Paul Strohm
Autor(a) de Chaucer's Tale: 1386 and the Road to Canterbury
About the Author
Paul Strohm is William B. Ransford Professor of Medieval Literature at Columbia University.
Obras por Paul Strohm
Associated Works
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Data de nascimento
- 1938-07-30
- Sexo
- male
- Nacionalidade
- USA
Membros
Críticas
Listas
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Associated Authors
Estatísticas
- Obras
- 12
- Also by
- 3
- Membros
- 413
- Popularidade
- #58,991
- Avaliação
- 4.0
- Críticas
- 8
- ISBN
- 31
- Marcado como favorito
- 2
Chaucer's Tale is an equally curious mixture of gold and lead, without even the excuse of being intended for medieval tastes.
The gold is the brilliant description of life in fourteenth century England, and the political environment in which Chaucer found himself. I have read a lot of fourteenth century history, and I don't think any book has conveyed the feeling of it as well. There are a few places where Strohm seems a little too sure of himself -- for instance, he is convinced that Chaucer's long-time residence above Aldgate was a miserable hole in the wall (literally), while others are convinced it was a comfortable, desirable home. Who is right? I would guess the latter, but I don't know; I do know that Strohm should have mentioned that there is disagreement.
The one real problem, though, is the portrayal of Chaucer. In particular, Strohm's contention that, until 1386, Chaucer had been basically a private poet, writing only for himself and some sort of inner circle, which is why his poetry never seems to be mentioned in all our "Life-records."
I just don't buy it. By that time, Guillaume de Machaut had called Chaucer a great translator, and John Gower was talking about Chaucer's poetry. Later, lesser writers like Lydgate and Hoccleve were growing up with his poetry. But the kicker is Chaucer's first long work, The Book of the Duchess. There is near-universal agreement (including by Strohm) that this is about Blanche of Lancaster, the first wife of John of Gaunt. Why would Chaucer have written such a book, were it not for presentation to Gaunt? (Since Blanche was dead by then; it is, in large part, an exploration of how Gaunt reacted to her death.) Chaucer was a public poet; it's just that our records are about his work as a civil servant and ambassador, in which his poetry is not relevant.
Also, I think Strohm is missing the clues in Chaucer's portrayal of himself. Yes, Chaucer the Pilgrim, and the narrator of the House of Fame, and all the others, are caricature, but they are caricature based on the real Chaucer -- as bookish as a medieval man could be, private, not a great success with women (Strohm himself suggests that he and his wife Philippa mostly lived apart), a bit bumbling in manner. Throw in a fact that Strohm doesn't use: of Chaucer's six longest works, three (The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women, and The Canterbury Tales) are unfinished. These hints add up to a clear personality, and it's not the personality Strohm describes. It's a man who was an intellectual genius, but not a good manager; a man who knew almost everything it was possible to know in medieval England (remember, apart from his poetry, he wrote the first English-language scientific textbook, the Treatise on the Astrolabe!, and he knew at least four languages) -- but who wasn't good at planning. For this reason, I don't think, e.g., that Chaucer in his work at the wool custom went along with the infamous Nicholas Bembre; I think he just couldn't push back -- and didn't try.
Many of the conclusions in this book are dependent on Chaucer's psychology, and I just don't think that Strohm has that right. So I am forced to strenuously disagree with him on those matters. But he certainly makes an interesting case. I don't think this should be anyone's first reading about Chaucer, because of that psychological error, but this is clearly a must-read for anyone truly interested in the life of the man who brought iambic pentameter into English, the first great author Britain ever produced, the greatest poet ever to write in English.… (mais)