Derek Pearsall (1931–2021)
Auteur de The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer: A Critical Biography
A propos de l'auteur
Derek Pearsall is Gurney Professor of English, Emeritus, at Harvard University and Honorary Research Professor at the University of York
Œuvres de Derek Pearsall
Floure and the Leafe, the Assembly of Ladies, the Isle of Ladies (1990) — Directeur de publication — 33 exemplaires
The Routledge History of English Poetry Volume 1: Old English and Middle English Poetry (1977) 13 exemplaires
The Floure and the Leafe; and, The Assembly of Ladies (1962) — Directeur de publication, quelques éditions; Directeur de publication — 13 exemplaires
Manuscripts and Texts: Editorial Problems in Later Middle English Literature : Essays from the 1985 Conference at the… (1987) 7 exemplaires
Poetry from Chaucer to Spenser: based on "Chaucer to Spenser: An Anthology of Writings in English 1375-1575 (2002) 4 exemplaires
New Directions in Later Medieval Manuscript Studies: Essays from the 1998 Harvard Conference (2000) 4 exemplaires
Medieval literature and civilization : studies in memory of G. N. Garmonsway (1969) — Directeur de publication — 4 exemplaires
Oeuvres associées
William Langland's Piers Plowman: The C Version (1386) — Directeur de publication, quelques éditions — 139 exemplaires
The Production of Books in England 1350-1500 (Cambridge Studies in Palaeography and Codicology) (2011) — Avant-propos — 24 exemplaires
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Date de naissance
- 1931
- Date de décès
- 2021
- Sexe
- male
- Nationalité
- UK
- Professions
- Gurney Professor of English, Harvard University
Co-Director, Center for Medieval Studies, University of York (1965-1985)
Membres
Critiques
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Auteurs associés
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 23
- Aussi par
- 5
- Membres
- 334
- Popularité
- #71,211
- Évaluation
- 3.7
- Critiques
- 1
- ISBN
- 50
That was what I found myself wondering as I reached the final chapters of this volume. Because author Derek Pearsall spent many, many pages speculating about the writing and plan of the Canterbury Tales. Of course, the Canterbury Tales is the main reason we care about Geoffrey Chaucer, but the book is not the man.
For a non-noble figure of the fourteenth century, we know a lot about Chaucer. We know when he died (although not when he was born, except that it was probably in the early 1340s). We know about certain government jobs he held, and some pensions he received. We have records of court cases in which he participated. We know something about his travels. It has even been suggested that we have samples of his handwriting.
Those don't add up to a biography. They don't tell us anything about his personality, or much about his family life, or about his wants and needs. We can form a very sketchy chronology of his life, but we cannot tell who he was.
The natural response is to turn to his writings, and glean what we can out of that. This is perfectly valid -- but extraordinarily tricky. And it can descend into what we see here: Literary analysis in the place of biographical data.
This must be particularly tempting when the author is, like Derek Pearsall, more a scholar of Middle English than an historian or biographer. He wants to explain The Canterbury Tales, and Troilus and Criseyde, and The House of Fame. So... he does.
The result is a book that is readable and quite interesting -- but isn't really a biography of Chaucer. It's hard to blame Pearsall for that, since it's not possible to write a biography. But because he's so interested in Chaucer's writings, he has a certain tendency to project the writings back into the life. And that really does strike me as wrong.… (plus d'informations)