Synopses & Reviews
Review
"Ms. Coleman attempts an overview of the literary culture of the late 14th century in England, a period that saw not only the productions of Chaucer, Langland, and the Gawain-poet but also produced a substantial and often sophisticated corpus of plays, lyrics, sermons, and devotional prose. Concentrating as she does on sermons, social complaints, works of theology, on the consequences of lay literacy, and on the kinds of writing that were addressed to noncourtly audiences, Ms. Coleman offers interesting new perspectives on the great as well as forgotten authors of the period. As might be expected in a work that attempts to cover so much ground, there are lacunae in the scholarship, instances in which she has relied upon inferior work done by others, but, on the whole, this is an extremely useful work of literary history." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)