious Tales and Representing Rape in Medieval and Early Modern Literature.

Stephen H. A. Shepherd is a professor of English at Loyola Marymount University. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Queen’s University at Kingston and his doctorate from the University of Oxford. His honors include fellowships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Bibliographical Society of America, and the Huntington Library. He is the editor of the Early English Text Society edition of Turpines Story and of the Norton Critical Edition of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur, and he is a coeditor of the Norton Critical Edition of William Langland’s Piers Plowman. The primary focus of his research and publication is the critical, codicological, and historical contexts of medieval English literature.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 7, 2006
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ First Edition
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 672 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393975592
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393975598
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.3 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.6 x 0.7 x 9.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 out of 5 stars 61 ratings

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
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Customers say

Customers find this edition of Piers Plowman to be one of the best poems ever written, with an excellent facing page translation. Moreover, the content receives positive feedback, with one customer noting the superb selection of source and background material.

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Poetry qualityTranslation qualityContentEdition
6 customers mention "Poetry quality"6 positive0 negative

Customers praise the poetry quality of the book, describing it as one of the best ever written and a very good read, with one customer noting its remarkable strangeness.

"...giving the complete Middle English text of the B-version of this wonderful poem, it also provides, on facing pages, the excellent Modern English..." Read more

"...of the C-text from Exeter UP. It has great notes and a nice user interface. A. V. C. Schmidt's Everyman ed...." Read more

"...This poem is great because it describes in detail the world of 1400 England in a way that shows us ourselves too...." Read more

"...for anyone wanting to study or just enjoy this remarkable and remarkably strange poem...." Read more

5 customers mention "Translation quality"5 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the translation of the book, particularly noting the excellent facing page version, with one customer mentioning how enjoyable it is to work through the Middle English text as a puzzle.

"...wonderful poem, it also provides, on facing pages, the excellent Modern English translation of E. Talbot Donaldson...." Read more

"...find the facing-page translation to be accessible, the Middle English to be a fun puzzle, the introduction and accompanying essays to be quite..." Read more

"...specifically for the volume along with Donaldson's excellent facing page translation make it indispensable for anyone wanting to study or just enjoy..." Read more

"This is a great copy as it has a modern English translation for we the pedantic fools who do not speak Middle English." Read more

4 customers mention "Content"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the content of the book helpful, with one mentioning the introduction and essays are quite useful, while another notes the superb selection of source and background material.

"...material that the more studious will find useful: Sources and Backgrounds, Critical Essays, Selected Bibliography, etc...." Read more

"...the Middle English to be a fun puzzle, the introduction and accompanying essays to be quite helpful...." Read more

"...'s excellent facing page translation make it indispensable for anyone wanting to study or just enjoy this remarkable and remarkably strange poem...." Read more

"...As usual, the Norton Critical Edition contains many helpful footnotes and glosses that provide context, allowing students to more readily grapple..." Read more

4 customers mention "Edition"4 positive0 negative

Customers like the edition of the book.

"...make it indispensable for anyone wanting to study or just enjoy this remarkable and remarkably strange poem...." Read more

"This is a great copy as it has a modern English translation for we the pedantic fools who do not speak Middle English." Read more

"Fabulous edition!..." Read more

"The best edition for those who are new to Langland..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • tepi
    5.0 out of 5 stars The best edition for those who are new to Langland
    Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2009
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Piers Plowman by William Langland. Edited by Elizabeth Robertson and Stephen H. A. Shepherd. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2006. Paperback, 644 pages. ISBN 0393975592

    The Norton Critical Edition of Piers Plowman is, without doubt, one of the best editions of the poem that have ever appeared for readers who are new to Langland.

    It's great value lies in the fact that, besides giving the complete Middle English text of the B-version of this wonderful poem, it also provides, on facing pages, the excellent Modern English translation of E. Talbot Donaldson. In this way, the poem is made available even to readers who may know little or no Middle English.

    Langland's English can be difficult and his allusions obscure, but most difficulties and obscurities are here easily resolved either by glancing across at the translation on the facing page or down at the useful footnotes which have been placed where they should be at the bottom of each page.

    Langland wrote his poem - and it was in his time an enormously popular poem - not for scholars or students (in which case it would have been written entirely in Latin) but for ordinary people like you and me. And the present edition has, with its Middle English text plus Modern English translation, provided us with everything the general reader really needs.

    But besides the actual texts of the poem, the publishers have generously provided almost 300 pages of supplementary material that the more studious will find useful: Sources and Backgrounds, Critical Essays, Selected Bibliography, etc.

    The book is well-printed (though the typeface might have been a tad larger) on a good quality paper (and not on the near-newsprint that publishers such as Penguin have no shame in inflicting on their readers today). The binding is a flexible thermoplastic that should hold up to use. And the paper cover (which might have been a bit sturdier) features a beautiful color facsimile of a page from a medieval manuscript of the poem. This illustration of Lady Mede (money power) being borne about will come to have a very deep meaning as you move into the poem.

