"This edition offers, for the first time, a complete modern English translation of the earliest known version of Piers Plowman. The A-text is a brilliantly conceived and executed poem in its own right. Sr. Covella's translation provides the single composition as it first appeared in 1362. The text was read in this form for two decades before the other versions were finally published - both of them later than and partly in response to the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Based on the best available insights from the editions of Skeat (1886), Knott and Fowler (1952), and Kane (1960), Covella's rendering achieves clarity and immediacy while retaining the music of the alliterative verse. The notes elucidate the more problematical passages and identify biblical and other references."