Product Description

"The Owl and the Nightingale" is one of the first and greatest long comic poems in the English language and one of the best-known and most accomplished of all medieval literary texts. By turns both gleefully trivial and allusively serious, it has been described by literary critics as a "most miraculous piece of writing", "a marvel of literary art" and "a truly amazing phenomenon". This the first new English edition of the poem since 1960. It contains a parallel-text translation in modern English, as well as a glossary, notes and introduction. The edition has involved a complete reconsideration of the poem's complex textual history, its linguistic provenance and the practices of its scribes, as well as its possible sources.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24775 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
"[Cartlidge] provides a complete glossary and exhaustive bibliography, and an entertaining appendix of comparable works on owls, nightingales, hawks and jealous husbands. His parallel-text translation is exemplary: transparent and lucid, and with more claim to expressive grace than Cartlidge makes for it. This is an edition equally valuable for the student and the specialist." -Times Literary Supplement, March 2002

Customer Reviews

a delightful text, beautifully translated
this is a delightful and complex poem that can be enjoyed by all ages and at many levels. the translation reads very well and the edition is scholarly and well assembled, if a little oddly shaped.
recommened for all.