    All in all, then, the Norton Critical Edition of Piers Plowman is an edition I have no hesitation in recommending. Readers who are new to the poem and who acquire this amazingly full and reasonably-priced edition are in for a very special treat.

    William Langland's voice is a unique voice, a powerful yet compassionate voice that brings the whole of Medieval England in all it's color and bustle and excitement and joys and sorrows alive before our eyes.

    Although the poem was written over six hundred years ago, new readers will find that many of Langland's concerns are still very much our own; the trappings or outer forms of society may have changed since the fourteenth century, but human nature itself certainly hasn't changed and life's sorrows are still very much with us. But so, happily, are its joys!

    I think you will find that Piers Plowman provides us with a full and rich measure of both.
    79 people found this helpful
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  • Dad95
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good for non-medievalists
    Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2008
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    I'm a Piers Plowman scholar, and in my proselytizing for Langland, this is the book I give to all my friends and family for Christmas, birthdays, etc. (lucky them). I don't think any of them have attempted to read it yet, but when they do, they will find the facing-page translation to be accessible, the Middle English to be a fun puzzle, the introduction and accompanying essays to be quite helpful.

    For advanced English majors who have read Chaucer in Middle English and want the next step up--or for grad students reading PP for a class or comprehensive exams--the best edition is Derek Pearsall's revised ed. of the C-text from Exeter UP. It has great notes and a nice user interface. A. V. C. Schmidt's Everyman ed. of the B-text is also good, but not very user-friendly.

    For quotation in books and articles, people tend use the Athlone editions of the A, B, and C texts. Though if I were starting over as a grad student now, I would use Schmidt's parallel-text edition from Medieval Institute Press. It was not available when I started, and it's too late to change (until the next book project), but it is what I actually use when working with the text (and then hop over to Athlone to quote, which is a good exercise, anyhow).
    61 people found this helpful
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  • Tony Marquise Jr.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Another World
    Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2013
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    This is one of the best poems ever written. It describes another world than the one we live in-there is nothing in their society that modern society believes in. But the people in the world of this poem are the same as modern people are-and all future people will be. This poem is great because it describes in detail the world of 1400 England in a way that shows us ourselves too. This poem is not as polished as the Cantubery Tales are- but they are as important as this great poem is and as educational as Chaucer's poem is.. This edition of the poem is part of the Norton Critical Edition series- with much critical additions after the end of the poem. A big plus. If you love great poetry this book is a must have.
    10 people found this helpful
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  • mjnairn
    4.0 out of 5 stars Great edition
    Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2014
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    This is an essential edition of Piers Plowman; the original version edited specifically for the volume along with Donaldson's excellent facing page translation make it indispensable for anyone wanting to study or just enjoy this remarkable and remarkably strange poem. The only drawback for me was the selection of critical essays: some have dated and others were just simply not illuminating. Perhaps a future version could rectify this. However the selection of source and background material is superb. Another reviewer commented that some annotation for the original middle english would be a bonus ; I agree, but I guess these Norton editions can really only go so far in terms of scholarly apparatus without getting completely out of control in terms of length and cost. But one can wish... Heartily recommended.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Noah East
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Introduction to Langland and ME
    Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2020
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    This Norton Critical Edition is particularly helpful for those still learning Middle English, the original B text is set next to a modern verse translation (left side Middle English, right side Modern English). As usual, the Norton Critical Edition contains many helpful footnotes and glosses that provide context, allowing students to more readily grapple with the arguments buried in Langland’s allegories.
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  • Jennifer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Translation is good
    Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2017
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    This is a great copy as it has a modern English translation for we the pedantic fools who do not speak Middle English.
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  • Lendon Little
    3.0 out of 5 stars Wrong Picture on Listing
    Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2019
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    I would give five stars however Amazon is advertising the edition with the new cover. Instead, I received the ugly old cover.
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  • Joanna
    5.0 out of 5 stars this is a very good read, especially since it is a more interesting ...
    Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2014
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Fabulous edition! To any medievalist or person wanting to study the literature of the time period, this is a very good read, especially since it is a more interesting alternative to Pilgrim's Progress.
    2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Mr. Kenneth G. Davies
    5.0 out of 5 stars Critical edition
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 19, 2022
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    I'm still plowing (ploughing) my way through this unstructured masterpiece but am already finding the copious notes very useful. Read reviews by literature experts to confirm this view, but as a lay reader I find this edition to be highly professional in its layout and in the thoroughness of the annotation and explanatory text.
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  • Bücherwurm
    5.0 out of 5 stars Alles sehr gut!
    Reviewed in Germany on March 15, 2023
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Lesen + privates Studium
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  • Other J
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent academic edition
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 25, 2014
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    This is the very best edition of Piers Plowman I've ever come across... It's inexpensive, excellently translated (with the original middle English) and has fine introduction and some critical essays. A must buy for anyone studying it at university (like myself), and great for middle English enthusiasts! 5* easily.
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  • Abbie Williams
    5.0 out of 5 stars Loved this as the translation was extremely helpful in grasping ...
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 24, 2015
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Loved this as the translation was extremely helpful in grasping what the narrative was about and helping to translate Langland's middle English words.
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