Piers the Plowman

Anyone who has read Piers the Plowman, fancy doing a spot of enabling? I've seen the book and I know it's beautiful, but any thoughts on the content?

Thanks.

Greg, she is calling you!

>1 HuxleyTheCat:

Oh dear God, get it. It's magnificent. I bought it at the initial member discount last year, and I do NOT regret it one iota. Read through it in two days.

I know I wrote a long post on this somewhere on these boards last year. I'll see if I can find it....

EDIT: Okay, I seem to have written about two dozen comments in this thread regarding PP, so here you go!

Tl;dr -- It's the B text, parallel text, footnotes are excellent if annoying (they're all in the back and there are no markings in the text indicating where the damned notes should be read at). Woodcuts are gorgeous and well worth the price of admission IMHO. Very well-produced edition.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/174041

>1 HuxleyTheCat: I won't say too much as the above post assesses the book far better than I could. I would just second the recommendation. My other half gave it to me for Christmas, and it is one of the highlights of my collection. It is aesthetically striking and sumptuously produced, the woodcuts are perfect, and the text is extremely interesting. Not being a specialist of this period (though admittedly I used to be a classicist and do like dense texts with plenty of depths to plumb), I really benefited from the notes. It made the book accessible, and a joy to read as much as to own.

You will know if the text--vivid and interesting, but obviously not the easiest of casual reads--is the kind of thing to appeal to your reading tastes. If you think it might be, however, I would say it is definitely worth a try. I love mine, and was doubly pleased with it for exposing me to something completely new.

>2 UK_History_Fan:-4 Thanks, guys! I have to say that the binding in combination with the triumphant return to form of Harry Brockway (despite being a favourite illustrator of mine, I was never fully convinced by Rime of the Ancient Mariner), was almost enough to make me buy this one irrespective of whether I ever read it! But, being realistic, I'm going to have to stop buying books simply because they are beautiful, as I have run out of space, so everything I buy now has to earn its keep in other ways too.

I'm happy enough reading Middle English - at least I was 35 or so years ago when 'translating' chunks of Chaucer was a requirement in high school, and I know sufficient about the historical period as background, but it's the religious context which may prove problematic for me in achieving a sufficiently pleasing level of understanding. Are the notes good enough do you think?

>5 HuxleyTheCat:

The notes are certainly quite extensive as to explain the context quite well. You could put this in a library binding and it'd serve well enough for a course on Middle English and/or Langland without any difficulty.

Reviving a thread from the dead with my first-ever post here to say that Ive just ordered a second-hand copy of this from Oxfam online. I hesitated until I'd checked elsewhere that it contained the original text, not a modern translation. Turns out it's got both, so that's ok. It looks gorgeous, and I'm glad everyone enthuses over it.

>7 StephenHorsfall:

Excellent choice! I've owned a couple hundred Folio books through the years, I can't think of 10 I'd rather have when considering content and presentation. That includes Limited Editions.

>7 StephenHorsfall: I own it as well, and think it’s a fantastic production. Congratulations on your purchase.

Glad you're both enthusiastic!