Pearl is a moving elegy written in the late fourteenth century, in which a grief-stricken narrator struggles to come to terms with the death of his baby daughter. He meets her, now transformed into a beautiful young lady, in a dream, where she attempts to bring him to understand the place of death in the divine plan, and where he is granted a sight of the heavenly Jerusalem. Pearl is celebrated as a jewel among medieval poems, although it is the most challenging of the four works by the anonymous author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
This new critical edition is designed to offer the maximum support for the reader of the poem. The text is accompanied by a close translation, and each of the twenty sections of the poem is provided with an introductory headnote as well as a running commentary. A general introduction supplies the necessary background information, on manuscript and authorship, form and structure, sources and influences, style, vocabulary and verse-form. The bibliography selects the most significant of the extensive critical studies. Written for both the specialist and the general reader, this book is an essential guide to this profound and complex poem. Designed as a replacement for E. V. Gordon's standard edition of 1953 this is the only edition of Pearl to be accompanied by a literal translation and a full literary commentary and is the fruit of the author's 40 years of teaching medieval literature.
| ISBN: | 9781802078947 |
| Publication date: | 30th October 2023 |
| Author: | Thorlac TurvillePetre |
| Publisher: | Liverpool University Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 224 pages |
| Series: | Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies |
| Genres: |
Ancient, classical and medieval texts |
Pearl is a moving elegy written in the late fourteenth century, in which a grief-stricken narrator struggles to come to terms with the death of his baby daughter. He meets her, now transformed into a beautiful young lady, in a dream, where she attempts to bring him to understand the place of death in the divine plan, and where he is granted a sight of the heavenly Jerusalem. Pearl is celebrated as a jewel among medieval poems, although it is the most challenging of the four works by the anonymous author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
This new critical edition is designed to offer the maximum support for the reader of the poem. The text is accompanied by a close translation, and each of the twenty sections of the poem is provided with an introductory headnote as well as a running commentary. A general introduction supplies the necessary background information, on manuscript and authorship, form and structure, sources and influences, style, vocabulary and verse-form. The bibliography selects the most significant of the extensive critical studies. Written for both the specialist and the general reader, this book is an essential guide to this profound and complex poem. Designed as a replacement for E. V. Gordon's standard edition of 1953 this is the only edition of Pearl to be accompanied by a literal translation and a full literary commentary and is the fruit of the author's 40 years of teaching medieval literature.
Pearl features in the following genres: Ancient, classical and medieval texts
Pearl is available in Paperback, Hardback
Pearl was written by Thorlac TurvillePetre and published by Liverpool University Press
Pearl has 224 pages
Yes it is part of Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies series