Reviews for English Historical Literature in the Fourteenth Century

The average rating for English Historical Literature in the Fourteenth Century based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-05-22 00:00:00 Dennis Mailahn Thorough introduction and coverage to fourteenth-century English historical texts. Goes well with Gransden's two volume 'Historical Writing in England', Kingsford's 'English Historical Literature in the Fifteenth Century, and the 'Manual of Middle English Verse'. Given-Wilson's later work is more about methodology than giving coverage of each text, and should be consulted as well. Overall Taylor's volume is more thorough than the other works as he clearly read his chronicles all the way through. Some of the chapters feel a bit out of place and are indeed revised versions of articles published previously. Overall, a key reference work with many insights that scholars of late-medieval England should read.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-11-13 00:00:00 Jessica Johnsgard Illuminating monograph. Offers a thorough and rich reconstruction of Hesiod's universe: the structure of the poems, the meaning of their inconsistencies, the cosmic dynamic of the male and female, the difference between the divine and the human, the mixing of things, and the eschatological vision. The Theogeny is the story told from the view from Olympus, a story of progress and consolidation under Zeus. Works and Days is the anthropocentric view. The gods are invisible and cruel. Our world shrinks and crumbles, our cities, our households, our bodies collapse exhausted before the sheer indifference of the cosmos. With the passing of heroes, the human race can only degenerate from the beasts we were raised from. Humanity has no hope; the gods watch with bemused interest as we perish under Zeus' guidance. He does not destroy us from anger but to relieve the groaning of mother Earth straining under our weight. To stabilize the cosmos, humankind must perish. An excellent cosmological take, perhaps even better than Homer.