Chaucer from Prentice to Poet

Name: Chaucer from Prentice to Poet
Author: Edward I. Condren
ISBN: 9780813080796

The Metaphor of Love in Dream Visions and Troilus and Criseyde

by Edward I. Condren

Published by: University Press of Florida

This book corrects the traditional interpretations of Geoffrey Chaucer’s early poems, providing new readings of the three “dream visions” and Troilus and Criseyde.

254 Pages6.00 × 9.00

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9780813080796
Published: March 18, 2025

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9780813070957
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9780813045306
Published: August 24, 2008

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Description
Authors
Praise
Table of Contents

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.

Edward I. Condren (1934–2020) was professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“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

“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

List of Illustrations

Abbreviations

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. Book of the Duchess

Chapter 3. Parliament of Fowls

Chapter 4. House of Fame

Chapter 5. The Missing Tidings of the House of Fame

Chapter 6. Troilus and Criseyde

Appendix A: Parallel Structures of Duchess, Fowls, and Fame with its Tidings of Love

Appendix B: The Golden Proportion

Notes